Chinese heavy equipment maker Sany America Inc. has named a new CEO to lead its efforts across North and Central America.
Mike Rhoda, the new chief executive, replaces Tim Frank, who resigned in September for personal reasons, departing with kind words in an official statement about the company’s prospects.
Mr. Rhoda was most recently chief technology officer at Doosan Infracore Construction Equipment, a Korean firm with a growing presence in the U.S. He has previously worked with Volvo Construction Equipment, where he served as a vice president before becoming CEO of its excavator business unit.
Excavators, earth-movers that prowl construction sites, are becoming a key part of Sany’s product mix in the U.S., which also includes crawler cranes and port machinery. All are staged and inspected at Sany’s Peachtree City facility for delivery throughout the region.
Concrete pumping equipment, which was the initial focus of the Sany plant, is now handled out of Wisconsin at a factory Sany acquired when it bought Germany-based Putzmeister. Mr. Rhoda’s experience, both in the U.S. and globally, was a draw for Sany.
“Mike Rhoda has more than two decades of directly relevant experience in the off-highway equipment sector, including work in Asia and emerging markets,” said Liang Wengen, chairman of the board of Sany Group, which is based in Beijing but is rooted historically in China’s Hunan province.
Mr. Rhoda said in the same news release that he would build on the company’s recent successes, including the expansion of its dealer network in the United States. Sany turned a profit in its U.S. operations in each of the last three quarters, according to executives.
