Jeff Holtzapple
Christine Spiegel
Murata Machinery USA, a provider of manufacturing and intralogistics automation and support, has announced two recent hires. Masazumi Fukushima, President of Murata Machinery, appointed Christine Spiegel as the company's first-ever Strategic Marketing Director and Jeff Holtzapple as North American Sales Manager for Turning Products.
"We are pleased to welcome these talented individuals to our North American team," said Fukushima. "Christine's more than 25 years of B2B marketing and brand positioning experience and Jeff's deep understanding of machining and distribution will expand the innovation, sales and service support Murata Machinery provides customers nationwide. These new team members will also play an integral role in our new initiatives to help overcome today's growing challenges in manufacturing and logistics-including skilled labor shortages, increased demand, order fulfillment pressure and more-by leveraging automation in intelligent ways."
Spiegel joins Murata Machinery from Ironpaper, where she served as marketing director leading high-impact digital campaigns for Fortune 100-500, oil and gas, high-tech, SaaS, telecom and cybersecurity companies. Previously, she was global marketing director for Unifi Manufacturing, where she developed and launched sustainable textile campaigns that improved product sell-in 13% year-over-year and boosted revenue to $640M.
In her new role, Spiegel will oversee development of a strategy to unify branding across four Murata business units, leading the company's channel marketing, dealer, trade, digital, social and website strategies to reach key customers in existing and emerging markets in North America.
"I am honored to join Murata at such a critical time in manufacturing," said Spiegel. "The sector has been in a state of transition for decades, and the customers who adopt automation in this time will own the future of manufacturing. I am excited to help put Murata Machinery in a position to lead. In the same way that our customers are constantly re-evaluating their operations and business models to increase productivity, we will focus on our branding to help us lean into our strengths, increase our impact and support the growth of the Muratec brand and its customers."
Holtzapple's executive leadership background in engineering includes more than 20 years of technical manufacturing and machine tool distribution experience.
"We are excited to have Holtzapple as a part of our team, and we look forward to future business growth and development with our partners," said Jeff Kalmbach, General Manager, Machine Tools Division. "His strong industry background and sales experience position him to help lead the company's growth strategy in automated turning solutions throughout North America."
Holtzapple will lead and support Murata regional sales managers and distributor teams, increasing sales of Muratec turning systems and services and driving strategies.
For more information contact:
Murata Machinery USA Inc.
P.O. Box 667609
2120 Queen City Drive
Charlotte, NC 28266
800-428-8469
info@muratec-usa.com
www.muratec-usa.com