Sony announced the appointment of Katsunori Yamanouchi as Vice President of its Professional Solutions Europe (PSE) business. He replaces Naomi Climer, who after 6 years leading the PSE business, has been promoted to a new global post within the Sony group. Based at the Sony Pictures studio lot in L.A., Climer will lead the development of a new global business focussed on the provision of media cloud services.

Yamanouchi joined Sony's Professional Solutions Group in 1989 and has gained extensive international management experience through roles in the European, US and Asia-Pacific regions. From 2003-09 he successfully lead Sony's professional business in the CIS, MEA and German-speaking territories. In 2009, he returned to his native Japan, heading up Planning & Marketing Dept., Content Creation Solutions Division, a role in which he took global responsibility for the core product and solutions developments underpinning Sony's leadership in the professional Broadcast and Media industries.

Katsunori Yamanouchi said: "I'm delighted to be joining the European team and building upon the business success achieved by Naomi and the PSE team. I know the passion and dedication of our European team to understanding our customers and responding with innovative technology and services. I strongly believe we can look forward to continuing growth in our European B2B business, both in our core established markets and also new segments including cinema, video security and sports."

Naomi Climer: "Leading PSE has been both a privilege and an exciting adventure. In my 6 years with PSE, we've seen numerous waves of technology advances - HD, 3D and 4K to name just a few - providing our professional customers with the tools and inspiration to amaze consumers everywhere.
I'm delighted to take up a new global challenge within the Sony group and also very confident to be handing over to Katsunori Yamanouchi who has the people, talent and experience to continue driving Sony's professional business expansion in Europe."