The U.S. headquarters for Sumitomo Drive Technologies, Sumitomo Machinery Corporation of America (SMA), located in Chesapeake, Virginia, is pleased to announce the promotion of Dennis Katterheinrich to the newly created position of national sales director effective October 16, 2013. In his new position, Katterheinrich will be responsible for developing and executing strategic sales initiatives for the U.S. market, expanding national distributor relationships and managing SMA's regional vice presidents.

Katterheinrich has over 24 years of experience in the power transmission industry experience, 15 of which have been with SMA. He began his career with SMA in 1998 as a district sales manager, a position he held for five years before becoming a regional sales manager in 2003. In recognition of his strong leadership skills, Katterheinrich was then promoted to regional vice president of the Great Lakes Region in 2006. In addition to his sales expertise, he brings a strong technical background, keen data analysis skills and excellent customer focus and communication abilities to his new role. Throughout his career with SMA, Katterheinrich has exhibited superior management skills and shown leadership both in his sales performance and among his regional team, characteristics that will continue to be instrumental to SMA's success.

A native of Ohio, Katterheinrich graduated from University of Toledo with a Bachelor of Business Administration and graduate studies in Manufacturing Management. His concentrations included Industrial and International Marketing, Marketing Management, Customer Relationship Management, Total Quality Management (TQM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).