Jay Duerr joins Kitgawa NorthTech as director of new business development

Kitagawa North-Tech, Inc. (KNI), turning and milling workholding, automation, and tooling systems supplier, named Jay Duerr, director of new business development for North American operations. Prior to joining KNI, Duerr was formerly the President and CEO of LMC Workholding (Formally Buck Chuck and Logansport Matsumoto Company) in Logansport, Indiana for over three decades. Kitagawa NorthTech will now be supporting the former LMC products, customers and services under the KNI name and Jay Duerr in his new position will lead that effort for the company.

Duerr comes to Kitagawa with extensive senior level experience, having managed LMC Workholding for 30+ years. Most notably, his experience is parallel with KNI’s product portfolio with 3-jaw chucks, wheel chucks, chuck and steady rest packages and custom engineered workholding. Jay also has a longstanding relationship supporting and serving HAAS Machine Tool HFOs Globally, and previously owned and was CEO of HAAS HFO in Taiwan.

“We're very excited about Jay Duerr joining KNI. We believe it was a rare opportunity to find someone of his caliber, knowledge and expertise available to help facilitate our growth initiatives,” says Shawn Luschei, Chief Operating Officer for Kitagawa NorthTech. “We believe this is a great opportunity to onboard and integrate LMC products and services into the KNI portfolio and enhance our ability to support our valued customers.”

In this new role as director of new business development, Jay is responsible for developing new business for all standard products and engineered solutions and provide regional sales support for KNI’s Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan customers.

Jay currently resides in Indiana but will report to Kitagawa NorthTech’s North American headquarters, manufacturing, repair and service facility located in Schaumburg, Illinois.