Livermore, Calif. – December 7, 2009 – Albert Zahalka, a former executive officer with two global Fortune 500 companies, has been named senior vice president of Topcon Precision Agriculture (TPA), a business unit of Topcon Positioning Systems (TPS).
The announcement was made by Ray O’Connor, TPS president and CEO.
Zahalka replaces Dave Vaughn. In his new role, Zahalka will direct the company’s agriculture operations from Adelaide, Australia.
In making the announcement, O’Connor said, “Albert brings a world of knowledge to the Topcon management team in general and to Topcon’s agriculture division in particular.” He said, “He’s an executive with global experience in P&L, business development, strategic planning, sales and marketing, plus is a leader in the areas of product management and development, operations and emerging technologies.”
O’Connor said, “Developing Topcon’s agriculture business unit is a top priority and Albert’s experience is a perfect match for the challenge of making TPA a leader in the global ag machine control marketplace.”
The former vice president of the Mobile Electronics Division of Sauer-Danfoss, Inc. from 1999 to 2008, Zahalka also served in various executive positions for Emerson Electric Corp., of St. Louis. He served as manager of the Emerson’s West Australian division, director of sales and marketing, as well as vice president of field operations and senior vice president of process control for Emerson.
Nine years ago, O’Connor and Zahalka were instrumental in forming a joint venture with Topcon and Sauer-Danfoss in the area of machine control.
For the past year, Zahalka has been working with Bercon Consulting Group in the area of mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, strategy planning and crisis management.
About joining TPA, Zahalka said, “I have always had a very high level of respect for Topcon and in particular the leadership Ray provides to the company. Working with Ray, we formed the Topcon Sauer-Danfoss joint venture and had a great relationship based on mutual trust and goals for our respective company. I am very glad to be a part of this great company.”
About Topcon Precision Agriculture
Topcon Precision Agriculture is a business unit of Topcon Positioning Systems, Inc. TPS designs and manufactures precise positioning products and solutions for the global surveying, construction, agriculture, civil engineering, mapping and GIS, asset management and mobile control markets. TPS’ parent company, Topcon Corporation (Tokyo Stock Exchange – 7732), was founded in 1932.
