German material handling giant Kion Group AG has gone outside the company to name the new head of its Kion North America group, picking an industrial equipment executive with experience in the forklift sector to replace Vincent Halma.

Jonathan Dawley takes his seat as president and CEO of KION North America today, following his job for more than two years as head of the Americas region for Putzmeister Holding GmbH, a subsidiary of Sany Heavy Industry Corp. that is a German manufacturer of concrete pumps and other equipment for pumping, distributing and placing concrete, mortar and other high-density solids.

Previous to his work at Putzmeister, Dawley held leadership roles at JLG Industries Corp., a subsidiary of Oshkosh Corp., and at Hyster-Yale Materials Handling Corp., where he gained experience in intralogistics as well as in the material handling business, Kion said.

"With his addition to our experienced team at Kion North America, we are well equipped to unlock the region's potential even further. I am delighted that Jonathan will be bringing his extensive expertise to the Kion Group and wish him every success with developing our Industrial Trucks & Services business in North America,” CP Quek, member of the Kion executive board with responsibility for the Asia-Pacific and Americas regions, said in a release.

Kion’s overall portfolio encompasses industrial trucks, such as forklift trucks and warehouse trucks, as well as integrated automation technology and software solutions for the optimization of supply chains. Kion’s industrial truck brands include Linde, Still, and Baoli, as well as the regional brands Fenwick and OM Voltas. The company’s most recent addition was system integrator Dematic Corp., which the firm acquired in 2016.

Rising above #COVID19 and maintaining our promise to #keeptheworldmoving by supporting #supplychains https://t.co/xFStuE4bgz

— KION North America (@KION_NA) April 28, 2020