On April 1, 2021, Carsten Bruhn was named CEO and President of Ricoh USA and Canada, succeeding Joji Tokunaga who had been appointed to head Ricoh’s APACLA (Asia Pacifica and Latin America) operation. Bruhn, a veteran with the company for over 30 years, is known for driving business results in various roles in Europe and Japan. While in Japan, Bruhn led Global Services and Global Major Accounts, which included responsibility for Ricoh’s largest enterprise customers around the world.
I had the great fortune of sitting down with Bruhn to talk about his new position, beginning with his worldwide experiences and how that will shape working with clients, partners, and colleagues in North America. Even though he has already started his role as CEO and President of Ricoh US/Canada, Bruhn has been stationed in the UK due to COVID restrictions. That has been somewhat challenging but, at the same time, working remotely—regardless of the time differences—has become quite the norm. “Of course, physically being with my US colleagues and clients would be great but, for now, working remotely continues to work out well,” he mentioned.
Carsten Bruhn, CEO and President of Ricoh USA/Canada |
Bruhn, who is from Denmark, started his Ricoh career in the UK at Lanier as Vice President of Sales. He later moved to the board of Ricoh Europe, with the last 12 years spent in corporate roles surrounding business transformation and adding new competencies to the core business. While in Tokyo for a couple of years, Bruhn worked closely with the Japan team to help define its global direction of Ricoh’s digital services business. “One thing I learned in Japan and working with the Japan organization is that we truly want to be a global organization, and to do that you must understand the different cultures as well as the needs of the different work environments,” Bruhn said.
Other topics we discussed were about what he plans to do in his first six months at Ricoh USA/Canada, how the company plans to emerge from COVID, and Ricoh’s plan with its digital transformation offerings. Watch our entire conversation today!