Nihon Kohden Expands Executive Leadership to Support Continued Growth and Customer Experience

Zac Ballard Promoted to Executive Vice President, Commercial Operations—Uniting Sales, Marketing, Operations and Service; CEO Roy Sakai Takes on Chief Executive Role at Affiliate Ad-Tech Medical Instrument Corporation

Nihon Kohden, a leading provider of patient monitoring, neurology, ventilation and digital health solutions, today announced an expanded executive leadership structure designed to increase organizational capacity and strengthen alignment across the customer experience. Effective August 3, Zac Ballard was promoted to executive vice president, commercial operations, taking on leadership of sales and marketing across all four of the company’s business units — Patient Monitoring, Neurology, Ventilation and Digital Health Solutions — along with marketing strategy and innovation, operations and service. Concurrently, chief executive officer Roy Sakai assumed the role of CEO of Nihon Kohden affiliate Ad-Tech Medical Instrument Corporation (Ad-Tech), while continuing to lead Nihon Kohden America.

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Zac Ballard Promoted to Executive Vice President, Commercial Operations at Nihon Kohden

Delivering One Unified Customer Experience

Uniting commercial, operational and service functions under one leader gives these teams a shared set of priorities focused on growth, operational excellence and exceptional customer experience. For the organization, this means stronger cross-functional coordination, faster decision-making and clearer accountability across every function that touches the customer. For hospitals and health systems, this means one accountable partner across every stage of the relationship — from evaluation and implementation through ongoing service and support.

"Zac has shown throughout his career that he can bring teams together around a clear strategy, driving results through strong cross-functional work," said Sakai. "His leadership, business acumen and commitment to our employees, customers and partners have earned him the confidence of this organization, and he has consistently delivered results. We have great trust in his ability to lead our company's continued growth.”

From Operations to the Full Customer Experience

Ballard joined Nihon Kohden nearly four years ago as vice president of operations, bringing more than 30 years of international operations and commercial leadership across the medical device and diagnostics industries in the U.S. and Europe. He previously led global operations for the clinical diagnostics division of Thermo Fisher Scientific and spent five years at Ortho Clinical Diagnostics spearheading global service and operations, where he also directed a company-wide customer excellence program before taking responsibility for three of the company’s six commercial regions. Earlier in his career, he held operations and program management roles of increasing scope at Siemens in Europe and Hewlett-Packard in Barcelona. Ballard holds a master’s degree in manufacturing systems engineering from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California, San Diego.

"Continuing to bring our commercial, operations and service teams closer together lets us move with more agility and, most importantly, deliver a more consistent experience at every stage, well beyond the initial sale," said Ballard. "Our goal has always been for customers to feel the same level of partnership on day 500 as they did on day one. I'm grateful for the opportunity to keep raising the bar for what the market can expect from Nihon Kohden.”

Ballard's Promotion Allows Sakai to Expand Role at Ad-Tech

Ad-Tech Medical Instrument Corporation, a Nihon Kohden affiliate brand headquartered in Oak Creek, Wis., is a leading manufacturer of intracranial neuro electrodes used in brain mapping and in the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy. Sakai’s added role supports Ad-Tech’s continued growth and deepens partnership between the two organizations across neurology, a category in which Nihon Kohden holds a global leadership position.

Sakai continues to serve as chief executive officer of Nihon Kohden America, where finance and accounting, human resources and quality and regulatory report to him. His focus remains on long-term strategy, organizational health, executive development and governance, and he remains actively engaged with the leadership team, as well as Nihon Kohden’s employees and customers.

“This structure increases our leadership capacity while keeping roles and responsibilities clear,” said Sakai. “It positions Zac to lead the day-to-day execution of our business and allows me to concentrate on strategy, organizational development and the long-term success of both companies. The values that have guided us — integrity, accountability, teamwork, customer focus and servant leadership — remain at the center of everything we do.”

To learn more about Nihon Kohden, visit us.nihonkohden.com.

About Nihon Kohden: Founded in Japan in 1951, Nihon Kohden is a leading manufacturer, developer and distributor of medical technologies, with subsidiaries throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia and products used in more than 120 countries. The company develops innovative patient monitoring, neurology, cardiology and diagnostic solutions that help clinicians improve patient care across hospitals and healthcare systems worldwide. Its Digital Health Platform (DHP) extends those capabilities by connecting patient monitoring data across devices, systems and care settings to support connected workflows, advanced analytics and digital health applications—including solutions such as RemoteSense and AlarmSense—that help healthcare organizations make better use of patient monitoring data. Learn more at us.nihonkohden.com and follow Nihon Kohden on Facebook and LinkedIn.

About Ad-Tech Medical Instrument Corporation: Ad-Tech Medical is dedicated to helping surgeons, technicians and other caregivers deliver optimal outcomes for their patients. Physicians count on Ad-Tech's state-of-the-art electrodes for excellent design and engineering, world-class support and groundbreaking innovation. Ad-Tech devices are manufactured in the U.S. and used by healthcare providers worldwide to record, monitor and stimulate subsurface levels of the brain. To learn more, visit adtechmedical.com.

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