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Board Member Bio: Rodney N. Lanthorne

Director, Kyocera Corporation

President, Kyocera International, Inc.

Chairman and President, Kyocera Wireless Corp.

Board member Rodney (Rod) Lanthorne is known as one who wears many hats.  He serves as Director of Kyoto, Japan-based Kyocera Corporation (parent company of the worldwide Kyocera group), President of San Diego-based Kyocera International, Inc., the North American holding company for Kyocera’s operations, and Chairman and President of San Diego-based Kyocera Wireless Corp., a leading global supplier of CDMA wireless phones and communications equipment. 

As the head of Kyocera’s North American holding company, Lanthorne has ultimate responsibility for a group of nine wholly owned Kyocera subsidiaries, including Kyocera Wireless.

Lanthorne was introduced to Kyocera in 1976 as a CPA for the accounting firm of Coopers and Lybrand, when he was involved in the initial public offering of Kyocera’s American Depository Shares. He joined Kyocera International, Inc. in 1979 as Chief Financial Officer and was named President in 1987.  He was named as a director of parent Kyocera Corporation the following year, becoming one of the first Americans to be named as a director of a Japanese public corporation.

Lanthorne also serves on the boards of directors of  affiliates Kyocera Mita America, Inc. and AVX Corp. (NYSE: AVX). He is a member of the Mexico Business Center’s Project Smart Border 2010 Steering Committee.

Lanthorne is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and served as a line officer in the U.S. Navy.  He serves on the President’s Council of Industry Advisors of the American Ceramics Society and the local boards of The Campanile Foundation, the SDSU College of Business and the UCSD Rady School of Management’s Advisory Council. He also serves on the boards of various community organizations, including the YMCA of San Diego County (past chair), the Japan Society of San Diego and Tijuana, and the Kyoto Symposium Organization.