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Honda names first woman, foreigner to its board of directors

General Motors may have made headlines when it recently appointed the industry's first female CEO, but Honda has long lagged woefully behind the times when it comes to the diversity of its top management. In fact, its entire board has until now been composed entirely of Japanese men, with not a foreigner or a woman in sight. But as Reuters reports, that's all changing with the nominations to its latest board.
The slate of new directors named to Honda's board includes one Hideko Kunii, a gender-equality advocate and engineering professor from the Shibaura Institute of Technology. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, Kunii spent the bulk of her career at Japanese electronic imaging company Ricoh. Alongside Kunii, Honda has also named Tomoko Mizoguchi to the board as responsible for the company's South American operations, making him the first foreigner to serve on the company's board of directors. (Well, almost: Mizoguchi was born in Brazil, but of Japanese ancestry.)
The appointments follow the recent switch Honda made in its official language policy from Japanese to English, signaling a shift in outlook for a company that has long stuck to traditional Japanese business models. Honda was the first of the major Japanese automakers to begin manufacturing in the United States, and has long relied on hiring local managers to run its regional operations around the world. It has, however, resisted placing foreigners on its board of directors until now, relying instead on senior male managers promoted from within its ranks to serve on its board. This in comparison to Toyota, which has seven foreigners and one woman on its 68-member board of directors, and Nissan, which has fifteen foreigners (including its chief executive) and one woman on its 58-member board.

105-year-old Facebook user gifted new car anonymously

105-year-old Edythe Kirchmaier is quite a woman. Not only is she California's oldest driver - she just renewed her license this January after passing the test without incident - she has a perfect 86-year driving record without so much as a parking violation. In fact, she's been driving for so long that she learned how on a Ford Model T (how many people alive today have even driven one of those, much less learned on one?). On top of all that, Edythe is a philanthropist; she's been volunteering at Direct Relief, which provides free medications for people in need, for 40 years. You may have even seen her on TV earlier this year spreading the word.
So when Edythe's 1997 minivan began breaking down, an anonymous fan did what any completely selfless person of means would: they gifted her a brand-new 2013 Honda Civic, ensuring that Edythe can continue working for the cause she loves. Check her out on Facebook - she's the social media site's oldest registered user - and scroll down to the press release for more on this heartwarming story.

Honda will build 2014 Accord Hybrid in Ohio

Honda has announced that it will invest $23 million in its Marysville, Ohio facility to support production of the upcoming 2014 Accord Hybrid sedan. According to the manufacturer, this means approximately 50 new jobs will be created, and the whole investment will result in a 95,000-square-foot expansion of the Marysville plant.
The Accord Hybrid joins the decidedly homely Accord PHEV (pictured) this fall, using a 2.0-liter i-VTEC Atkinson cycle four-cylinder engine mated to a 124-kilowatt electric motor. Honda has yet to release official power or fuel economy figures for the non-plug-in hybrid version of the Accord.
Honda currently operates four manufacturing facilities in Ohio, with the combined capacity to build up to 700,000 cars and light trucks each year. The Japanese automaker also has a facility in Greensburg, Indiana, where the Civic Hybrid and Acura ILX Hybrid are built.