Osamu Suzuki speaks at a news conference in Tokyo, Japan, on Monday, May 10, 2010. Osamu Suzuki, an ingenious pennypincher who led Japan's Suzuki Motor for more than four decades and played a key role in turning India into a flourishing auto market, has died aged 94. Born Osamu Matsuda, Suzuki took his wife's family name through adoption in a practice common among Japanese families lacking a male heir. The former banker joined the company founded by her grandfather in 1958 and worked upwards through the ranks to become president two decades later. In the 1970s, he saved the company from the brink of collapse by convincing Toyota Motor to supply engines that met new emissions regulations, but which Suzuki Motor had yet to develop.

---

Persons: Osamu Suzuki, Japan's Suzuki, thriftiness, Osamu Matsuda, Suzuki Organizations: Toyota, General Motors Locations: Tokyo, Japan, India, ambitiously, minivehicles