Toshiba has named a new chief executive, follows last year’s revelations of a $1.3 billion accounting scandal at the Japanese multinational conglomerate.
Sixty-year-old Satoshi Tsunakawa, pictured, currently an executive vice president, will succeed Masashi Muromachi as chief executive next month, pending shareholders’ approval, the company said.
Muromachi was appointed caretaker CEO last year, after the major culprit in the scandal, Hisao Tanaka, resigned.
Toshiba admitted that under Tanaka’s leadership the corporation had overstated its profits by 151.8 billion yen (A$1.9 billion) over six years.
At a news conference in Tokyo, Tsunakawa said his priority would be to improve Toshiba’s finances and focus on its three key businesses: energy, memory chips and “social infrastructure” such as elevators and water systems.
The company’s personal computer business – mainly centred on notebooks and tablets – appears to now be on the outer at Toshiba HQ after a move to merge the business with Fujitsu and Vaio PC operations fizzled.
Tsunakawa said Toshiba might still be able to turn around the PC business on its own by narrowing its focus, but stressed that the company would look at all possibilities, including mergers.
