Toshiba to Promote Hisao Tanaka to CEO in June

Toshiba (News - Alert) Corporation announced that it will be promoting Hisao Tanaka, a longtime company employee who joined the organization in 1973 in the purchasing department. He will be running the company as Chief Executive Officer at the end of June.

The current CEO Norio Sasaki will move to a newly created role of vice chairman when he finishes the four-year term as CEO. The decision will be made by the board in its annual meeting in June. It is expected Tanaka will be approved for the position for a four year term.

Tanaka has held several positions for the company including Director, Representative Executive Officer and Corporate Senior Executive Vice President for the Strategic Planning & Communications Group, Procurement & Logistics Group and Productivity & Environment Group.

Toshiba is one of the largest multinational companies in the world employing more than 200,000 people worldwide. The company is a global player in digital products, electronic devices and components, infrastructure system, home appliances and other industries including lighting, smart community and materials and devices.

Toshiba is involved in major infrastructure projects around the world. It has built nuclear power plants internationally and competes with the largest corporations in the world including Japanese rival Hitachi Ltd, Germany’s Siemens AG (News - Alert) and France’s Areva SA.

The company posted a rise in quarterly operating profit with Y29.3 billion versus Y8.67 billion a year ago. The new CEO will be inheriting a company that will be affected by an overall weak global economy, which has resulted in a drop for sales of its television and personal computers. Those numbers are likely to improve though as the Japanese Yen has been trading lower, making goods made in this country cheaper in the world market.