Saburo Ishikawa
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
Born in Hyogo Prefecture in 1913, he graduated from the Faculty of Engineering at Kyoto Imperial University in March 1936, joined the Central Laboratory of the South Manchuria Railway, and joined Nippon Shokubai Kagaku Kogyo in November 1949. He became a Director in July 1957, Managing Director in July 1963 and Senior Managing Director in July 1965, in charge of production. Shigeru Sakuyama and Chikashi Nakajima, who had moved from the same laboratory, also sat on the board, and engineers who had studied catalysts in Manchuria dominated the postwar board. He was an engineer who kept watch over the plants and production.
Selection
In February 1979 he rose from Senior Managing Director to Representative Director and Executive Vice President, and in the same month Ichiro Ishizaka and Chikashi Nakajima were promoted to Senior Managing Director. After two years as Executive Vice President, he succeeded Seiichi Kitano as President in February 1981. When Taizo Hachiya died suddenly in 1970, Kitano, in charge of administration, had been chosen, and Saburo Ishikawa, in charge of technology, had been left as Senior Managing Director. The change appears to have returned the top post to the technical side after 11 years.
Initiatives
In March 1981, the month after he took office, the company opened the Himeji and Kawasaki research laboratories. It began producing methacrylic acid and its esters in September 1982, and superabsorbent polymer at the Himeji Plant in November 1983. Its entry into superabsorbent polymer for disposable diapers in 1985 made it a latecomer, but the cost advantage of making its own acrylic acid let it overtake the pioneer Sanyo Chemical Industries within a year. These were five years in which the vapor-phase oxidation catalyst technology that began with phthalic anhydride reached all the way down to end products.
Career
Career
Nippon Shokubai
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| Feb 1981 | President |
| Feb 1986 | Stepped down as President |