Akira Fujisaki
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
Born in Kagoshima in 1917, he graduated from the Faculty of Law of Tokyo Imperial University in December 1941 and joined Sumitomo Mining the following January. He became head of administration in June 1964, a Director in May 1967 and a Managing Director in February 1970. His career was on the administrative side rather than in mines or smelters, while his fellow executives of the time were engineers trained in metallurgy and mining.
Selection
In May 1973 he became President when Kenjiro Kawakami became Chairman. Yoshio Kawai and Akira Murayama, who joined the board in the same month of May 1967, became Managing Directors in October 1971, whereas Fujisaki had done so in February 1970, a year and eight months earlier. That March, the Besshi mine, where the company began, had ceased operations, so the substance of the handover was how to reshape the business after losing its mine.
Initiatives
After losing Besshi, he made overseas materials businesses and domestic gold veins the new mainstays. In January 1977 the company established Sumitomo Metal Mining Singapore and began producing lead frames, going overseas for the first time in electronics materials manufacturing. That February it opened the Niihama research laboratory. In August 1981 a wide-area survey by the Metal Mining Agency of Japan found a high-grade gold vein in the Hishikari area of Kagoshima Prefecture, which later led to the Hishikari mine.
Career
Career
Sumitomo Metal Mining
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| 1972 | Representative Director, President |
| 1982 | Stepped down as President |