Hisashi Kaneko
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
He joined NEC in 1956 and became a Director in June 1985. In June 1989, as Managing Director, he also became President of the US subsidiary NEC America, handling overseas business on the ground. In June 1994 he was promoted from Senior Managing Director to President. A career employee following Tadahiro Sekimoto, he was not from a founding family backed by ownership.
Selection
In June 1994 he succeeded Tadahiro Sekimoto as President. Sekimoto moved to Chairman the same month, continuing a setup in which the Chairman and President ran the company together. In the fiscal year ended March 1994, the year before he took office, consolidated net sales were ¥3,579.8 billion and net income ¥6.6 billion, a recovery just achieved from a net loss of ¥45.2 billion the previous year.
Initiatives
Consolidated net sales grew to ¥4,397.2 billion in the fiscal year ended March 1996 and ¥4,948.4 billion in the FY ended March 1997. In February 1999 it emerged that the company expected a record consolidated net loss of ¥150.0 billion for the FY ended March 1999 and planned to cut 15,000 jobs, about 10% of its global workforce, over three years, 9,000 of them in Japan. The consolidated net loss for the FY ended March 1999 came to ¥157.9 billion. That month he handed the presidency to Koji Nishigaki.
Career
Career
NEC
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| 1956 | Joined |
| Jun 1985 | Director |
| Jun 1989 | Managing Director and President, NEC America |
| Jun 1994 | Representative Director, President |
| Mar 1999 | Director, Senior Advisor |
| Mar 1999 | Stepped down as President |
| Jun 2000 | Senior Advisor |