Koji Nishigaki
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
He joined NEC in 1961 and became a senior officer in 1988. After serving as Senior Managing Director he was promoted to President in March 1999, stepping down in March 2003 and becoming senior adviser in April that year. Leaving without taking a chairman's post set him apart from the chairman-and-president pairing of his predecessors. He was a career employee raised inside the company, not from a founding family backed by ownership.
Selection
In March 1999 he succeeded Hisashi Kaneko, rising from Senior Managing Director to President. In February 1999, the month before he took office, it had emerged that the company expected a record consolidated net loss of ¥150.0 billion for the fiscal year ended March 1999 and planned to cut 15,000 jobs worldwide over three years. The actual consolidated net loss for the FY ended March 1999 was ¥157.9 billion.
Initiatives
In April 2000 he introduced an internal company system and an executive officer system, separating profitability and responsibility by business. In November 2002 he spun off the semiconductor business to establish NEC Electronics. Consolidated net sales fell from ¥5,409.7 billion in the fiscal year ended March 2001 to ¥4,663.2 billion in the FY ended March 2003, and the company posted a net loss of ¥307.9 billion in the FY ended March 2002. In March 2003 he handed the presidency to Akinobu Kanasugi.
Career
Career
NEC
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| 1961 | Joined |
| 1988 | Director |
| Mar 1999 | Representative Director, President |
| Mar 2003 | Stepped down as President |
| Apr 2003 | Senior Advisor |