Kunitake Ando
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
He joined Sony in April 1969 and served as secretary to Akio Morita before helping launch Sony Prudential Life Insurance, a joint venture with Prudential Insurance of America established in August 1979. He became a director in 1994 and, as President of the Information Technology Company from 1996, led the PC business. His career ran through two fields outside Sony's audio-visual mainstream: a new financial business and information equipment.
Selection
In June 2000, as Nobuyuki Idei moved up to Chairman and CEO, Ando became President and COO. Ultimate responsibility for management stayed with Idei as CEO, while Ando took charge of execution. In the fiscal year ended March 2000, the year before he took office, consolidated sales were ¥6,686.6 billion and net income ¥121.8 billion, down from ¥179.0 billion the year before. The appointment appears to have aimed his record of growing information equipment through the PC business at rebuilding a hardware business in the midst of digitization.
Initiatives
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, a 50-50 joint venture with Ericsson, began operations in October 2001; in January 2003, with losses continuing, the two parents injected an additional €300 million in total to keep it going. In April 2003 a downward earnings revision sent Sony's share price limit-down two days in a row, the "Sony Shock," and in June that year the company moved to a company-with-committees structure. In April 2004 it set up S-LCD, a 50-50 LCD panel venture with Samsung Electronics, and also established Sony Financial Holdings to oversee its three financial companies.
Career
Career
Sony
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| Apr 1969 | Joined |
| 1994 | Director |
| 1996 | President, Information Technology Company |
| Jun 2000 | President and COO |
| Jun 2005 | Stepped down as President |