Isao Yonekura
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
He graduated from Tokyo University of Commerce in September 1947, joined Daiken Sangyo in October of that year and transferred to C. Itoh in 1949. He became General Manager of Overseas Business in 1967, a Director in 1975, Managing Director in 1977, Senior Managing Director in 1981 and Executive Vice President in 1982, and became President on June 30, 1983. A native of Nagoya, he came from the overseas and automotive side, built around an automobile business he had developed himself.
Selection
In June 1983 he succeeded Seiki Tozaki as President, at the age of 61. When the aggressive expansion of investment backfired in the 1973 oil crisis, President Masakazu Echigo and Executive Vice President Ryuzo Sejima withdrew from the front line, and Tozaki and Yonekura, who had kept their distance from Sejima's business development, took control within the company. On taking office he laid out a path to shed the burdens of oil and real estate and turn them into a leap forward in 1985.
Initiatives
The complete withdrawal from the oil business came in 1985, preceded by losses of about ¥100 billion related to Toa Oil booked by the end of 1984, and in February 1987 the company set up C. Itoh UK in Britain. Meanwhile investments and loans in real estate piled up, and in 1988 it spent ¥64.0 billion to acquire the former site of the Australian Embassy in Minato Ward, Tokyo, but the bubble burst before any plan for its use was settled. Within the company, having briefly ranked first in sales bred a big-company mentality, and problems raised by Minoru Murofushi and others led to the decision to push ahead with structural reform.
Career
Career
Daiken Industries
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| Oct 1947 | Joined |
Itochu
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| 1949 | Transferred |
| 1967 | General Manager, Overseas Business Department |
| 1975 | Director |
| 1977 | Managing Director |
| 1981 | Senior Managing Director |
| 1982 | Executive Vice President |
| Jun 1983 | President |
| Jun 1990 | Stepped down as President |