Olympus Corp. Says Current Directors Will Resign, New Candidates Announced

Olympus Corp. Says Current Directors Will Resign, New Candidates Announced

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Tokyo, Japan—Following last week’s announcement that Olympus would be selecting new candidates to reform its management team, and that those candidates would be voted on by shareholders in an extraordinary meeting on April 20, the company released the names of those candidates. Olympus also announced that all current directors and corporate auditors will resign at that April 20 meeting—including the current representative director, president and CEO of Olympus, Shuichi Takayama.

The nominating committee, which includes two outside directors of the company—Yasuo Hayashida and Hirosi Kuruma—considered a “large number of potential candidates, and carried out careful deliberations through interviews.” Their selections were then sent to a management reform committee that approved the candidates.

The candidates whose names will be presented at the extraordinary general shareholders meeting on April 20 include Hiroyuki Sasa, currently a company executive officer, who will be nominated as the new representative director and president of Olympus Corp.

Yasuyuki Kimoto, a former senior managing director and executive officer of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. and currently president/CEO of The Japan Research Institute, will be nominated as the new chairman of the board of directors.

Other directorial candidates include: Hideaki Fujizuka, president and director of Chitose Kosan Co. and former executive at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ; Yasuo Takeuchi, an Olympus executive officer; and Shigeio Hayashi, also an executive officer of Olympus.

Outside directors will include: Takuya Goto, former chairman of the board of Kao Corp.; Shiro Hiruta, currently senior advisor at Asahi Kasei; Sumitaka Fujita, former vice-chairman and representative director of Itochu Corp; Motoyoshi Nishikawa, attorney; Hikari Imai, former president and representative director of Recof Corp; and Kiyotaka Fujii, current president and representative director of Better Place Japan Co.

The names of four new corporate auditors will also be put to the shareholders for approval. olympus.com

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