Hitachi Chemical Company Announces Changes in Leadership

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Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd. has passed a resolution at the Board of Directors’ meeting held on January 27, 2016, to change its Chairman of the Board, Representative Executive Officer, and President and Chief Executive Officer as follows:

• Hisashi Maruyama will assume the postion of President and CEO. Previously he was vice president and executive officer;
• Kazuyuki Tanaka will become Chairman of the Board (formerly President and CEO; and
• former Chairman Takashi Kawamura will remain as a director of the company.

With global competition becoming increasingly intense, the company has decided to rejuvenate its management with the new President and CEO, in order to achieve sustainable growth. Under the strong leadership of the new President and CEO, who has extensive experience in corporate planning and development, finance, legal affairs and automotive products business, the Company will devote itself to enhancing its management and performance by strengthening its existing high-growth businesses and pursuing dynamic growth strategies, including mergers and acquisitions.

After graduating from Hitotsubashi University Faculty of Law in 1983, Hisashi Maruyama joined Hitachi Chemical Company as manager of investor relations.  He graduated from Southern Methodist University School of Law in Texas, USA in June 1999 and has since held various corporate positions within the company including manager of corporate strategy, GM of the Automotive Products Business Sector, executive officer and GM of CSR Management Sector prior to his position as vice president.

Since assuming the presidency in April 2009, Hitachi Chemical’s current president and CEO, Kazuyuki Tanaka, has promoted various measures for the Hitachi Chemical Group to achieve strong growth in the global market, while pursuing growth strategies and structural reforms through his three pillars of operational, organizational and personnel reforms. Despite suffering losses during the periods of the Lehman Brothers collapse and the Great East Japan Earthquake, the company has improved its performance by actively focusing its business resources on global operations while strengthening all divisions, including high functional materials, automotive products and energy storage devices. Consequently, the company’s operating income is expected to rebound to 50 billion yen (International Financial Reporting Standards) in fiscal 2015 from 24.5 billion yen (Japanese financial reporting standards) in fiscal 2011. Its overseas sales and overseas employee ratios also exceeded 50% by fiscal 2014. Thus, the company has accomplished positive results during the period of the 2013-2015 medium-term management plan.