Meet Toshiba’s new chief executive, assuming he gets the thumbs up from shareholders
Toshiba has today nominated Satoshi Tsunakawa to take over as president and chief executive officer, subject to approval at a board meeting following a shareholders meeting in late June.
Toshiba has been involved in an accountancy scandal in recent years, which involved the company's profits being wrongly bumped up by over 150bn yen (£966m) over a seven-year period.
The scandal also led to the chief executive at the time the details were revealed last year, Hisao Tanaka, to stand down.
Tsunakawa, who first joined the company in 1979, is currently a corporate senior executive vice president and has previously worked as the chief executive of the company's healthcare division.
Tsunakawa will replace Masashi Muromachi, who has been acting as president and chief executive of the technology company since July 2015. Muromachi will continue to serve the company as an executive adviser.
Shigenori Shiga has been nominated for the position of chairman.
"The decision was made on the basis that a series of business restructuring initiatives is on track, and that the company should move forward to focus on growth with a new management team," the company said in a statement.
In the wake of the accounting scandal, Toshiba's share price has plummeted over 50 per cent in the space of one year. Shares also closed down 3.4 per cent today.
Last year, the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC) made a recommendation for a 7.37bn yen fine to the Financial Services Agency (FSA) for Toshiba's false statements about its accounts, the biggest fine in Japan's history for accounting statement violations.
Meanwhile, Ernst & Young ShinNihon was slapped with a 2.1bn yen fine by the FSA for failings relating to the Toshiba scandal. The accountancy firm was also banned from accepting any new engagements for a two-month period.