Nobuyuki Idei (出井伸之, ''Idei Nobuyuki''; 22 November 1937 – 2 June 2022) was a Japanese businessman. He was

chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the group ...

and group chief executive officer of

Sony Corporation , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

until 7 March 2005. He was a director of

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

, Baidu, Yoshimoto Kogyo and

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other me ...

Early life

Idei was born in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

on 22 November 1937. His father was a professor of economics at

Waseda University , mottoeng = Independence of scholarship , established = 21 October 1882 , type = Private , endowment = , president = Aiji Tanaka , city = Shinjuku , state = Tokyo , country = Japan , students = 47,959 , undergrad = 39,382 , postgrad ...

, a private university in Tokyo.

Career

Idei joined

when he graduated from Waseda University. He started as a trainee working with the co-founders Akio Morita and

Masaru Ibuka Masaru Ibuka (井深大 ''Ibuka Masaru''; April 11, 1908 – December 19, 1997) was a Japanese electronics industrialist and co-founder of Sony, along with Akio Morita.Kirkup, James"Obituary: Masaru Ibuka,"''Independent'' (London). December 2 ...

and rose through the ranks as a marketing specialist. During the time, he also moved to Europe to manage Sony's businesses in the continent. After a stroke sidelined former chairman Akio Morita, Sony

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

and new chairman

Norio Ohga , otherwise spelled ''Norio Oga'' (January 29, 1930 – April 23, 2011), was the former president and chairman of Sony Corporation, credited with spurring the development of the compact disc as a commercially viable audio format. Biography Early ...

selected Idei to be the next

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

, a choice that raised eyebrows at Sony. His sweeping reorganizations of the company included trimming the board of directors from 38 members dominated by company management to 10 with a substantial presence of outsiders. Already perceived as the company's driving force, Idei was formally named co-CEO in 1998 and sole CEO in 1999. In 2000, while Ohga remained chairman of the board, Idei became executive chairman and Kunitake Andō became president. In 2003, on Ohga's retirement, Idei became the sole chairman, and the title of chief executive officer was altered to group chief executive officer. On 7 March 2005, it was announced that Idei would be succeeded on 22 June by Sir Howard Stringer. In 2006, Idei joined the board leading

Accenture Accenture plc is an Irish-American professional services company based in Dublin, specializing in information technology (IT) services and consulting. A ''Fortune'' Global 500 company, it reported revenues of $61.6 billion in 2022. Accentu ...

. On 28 September 2011, Idei joined the board of directors of

Lenovo Lenovo Group Limited, often shortened to Lenovo ( , ), is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in designing, manufacturing, and marketing consumer electronics, personal computers, software, business solutions, and related se ...

. Idei founded his own consulting firm Quantum Leaps Corporation on his retirement from Sony. He was also on the board of companies including

and Baidu. On 5 February 2015, Idei retired from Accenture's board of directors.

Personal life

Idei was married and had a daughter. He died on 2 June 2022 from liver failure. He was aged 84.

References

External links

Biography

"ZL Technologies Appoints Former CEO of SONY to Its Advisory Board"

Nobuyuki Idei anfiniti
{{DEFAULTSORT:Idei, Nobuyuki 1937 births 2022 deaths Accenture people Baidu people Lenovo people Sony people Nestlé people Businesspeople from Tokyo Waseda University alumni Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies alumni Directors of Nestlé General Motors former executives Japanese chief executives Japanese chairpersons of corporations Recipients of the Legion of Honour Deaths from liver failure