Toshiba announced the nomination of a new chief executive officer on Friday in a bid to rebuild the company's brand and gain trust of the stakeholders after last year's $1.3 billion accounting scandal left the electronics giant in a challenging position. Sixty-year-old Satoshi Tsunakawa, who was the former head of Toshiba's medical equipment division and an executive VP, is likely to succeed Masashi Muromachi as the CEO next month.
The replacement of Muromachi by Tsunakawa will be finalised at a shareholders' meeting in late-June. Muromachi took the charge of the company last July after a series of senior executives, including former CEO Hisao Tanaka, had resigned over links to the accounting scandal. Muromachi will remain a part of the management as a special advisor as Tsunakawa takes upon his new role.
"My biggest task would be to rebuild trust from stakeholders and transform the company under our new action plans," Tsunakawa said during a press conference on Friday, according to Reuters. "I would place the most immediate priority on beefing up the capital base."
Tsunakawa has maintained a strong track record during his tenure in the company. He joined in 1979, and has worked at Toshiba's healthcare division for most of his tenure. He is also credited for helping grow the medical equipment unit into a profit churner. In March, Toshiba agreed to sell its medical unit TMSC to Canon for ¥688 billion ($6.1 billion).
Toshiba's accounting scandal had besieged the company's image in its home country as well as in international markets. The company had overstated profits by $1.3 billion for seven years between 2008 and 2014, according to CNET.
Tsunakawa has already started steering the company's financial status towards a positive trend by laying out straight-cut strategies. Tsunakawa said his priority was to improve the company's finances and focus on the three key businesses of energy, memory chips and social infrastructure, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The company recently revealed plans to invest ¥360 billion ($3.2 billion) to set up a new semiconductor manufacturing unit in Japan, as a part of its restructuring efforts to overcome losses.
Toshiba also announced on Friday that its senior executive, VP Shigenori Shiga, was nominated to become chairman.
