Ryuji Maruyama (Toshiba Asia Pacific)
Toshiba has appointed Ryuji Maruyama as new managing director for Asia Pacific (APAC), tasked with expanding the vendor’s presence across Southeast Asia, India and Oceania.
Overseeing regional sales, marketing and operations, Maruyama is a long-time industry veteran with over 30 years experience, having served in various leadership roles across the technology giant.
Maruyama succeeds Tatsuo Doko, who will assume the role of assistant to president and CEO of Toshiba infrastructure systems and solutions corporation.
“Asia Pacific continues to be an important market for Toshiba, with demand for energy, infrastructure, urbanisation and mobility forecasted to grow expeditiously,” said Maruyama.
“While we continue to focus on the further expansion of our businesses in the areas of energy, social infrastructure, electronic devices and storage and digital solutions, more resources will also be channelled to growth fields to further strengthen our capabilities in delivering highly customised and efficient technological solutions to the people around us.
“In addition, one of our key priorities is to foster stronger relationships with our customers, partners and the communities around us."
He previously served as the deputy general manager at the digital transformation strategy acceleration division, were he was tasked with developing initiatives to steer the vendor towards becoming a cyber-physical systems (CPS) technology company.
Toshiba has struggled to return to profit ever since it was forced to sell a majority stake in its flagship semiconductor business, primarily due to the large losses the vendor incurred by its Westinghouse Electric Company nuclear power subsidiary.
To illustrate this, the firm recently cut its operating profit for fiscal 2018 by 66 per cent to 20 billion yen (US$181 million), roughly three months after forecasting 60 billion yen for the year.
Its operating profit for the third quarter of 2018 plunged by 94 per cent to billion yen, on a six per cent drop in revenue, brought about primarily by the rising costs in its energy business combined with a 9.8 billion yen goodwill impairment to semiconductor equipment subsidiary NuFlare Technology, which saw its share price decline sharply, according to Toshiba.
However, to combat this, the group has been looking to diversify its portfolio by investing in new areas such as the internet of things.
In April 2018, the firm named former executive of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Nobuaki Kurumatani, as its new chairman and CEO, replacing Satoshi Tsunakawa who became the chief operating officer, but retained his role as president.
Cutting measures are also in place, which as part of its midterm business plan will see some 7,000 jobs cut, roughly five per cent of its total workforce, by 2024; a move expected to save the organisation about 180 billion yen over the next three years.
Going forward, it is expected the firm will invest in high growth areas such as digital technology to compensate for the loss of its memory division.
