Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (GST) has named a new CEO, CTO and VP that the company hopes will help shepherd in its hard disk drive unit's next growth phase.
Hitachi GST has appointed Hiroaki Nakanishi to the position of CEO, effective June 1. Nakanishi is currently chairman of the board of directors of Hitachi GST Netherlands BV, the parent company of Hitachi GST operations. In his new role, Nakanishi will lead the COO, CFO, CTO, product strategy and marketing, sales, legal, human resources and corporate communications functions.
Nakanishi replaces the current CEO, Jun Naruse, who will become CTO, a newly created office that the company said will have a greater emphasis on strengthening Hitachi's position in technology. Reporting to Naruse will be research, intellectual property and Hitachi GST's chief technologist.
Also, Robert Holleran, currently senior VP and general manager of Hitachi GST hard disk drive business group, will become COO, effective June 1. Holleran succeeds the current COO, Glenn Larnerd, who will retire from Hitachi GST at the end of June 2005, after assisting Holleran's move into his new position.
"Hitachi put a strong management team in place to facilitate the critical early integration phase after acquiring IBM's HDD business," said Nakanishi in a statement. "We are now prepared to move Hitachi GST into an accelerated growth and deeper integration phase with greater expectations for business performance and profitability."