News Releases

TOKYO—Toshiba (TOKYO: 6502) will welcome Taro Shimada to its executive suite on October 1, 2018, when he will take on a newly created position as Corporate Digital Business Chief Strategy Officer.

Currently Executive Operating Officer at Siemens K.K., Mr. Shimada will bring to Toshiba a wealth of experience in hardware development, ranging from aircraft and automobiles to precision machinery design and heavy industry, and in product life cycle management software.

In the course of his career, Mr. Shimada has advised many of Japan’s leading global manufacturers with strategic advice on digitization. A highly experienced engineer and expert in robotics, he is currently an advisor to the Robot Revolution & Industrial IoT Initiative, a privately-led organizational platform, and to the IoT Acceleration Lab, and he has also contributed to the activities of Industrie 4.0 in Germany and Connected Industries in Japan.

As Toshiba’s Corporate Digital Business Chief Strategy Officer, Mr. Shimada will spearhead strategic business expansion of Toshiba Group’s digital transformation business, including as an evangelist promoting collaborations with industry, government and academia. His expertise will also support the continued introduction of highly advanced IoT at Toshiba’s factories, across product design, development and manufacturing.

Commenting on his new appointment, Mr. Shimada said: “The scenery of the Japanese industry has changed drastically in the past 30 years. When I started my career, Japan was seen as number one in manufacturing. I believe Japan has the power to change the scenery again—not by repeating what we did in the past, but by blazing a trail toward the future, as other countries have strived to do. I see Toshiba’s strengths as deep experience and broad know-how in manufacturing in different business domains. While making full use of these strengths, it needs to swiftly change its business through digital transformation. I am honored to be able to work for Toshiba and to be part of the transformation. Toshiba is restructuring for the future. I want to contribute to that with my strengths in building effective strategies and flexibility—and my determination to get things done. These are the capabilities I have cultivated in my career at companies in Japan, the U.S. and Europe, and I want to contribute them to Toshiba, and to changing Japan’s scenery.”

Through a policy of digital transformation, Toshiba Group is strengthening its organizational structure and human resources to promote new business creation grounded in overcoming challenges faced by its customer companies in diverse business sectors. Toward this, the company is complementing its own market-tested capabilities and reinforcing its management team by securing the services of distinguished industry leaders; in July it appointed Hiroshi Yamamoto, formerly with IBM Japan, as Corporate Digitization Chief Technology Officer. With Mr. Shimada now joining the company as Corporate Digital Business Chief Strategy Officer, Toshiba will be more strongly positioned to advance new business creation through digital transformation.

■Mr. Shimada’s career
April 1990:       Joined ShinMaywa Industries, Ltd. as an aircraft design engineer
Sept. 1999:      Joined Structural Dynamics Research Corporation, the current Siemens PLM
                         Software, as a Technical Consultant
April 2010:       CEO of Siemens PLM Software Japan and Vice President of Siemens PLM
                         Software U.S.A.
March 2014:    Assigned to sales development department of Siemens AG in Germany.
Sept. 2015:      Appointed Senior Executive Operating Officer, head of Digital Factory/Process
                         Industries & Drives Division, Siemens K.K. in Japan