Sony's Kaz Hirai is retiring from the company after 35 years
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After a 35-year long career with the company, Sony chairman Kazuo “Kaz” Hirai has announced his retirement.
Kaz Hirai will be officially leaving his chairman role on June 18th, but he will continue to be involved in select projects at Sony. On the request of the company’s management team, Hirai will still fit the bill of an “occasional adviser”.
“Hirari-san and I have been working on management reforms together since December 2013,” said current Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida. “While he will be retiring from both Chairman and our Board of Directors, we look forward to his continuing high-level support to Sony’s management that encompasses a breadth of diverse businesses.”
Hirai’s continued involvement with Sony’s projects is obviously an important move for those inside the company. After all, with 35 years of service under his belt, Hirai is the face of Sony to many and Hirai himself appears to respect this.
“Since passing the baton of CEO to Yoshida-san last April, as Chairman of Sony, I have had the opportunity to both ensure a smooth transition and provide support to Sony’s management,” Hirai said in his official statement.
“I am confident that everyone at Sony is fully aligned under Yoshida-san’s strong leadership, and are ready to build an even brighter future for Sony. As such, I have decided to depart from Sony, which has been a part of my life for the past 35 years. I would like to extend my warmest gratitude to all our employees and stakeholders who have supported me throughout this journey.”
From Sony’s music division to Sony CEO, Hirai has become one of the greatest figureheads in the gaming world. After all, he did inspire the best parody Twitter account the world has ever seen.
