Kaz Hirai promoted to Sony president

By Tamoor Hussain for computerandvideogames.com

Sony has officially promoted Former Sony Computer Entertainment president, Kazuo Hirai, to president and CEO of Sony Corporation effective from April 1.

Confirming earlier rumours, Hirai will replace Sir Howard Stringer, who will be offered a position as board chairman following the retirement of Yotaro Kobayashi in June.

"As challenging as times are for Sony now were it not for the strong leadership of Sir Howard Stringer these past seven years, we would have been in a much more difficult position," said Hirai.

"I am grateful to Sir Howard and to the Board for their confidence in me, and I look forward to working with everyone at Sony more closely than ever before to build a strong future for our customers, shareholders, partners and employees."

Hirai went on to lay out a roadmap for the company, saying Sony must strive to "drive the growth of our core electronics businesses - primarily digital imaging, smart mobile and game; to turn around the television business; and to accelerate the innovation that enables us to create new business domains."

He said: "The foundations are now firmly in place for the new management team and me to fully leverage Sony's diverse electronics product portfolio, in conjunction with our rich entertainment assets and growing array of networked services, to engage with our customers around the world in new and exciting ways."

Stringer expressed his confidence in his successor and described Hirai as "a globally focused executive for whom technology and the cloud are familiar territory, content is highly valued, and digital transformation is second nature."

He added: "I believe his tough-mindedness and leadership skills will be of great benefit to the company and its customers in the months and years ahead. I look forward to helping Kaz in every way I can so that succession leads inevitably to success," he continued, "It was my honour to recommend him to the Board for the positions of president and CEO, because he is ready to lead, and the time to make this change is now."

Earlier this month Sony released a statement denying claims that it's already decided to replace Stinger with Hirai.