Starbucks appoints Reckitt Benckiser as the next CEO; Kazuo Inamori, Japan's "Saint of Management", died | Executive Update August 27- September 2, 2022

Executive updates from Starbucks, Alibaba, SoftBank Vision Fund, Nidec, Ideal Motors, Novartis, Alstom, Airbus, Lukoil, Meta, YouTube and more.

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Kazuo Inamori, the founder of Kyocera Corporation (KYOCERA), who is known as one of Japan's four "management saints", died at home at 8:25 a.m. on August 24 due to old age and frailty, at the age of 90. Inamori founded the Kyoto Ceramics Company (now Kyocera) in 1959 at the age of 27 and became a world-renowned manufacturer with sales of more than 1 trillion yen and about 83,000 employees. Inamori established Daiichi Electric Power Planning (now KDDI) in 1984 to enter the field of information and communication. In 2010, Atamori was strongly requested by the government to serve as chairman of Japan Airlines, which was in a crisis of operations, and directed JAL to reinvigorate itself without compensation, and in 2012, he promoted JAL's re-listing on the main board of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Ravil Maganov, chairman of the board of directors of Lukoil, Russia's second-largest oil producer, died at the age of 68 at the Central Clinical Hospital of the Russian Federation's Presidential Palace in Moscow on September 1, local time. A statement posted on Lukoil's website said Maganov had "died of a serious illness." In 1993, Maganov became Vice President of Lukoil. Since June 2020, Maganov has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lukoil.

Starbucks has appointed laxman Narasimhan, britain's outgoing head of Reckitt Benckiser, as its next chief executive, and he will execute the "reinvention" strategy designed by Howard Schultz since he returned to Starbucks in April to take the helm of the coffee chain for the third time. The Indian-born, U.S.-educated executive will step down from Reckitt Benckiser on Sept. 30 and become Starbucks' "new CEO" on Oct. 1. But he will work with Schultz for six months, after which Schultz will retire from his interim CEO position to a non-executive role in April next year.

SoftBank Group announced that Rajeev Misra, CEO of its Vision Fund, will resign as executive vice president of SoftBank Group, but retain the position of head of SoftBank Investment Advisers. SoftBank Investment Advisory firm primarily helps manage existing investments in the Vision Fund, while Vision Fund Phase 2 will be personally managed by SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son. In 2017, Misra helped Son set up a $100 billion "Vision Fund" to transform SoftBank into the world's largest technology investor.

Nidec has set a policy of having Vice President Hiroshi Obe as President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) from October onwards. The current president and COO, Kwan Yun, will retire. Guan Run's in-vehicle business has been sluggish, and he seems to have confirmed his intention to leave Nidec. Kwan served as Deputy COO at Nissan Motor and joined Nidec in January 2020. As the successor of the founder Yong Shou Shigenobu, Guan Run became president in April of the same year. In June 2021, he took over the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) from Yongshou, but due to the low stock price, Yongshou Shigenobu returned to THE CEO in April 2022. Guan Run became COO.

Novartis will appoint Merck executive Fiona Marshall as director of novartis biomedical research institute to replace Jay Bradner, who is stepping down after seven years as the drugmaker's head of research. Marshall's appointment will take effect on November 1 this year.

European aircraft maker Airbus announced that its chief financial officer, Dominik Asam, has decided to leave the company in early March 2023 to become chief financial officer of enterprise application software giant SAP. Asam joined Airbus in April 2019 as Chief Financial Officer and member of the Executive Committee.

Vivek Sharma, vice president of Horizon, a virtual reality social platform owned by Meta, will leave the company, and its team will report directly to Vishal Shah, vice president of Meta-Universe. Sharma has been with Meta for over 5 years, holding senior positions in the marketing and gaming sectors and most recently holding key positions in metaverse-related business units. Sharma is reportedly primarily responsible for developing "long-lasting immersive virtual environment experiences," as well as VR devices including Oculus headsets.

YouTube chief commercial officer Robert Kyncl confirmed previous media reports about his resignation. He has been with YouTube for over 12 years. Mary Ellen Coe, president of Google's global customer solutions, will take over the role from October.

China

On 1 September 2022, Alstom appointed Geng Ming as President of China, effective from the date of appointment. Based in Beijing, Geng Ming will be responsible for executing Alstom's strategy in China, as well as its commercial and operational performance in China. Geng Ming has more than 23 years of solid and successful experience in the rail transit industry, and during his 14 years at Siemens Mobility, he served as the General Manager of Siemens Mobility Greater China Urban Rail Transit Division for 10 years and the Chairman and CEO of Siemens Transportation Equipment (China) Co., Ltd. for 3 years. Geng Ming joined Alstom in March 2022, prior to that serving as General Manager of Systems, APM and Monorail Business in China and as General Manager of CRRC Puzhen Alstom Transportation Systems Co., Ltd.

Tang Xing, CTO of Alibaba's overseas digital business sector and general manager of aliExpress's basic platform center, has left his job. Tang Xing's departure is for personal reasons, and he may start a business in the future.

Peng Jiayi, a business assistant to former Kuaishou CEO Su Hua, has left his job. At the same time, Li Yongbao, head of business algorithm strategy, has also resigned, and the reason for leaving is unknown. It is reported that the two have not joined other companies for the time being, nor have they registered to start a new enterprise.

Ideal Auto has recruited a new person in charge of the forward-looking technology research and development business , Xie Yan, former vice president of Huawei's consumer BG software department and director of the terminal OS department. At present, Xie Yan has joined Ideal Automobile as the head of the system research and development department.

GCL Energy announced that Wang Zhenhui has officially joined the company as the CEO of GCL Energy, responsible for the mobile energy business. Previously, Wang Zhenhui held important positions in Lenovo Group, Yiyatong and JD Group. When Wang Zhenhui was the CEO of JD Logistics, he innovated logistics service products and models, completed the transformation of enterprise logistics into a logistics enterprise, and promoted the listing of JD Logistics.

Fangduoduo announced that Pan Jiaorong has resigned as the company's chief financial officer and assumed the role of chief operating officer, responsible for corporate governance and execution of business strategies, plans and procedures. Shuiying Chen was appointed Corporate Financial Controller with responsibility for finance and accounting matters. Li Jiancheng resigned as the company's chief technology officer. In addition, the Company's Board of Directors has appointed Senlin Peng as a Director and a member of the Audit Committee of the Company to succeed Ronald Cao, who resigned for personal reasons. The above change in board and management is effective on 30 August 2022.