Sony Shareholders OK Stringer As New CEO

TOKYO – Sony Corp. shareholders on Wednesday approved Howard Stringer as the new chief executive, the first foreigner to head the Japanese electronics and entertainment company.

A native of Wales who later acquired U.S. citizenship, Stringer, 63, has helped make Sony’s music and movie business one of the Tokyo-based company’s few bright spots in recent years. He replaces Nobuyuki Idei, 67, who led Sony for a decade.

The vote to promote Stringer, who was tapped by Sony’s board in March, came at a general shareholders meeting in Tokyo.

Stringer faces an enormous challenge in turning around Sony, which has been hit with losses in its consumer electronics business amid competition from cheaper Asian rivals. It has been weighed down with restructuring costs while getting beaten in key growing sectors like portable music players by the iPod from Apple Computer Inc.

Before joining Sony in 1997, Stringer had a 30-year career as a journalist, producer and executive at CBS Inc. His key role at Sony would be to develop strategic links between the entertainment and electronics business, a plan that Sony has talked about for years but has never fully realized.

Foreign executives at major Japanese companies are still extremely rare. The one exception has been Brazilian-born Carlos Ghosn, chief executive at Nissan Motor Co., who has become a hero here by reviving the automaker from near-collapse to growth in the past several years.

Stringer, who was previously vice chairman at Sony and chief executive of Sony Corp. of America, speaks no Japanese. He took U.S. citizenship in 1985, becoming a dual British-American national. He will continue to live in New York, where he now resides, traveling between the United States and Japan, Sony said.

Stringer has said will work closely with new President Ryoji Chubachi and Katsumi Ihara, chief financial officer, who are both Japanese and have years of experience in electronics. Their appointments were also approved at the shareholders’ meeting.