Naoyuki Akikusa

Naoyuki Akikusa spent his entire career with Fujitsu Limited, which developed Japan's first commercial computer in 1954. Born in Tochigi, Japan on December 12, 1938, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and economics from Waseda University in 1961. He joined Fujitsu in 1961 as a systems engineer and after advancing through numerous vice president positions, became President in 1998, CEO in 2000 and held both positions until he became Chairman of the Board in 2003. In 2008, he became an adviser to the company. He passed away on June 18, 2016.

Naoyuki Akikusa was known for breaking with traditional Japanese business traditions such as lifetime employment. He helped lead Fujitsu through several reorganizations and into joint ventures with Verizon Communications, Sun Microsystems, Inc. and Hitachi, Ltd. 

Fujitsu is a Tokyo-based computing and communications company. Founded in 1935, it began producing commercial computers in the 1950s and expanded into personal computers in the 1980s. It is the world's fifth-largest IT services provider and is the largest in Japan. It's also one of the world's top 10 providers of servers. In addition, Fujitsu Group holds about 78.000 patents worldwide.