Profile of Takashi Kiuchi

Takashi Kiuchi is one of Japan's most iconoclastic corporate executives. As former Chairman and CEO of Mitsubishi Electric America, he built the Mitsubishi Electric brand in the U.S., and managed the company's transition from the old to the new economy. As Managing Director of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, he broke with Japanese corporate norms to champion a "living systems" approach to business that included rapid adaptation, financial transparency, openness, cultural diversity, executive positions for women, and environmental sustainability. He even forged a bold agreement with Rainforest Action Network (RAN) to promote corporate sustainability.

Today, as Chairman of the Future 500, and CEO of Tokyo-based E-Square, Kiuchi informs and inspires business leaders all over the world and develops profitable and sustainable business practices at computer, electronics, automobile and other companies.

Kiuchi is a popular keynote speaker at major global conferences on business, the environment and Japanese-U.S. relations. In his spare time, Kiuchi skydives, runs marathons, climbs Mount Fuji, rides his bicycle to Future 500 headquarters in downtown Tokyo and does 2000 push-ups a day.

Kiuchi is the co-author with Bill Shireman of the popular book What We Learned In The Rainforest - Business Lessons From Nature, featured in the Harvard Business Review, which declares the business-as-machine era over and shows how companies can become as innovative as the rainforest, leveraging feedback to grow more profitable and sustainable than ever.

• Weblinks
• Future 500
• Speech, "What I Learned in the Rainforest", New Horizonts of Learning