Vodafone KK name rival executive as new head

August 16, 2004

Vodafone K.K, the Japanese unit of the Vodafone Group, has named Shiro Tsuda as it new chief executive and president to help the struggling company.

Shiro Tsuda, former senior executive vice president at Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo, will replace Brian Clark, the interim president and chief executive, on December 1.

Tsuda, who failed to land the top spot at DoCoMo a few months ago, played a key role in developing DoCoMo's popular i-mode mobile Internet service and spearheaded the launch of DoCoMo's 3G service almost three years ago.

He said he would use his engineering background and management experience to lead Vodafone's Japan operations into the 3G era.

Vodafone K.K. posted a 100 billion yen loss for the fiscal year ending March 31 as sales slipped and costs for 3G services ate into its profits. (£1 = 195.56 yen)

Things got worse for the company in July as the company said first-quarter revenues fell 6%, blaming a discount price plan it introduced late last year. During the same month Vodafone posted the industry's first-ever decline in mobile phone customers, a net loss of 3,100 customers.

At the end of July it had 218,900 subscribers to its 3G service compared to DoCoMo's 5 million 3G subscribers and KDDI's 15 million.

Brian Clark said Tsuda was selected because of his expertise in the mobile industry, deep insight into the Japanese marketplace, and global perspective.

Clark assumed the top posts in the Japan unit in late June when Darryl Green resigned, allegedly because of the company's poor results.