Akio Yamaguchi
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General Manager and President
IBM Japan, Ltd.
Akio Yamaguchi joined IBM Japan in 1987 as a system engineer. After participating in multiple system development and maintenance projects for financial institutions, he led the Y2K program office for IBM Asia Pacific and subsequently worked on strategy planning for IBM Japan as the Management & Planning Officer. He has also joined Marketing, led the Software Technical Sales team, and worked in the United States for the IBM Corporation as the Executive Assistant to a senior technical sales executive in 2005.
After returning to Japan in 2007, Akio took on various leadership roles in Global Business Services, an organization that drives clients’ transformation through IT services such as consulting, system development & maintenance, and business process outsourcing. During this time, he gained extensive experience in large-scale, complex system development and integration including next-generation financial systems, and in 2017, was appointed Managing Partner (Torishimariyaku Senmu Shikko Yakuin) of Global Business Services.
In May 2019, Akio was appointed General Manager of IBM Japan and has been driving digital transformation with clients using innovative technologies such as AI, Cloud, and Quantum Computing. He has also been involved in global strategy planning as a member of IBM’s Executive Committee since 2017.
Outside of IBM, Akio was appointed Representative Director of Accessibility Consortium of Enterprises (ACE), a general incorporated association that aims to establish a new hiring model for persons with disabilities in 2020. In Japan Association of Corporate Executives (DOYUKAI), Akio was appointed as the Chairperson for the Corporate Management Committee in 2021, Vice Chairman of DOYUKAI in 2022, and Chairperson of Corporate Transformation Committee and Economic, Fiscal, Financial, and Social Security Committee of DOYUKAI in 2023. In academia, appointed as Senior Specially Appointed Professor at Tokyo University of Science in the Management of Technology program and Visiting professor at Osaka Institute of Technology in 2022, and Chairman of the Management Advisory Council of Advanced Institute of industrial Technology in 2024. Also appointed as Governing Board Member of the Japan Partnership for Circular Economy in 2023.
Akio was born in Wakayama Prefecture.