Toshiba Corp is set to pick Shiseido Co adviser Shinzo Maeda to head its new board to improve corporate governance in the wake of a massive accounting scandal, two people familiar with the plan said on Thursday. The Japanese conglomerate on August 18 proposed a fresh 11-member board with seven external directors, including Maeda, and left vacant the chairman post, previously held by President Masashi Muromachi.
At an extraordinary shareholders' meeting scheduled next month, Toshiba will propose changing its corporate code to allow external directors to head the board and preside over its meetings, the people said, declining to be identified because the decision remains confidential. Previously, Toshiba stipulated that board meetings must be run by the chairman.
Asked about the appointment, a Toshiba spokesman said the company had yet to decide on who will head its board. Maeda could not immediately be reached for comment. Toshiba is due to confirm Maeda's nomination at a board meeting on Monday, after clearance from its nomination advisory committee, the sources said. Appointment of the new directors is subject to shareholders' approval at the meeting in September. Under Maeda's watch as Shiseido president, the cosmetics company brought in external directors for the first time in a move aimed at strengthening its corporate governance.