Shuichi Takayama

A number of individuals whose backgrounds are important to the understanding of the Olympus scandal, which was precipitated on 14 October 2011 when the company's British-born chief executive, Michael Woodford was suddenly ousted as chief executive of Olympus Corporation. He had been only two weeks into the job when he exposed "one of the biggest and longest-running loss-hiding arrangements in Japanese corporate history", according to the Wall Street Journal. The US$2.2 billion deal in 2008 to acquire British medical equipment maker Gyrus Group, and the US$687 million paid to a middle-man were questioned. After initial denials, the company admitted that prior acquisitions had been used to cover investment losses. As regulators and police on three continents begin to investigate and trace the movement of the money, there was speculation that organised crime was involved in the missing millions. Olympus defended itself against allegations of impropriety, citing its Audit Board's view that "no dishonesty or illegality is found in the transaction itself, nor any breach of obligation to good management or any systematic errors by the directors recognised."

According to the Olympus website, Woodford, a graduate of Millbank College of Commerce, joined KeyMed, a U.K. medical-equipment unit of Olympus, in 1981. He became Managing Director by the age of 30. In 2008 he became Executive Managing Director of Olympus Europa Holding GmbH and a member of the Olympus board of directors. In February 2011, he was appointed President of Olympus Corporation. On 30 September 2011 Woodford was appointed Chief Executive Officer, the appointment taking effect on 1 October. However, after he started agitating within the top Olympus executives about suspicious acquisitions, he was fired from his position as President and CEO on 14 October 2011; he remained a board director.

Kikukawa, Tsuyoshi "Tom" (菊川剛), born on 27 February 1941, was educated at Keio University, where he graduated in Political Science, Dept. of Law in March 1963. His management style is regarded as a 'Western', and is credited with having considerably changed the corporate culture of Olympus.

Kikukawa joined Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. (as Olympus Corporation was then known) in October 1964. In June 1993, he became Managing Director responsible for Public Relations & Advertising Dept. and DI Project and was made director and member of the main board. Kikukawa spent considerable time in the United States, where he foresaw the demand for the digital SLR. He is credited with the company's strategy in digital photography – he fought for commitment by Olympus to enter the market in high-resolution photographic products. As a result of his efforts, Olympus released an 810,000-pixel digital camera for the mass market in 1996, when the resolution of rivals' offerings was less than half. The very next year, Olympus hit the market with a 1.41 million pixel camera. By 2001, the company's annual turnover from digital photography was in excess of ¥100 billion. In recognition of the success in digital photography that he championed within the firm, Kikukawa was promoted to managing director in 1998 and president in April 2001.

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