Sony Global - Press Release - Chairman of the Board Norio Ohga Retires as Director of Sony Corporation

The press releases on this website are provided for historical reference purposes only. Please note that certain information may have changed since the date of release.

January 28, 2003

Chairman of the Board Norio Ohga Retires as Director of Sony Corporation

Sony Corporation announces the retirement of Norio Ohga as Chairman of the Board and Director of Sony Corporation, effective January 29, 2003. Mr. Ohga today informed the Board of Directors of his intention to retire from the position of Director and this was formally accepted.

Mr. Ohga will assume the position of Honorary Chairman of Sony Corporation effective January 30, 2003.

In accordance with the regulations for Sony's Board of Directors, Nobuyuki Idei will act as Chairman/CEO and Chairman of the Board of Sony Corporation from January 30 until the General Meeting of Shareholders to be held in June of this year.

<Reference>

	Norio Ohga	Developments at Sony
1930	Born in Numazu City, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan (Jan. 29)
1953	Graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music
	Becomes Consultant and Advisor to Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K. (present Sony)
	Enters Hochschule fur Musik in Munich (October)
1955	Transfers to Berlin University of the Arts
1957	Graduates from Berlin University of the Arts	Sony markets world's smallest transistor radio, TR-63 (March)
1959	Enters Sony (September)
1964	Director, Sony Corp. Manager, Product Planning Division
1968	Senior Managing Director, CBS/Sony Records (March)	CBS/Sony Records (Joint venture between CBS and Sony) established
1970	President and Representative Director CBS/Sony Records (April)	Sony shares listed on the NYSE (September)
1972	Managing Director, Sony Corp. (June)
1974	Senior Managing Director, Sony Corp.	Color TV assembly plant established at Bridgend, Wales, UK
1976	Executive Deputy President, Sony Corp.	Akio Morita becomes Chairman and Kazuo Iwama President of Sony Corp.
1976	President, Sony Shoji Corp. (January)
1982	President and Chief Operating Officer of Sony Corp. (Sept.)	Sony markets "CDP-101"CD Player (October)
1985		Sony markets 8mm camcorder, CCD-V8 (Jan)
1986		Sony Europe GMBH established in Germany (November)
1988	Chairman, Sony USA Inc. (March) Receives Medal of Honor with Blue Ribbon	Sony acquires CBS Records (January)
1989	Vice Chairman, Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Feb)	Sony markets compact 8mm camcorder, CCD-TR55 (June)
1989	President and CEO, Sony Corp. (June)	Sony acquires Columbia Pictures (November)
1992		Sony markets MiniDisc (MD) system (November)
1993		Sony Computer Entertainment etablished (November)
1994	Receives Commander's Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany	Business Unit system abolished, Company system introduced (Apr)
1995	Chairman and CEO, Sony Corp.	Nobuyuki Idei appointed as next President of Sony Corp.
1995	Chairman, Electronic Industries Association of Japan (May)
1996	Officier dans l'Ordre National de la Legion d'Honneur, France (Dec.)	Sony 50th anniversary (May)
1997		Corporate Executive Officer system introduced (June)
1998	Vice Chairman, Keidanren (Japan Federation of Economic Organizations)	Nobuyuki Idei becomes Co-CEO (May)
1999	President, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra (April)	Nobuyuki Idei becomes CEO (June)
1999	President, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra (April)	Akio Morita dies (October)
2000	Chairman of the Board, Sony Corp. June)	Nobuyuki Idei appointed next Chairman/CEO of Sony Corp. (Apr)
2000	Chairman of the Board, Sony Corp. June)	Kunitake Ando appointed as President and COO of Sony Corp.