Hitachi Vantara Taps New CEO With IoT-Focused Reorganization
Hitachi's enterprise technology subsidiary is getting a new CEO and chairman and merging with Hitachi Consulting to double down on its Lumada Internet of Things business — a move that comes almost exactly two years after Hitachi Vantara was formed through a merger of three Hitachi businesses.
Japanese conglomerate Hitachi is doubling down on Hitachi Vantara's Lumada solutions for the Internet of Things with the announcement that it will combine the enterprise technology subsidiary with its Hitachi Consulting arm and name a company veteran as CEO of the merged entity.
The Tokyo-based company said company veteran Toshiaki Tokunaga, chairman of the board of Hitachi Global Digital Holdings, which oversees Hitachi Vantara and Hitachi Consulting, will become CEO and board chairman of the combined organization, which will into effect in January.
[Related: Hitachi Vantara CEO Lays Out Case For Building Complete Infrastructure, Analytics, IoT Biz]
Brian Householder, current CEO of Hitachi Vantara, and Hicham Abdessamad, president and CEO of Hitachi Consulting, will remain at Hitachi with executive leadership roles, but a company spokesperson declined to say what their new titles will be.
Hitachi — named to CRN’s 2019 Internet of Things 50 — said it will provide additional information about Hitachi Vantara's new leadership and organizational structure in early 2020.
The organizational shakeup, which Hitachi characterized as an "integration," comes almost exactly two years after Hitachi announced the merger of its Hitachi Data Systems storage and data center infrastructure business with its Hitachi Insight Group IoT business and Pentaho big data business to form the Hitachi Vantara business. The announcement was made just ahead of Hitachi Vantara's annual Next conference, which is scheduled for the week of Oct. 6 in Las Vegas.
"I’m confident that Hitachi Vantara will deliver even greater value for our customers and partners by reinforcing its digital business and solution delivery capabilities," Tokunaga, Hitachi Vantara's incoming CEO, said in a statement.
In the lead-up to Tuesday's announcement, Hitachi Vantara had been going through several executive changes, most recently with the departure of channel chief and company veteran Mike Walkey in July. Asim Zaheer, who was the company's chief marketing officer, left in April.
Tokunaga, who Hitachi credited with nearly 30 years of experience in "transforming Hitachi businesses," said the new Hitachi Vantara aligns with the Japanese conglomerate's 2021 mid-term management plan, "which outlines the expansion of its digital business, global market share growth, and the delivery of social, environmental and economic value for customers and partners."
With the combination of Hitachi Vantara and Hitachi Consulting, Hitachi said the subsidiary will lead a global expansion of its Lumada business, which consists of the Lumada IoT platform and targeted applications like Lumada Manufacturing Insights. The combination of the two entities will also "increase alignment and unlock the synergies between Hitachi Vantara and its vertical business units."
Hitachi said Hitachi Vantara will continue develop and support its other product lines for data infrastructure and governance, among other things, as well as its digital solutions and professional and managed services.
Householder, in a statement, called the planned combination "a great next step to bring two complementary organizations even closer together to help our customers and partners tap more broadly into the power of Hitachi to drive meaningful business outcomes."
"Hitachi Vantara was created to develop exceptional technologies to help our customers maximize the value of their data, from the data center to the cloud and out to the edge," he said.
Abdessamad, the current head of Hitachi Consulting, said his organization has "been focused on delivering tangible business outcomes to our customers by leveraging Hitachi's vast information technology and operational technology capabilities."
"This integration uniquely positions us to accelerate time to value for our customers and provide digital solutions at scale," he said in a statement.