Stringer standing down at Sony

Welshman Sir Howard Stringer, one of the few foreign bosses to head a major Japanese company, is to give up his role as Sony chief executive but remain as chairman.

Stringer, who hails from Cardiff, will be replaced by Kazuo Hirai, executive deputy president, on 1 April, and will become chairman of the board of directors in June, the electronics giant said yesterday.

The 69-year-old Vietnam War veteran started working for Sony in 1997 as president of its US operational unit, Sony Corporation of America, and became Sony chief executive and chairman in June 2005.

He left the UK for America in 1965 after graduating from Oxford with a masters in modern history, becoming a US citizen. He spent 30 years at US broadcaster CBS, where he was a journalist, producer and senior executive.

Stringer has faced a series of significant challenges at Sony, including a loss-making TV business, hacker attacks on its PlayStation network, Japan’s earthquake and subsequent tsunami in March, floods in Thailand hitting production and a strong yen that has eaten away at its profits.