Two years later, new responsibilities were added as President of the Performance Products SBU, in addition to fibers and textiles, he was in charge of the engineering plastics, synthetic rubber, elastomers as well as household and packaging materials business. Kudo was also involved in the establishment of a new mobility materials department, launched in April 2020 to focus on products for the automotive sector.
The new President of Asahi Kasei will continue the successful strategic work of his predecessor Hideki Kobori, who has significantly shaped the Group since 2016. The steady management during pandemic as well as the focus on sustainability, carbon neutrality and biobased productions processes are milestones of his work as President. Similarly, back in 2016, the Asahi Kasei Group moved to an operational holding structure and divided its business areas into Material, Homes and Health Care, resulting in efficient collaboration within the company.
During his presidency, Kobori further expanded Asahi Kasei's global presence. One key achievement was the successful establishment and development of Asahi Kasei Europe's business activities since April 2016. Furthermore, he was responsible for focused business development activities including capacity expansions for battery separators, filaments for airbags, synthetic rubber and virus filters. This also included the strategic positioning focused on the automotive and medical sectors with the important acquisitions such as Sage Automotive Interiors in the USA, the Swedish sensor company Senseair as well as Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., focused on the commercialization of immunosuppression medications in the United States.
The coronavirus pandemic showed how important people’s lives and health are. Asahi Kasei will deepen its operations in the medical business with solutions that can tie together offerings in the chain of prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and aftercare making its Health Care operations into a third pillar of business alongside Material and Homes. Furthermore, Asahi Kasei is aiming to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, looking to reduce its absolute greenhouse gas emissions by at least 30 percent until 2030
As the new president, Koshiro Kudo will also be continuing to lead Asahi Kasei's Sustainability Strategy Planning Department, with efforts now being made around activities that contribute to creating a sustainable society under a unified company-wide policy. The Green Solution Project, a new organizational unit directly reporting to the company President will also be one of his main responsibilities.
Asahi Kasei Corporation is a globally active diversified technology company with operations in the Material, Homes, and Health Care business sectors. The Material sector encompasses fibers & textiles, petrochemicals, performance polymers, performance materials, consumables, battery separators, and electronic devices. The Homes sector provides housing and construction materials to the Japanese market. The Health Care sector includes pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and acute critical care devices and systems. With more than 44,000 employees around the world, the Asahi Kasei Group serves customers in more than 100 countries and achieved sales of 17.3 billion euros (2,106 billion yen) in the fiscal year 2020 (April 1, 2020 – March 31, 2021).
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