Norio Ohga

Norio Ohga was a Japanese businessperson who served as president and later chairman of Sony Corporation. Born in Numazu in 1930, he trained as a classical vocalist at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, and he first came to the company as a part-time consultant after he wrote a sharply critical letter about its tape recorders. He became an executive director of Sony at the age of 34, president of CBS/Sony Records in 1970, president of Sony in 1982 and its chief executive in 1989. During his tenure Sony bought Columbia Pictures Entertainment from the Coca-Cola Company in 1989, having acquired the CBS Records Group a year earlier. He is credited with spurring the compact disc as a commercially viable audio format and backed Ken Kutaragi's development of the PlayStation. He succeeded Akio Morita as chairman in 1994, became honorary chairman in 2003, and died in April 2011.