Michael Woodford
Whistle-Blowing and Lessons on Governance and Crisis Management

Wednesday, June 29, 2016, 9:00–10:45
With Joint Colloquium attendees

Michael Woodford grew up in Liverpool in the north of England, beginning his working life at Lucas Aerospace as a commercial management trainee. 

Mr. Woodford then worked for Olympus for 30 years, initially for the UK subsidiary, Olympus KeyMed, joining as a surgical salesman, progressing to sales manager and sales director before being appointed the company's managing director in 1990, at the age of 29. 

Following a period of dramatic growth for the UK-based group, in October 2004, he became a main board member of Olympus Medical Systems, and was appointed executive managing director of Olympus Medical Systems Europe, where he implemented a radical programme of change within the organisation which resulted in a doubling of the operating profit within three years.
 
April 2008 saw his appointment as executive managing director and Chair of Olympus Europa Holding, with overall responsibility for the European medical, industrial, life science, and consumer products businesses, and he became an officer of the main board of Olympus in Japan. During his tenure, the operating profit of the European business increased by almost 50 percent.

In April 2011, he was appointed president and chief operating officer (COO) of Olympus, one of only four gaijins to run a large Japanese company, and the very first Western salaryman to rise through the ranks to the top.

On October 1, 2011, he became CEO, but only two weeks later, on October 14, he was dismissed after querying inexplicable payments in excess of $1.5 billion and demanding the resignation of the company's chair and vice-president.

Mr. Woodford will take the attendees through the riveting experience of whistle-blowing on his own company, and lessons on governance and crisis management.

Watch the video for a glimpse of Michael Woodford’s keynote on whistle-blowing.