Top 100 Executives 2021 – Hisashi Ietsugu (CEO) Sysmex

The young Hisashi Ietsugu joined the Sysmex Corporation in 1986, back when it was still known as TOA Medical Electronics. He made an instant impression, and a decade later was sitting pretty in the CEO’s chair.

His record since has proven that the Kobe-headquartered company made the right decision in appointing him. Since 2010, Sysmex Corp.’s turnover has risen by 142%, reaching $2.7 billion, a performance which leaves it with ample room for Ietsugu-san’s $1.4 million annual salary.     

Sysmex makes reagents and equipment for clinical tests, including hematologic and immune tests. The company also develops, manufactures, and sells particle scanners such as blood coagulation analyzers and related software. It has regional offices in Germany and the US, as well as several Asian locations.

The "Sysmex way"
After graduating with a degree in economics from the university of Kyoto in the early 70s, he began his career at Sanwa bank in 1973 (Today operating under the name Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi). Ietsugu’s philosophy? To “shape the evolution of the healthcare industry in the Sysmex way.”

Known primarily for its hematology and its immunochemistry expertise, Sysmex has increasingly been developing its IT solutions offer. Its laboratory automation solutions help medical technicians reduce the time spent on manual work processes and redundant samples, freeing up space for other important tasks, increasing efficiency and improving the quality of the analysis.

“Our goal is to play a leading role in resolving the medical-related problems facing the world in the 21st century, by proposing the latest, cutting edge medical devices in the areas of testing and diagnosis," explained the boss of a company with products in use in more than 190 countries across the globe and a growing share of key overseas markets such as China, Europe and the United States.