■Visit to Sony Honda Mobility

Last month I visited Sony Honda Mobility (SHM) in Akasaka, Tokyo. The views from their new office, which they just moved into in May, are outstanding, and the entrance is a refined, minimalist space that appears to reflect the design values of AFFELA itself.

With Izumi Kawanishi, President and COO of SHM (left) and Daisuke Ishii, Head of Creative Center, SGC and Senior General Manager, Design and Brand Strategy, SHM (center). The design of the entrance area was also overseen by Ishii-san's team.

Totoki-san also visited the offices on a separate occasion, and we both took the opportunity to speak with everyone at SHM. In our respective town hall meetings, Totoki-san and I each shared our expectations for SHM going forward. From my daily conversations with the Sony Group and with people outside the company, I sense the widespread sense of anticipation. What kind of vehicle that will emerge when Sony and Honda combine their strengths? I keenly await the realization of a vehicle that fulfills these expectations. Of course, as the Sony Group we will provide as much support as possible.

Hiroki Totoki, President, COO and CFO, SGC (center) with Naoya Horii, Senior Vice President, SGC and Director, SHM (right)	Alongside Yasuhide Mizuno,Chairman and CEO, SHM during my visit

Totoki-san with the team at SHM (June 5)

Together with everyone at SHM (June 12)

■New Governance Structure

On June 20, we held our 106th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, where a total of 10 Directors were elected, including two new Board members. As of the same day, Shuzo Sumi and Tim Schaaff retired from their Board positions. Directors oversee our executive structure and play an important role in ensuring disciplined business management. Currently, of our eight outside Directors, four are women and four are foreign nationals, and they bring together an abundance of varied business experience, accomplishments and international backgrounds.

Yoshihiko Hatanaka has succeeded Sumi-san as the new Chairman of the Board. Hatanaka-san was appointed to Sony's Board in 2019 and supported the Chairman in his role as Vice Chairman over the past year. At Astellas Pharma, he led the merger of Fujisawa Pharmaceutical and Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical which resulted in the establishment of that company, and went on to hold positions including President and CEO, and Chairman. He also has extensive experience of global business management, including active implementation of international M&A.

Neil Hunt, former Chief Product Officer at Netflix, has a wealth of specialist expertise in areas such as computer science and cybersecurity, together with deep knowledge of the entertainment industry. William Morrow is CEO of the satellite broadcasting service DirecTV, and has also served as President of Japan Telecom and President of Vodafone Japan. He possesses multifaceted insight into the management of both global and Japanese companies.

Yoshihiko Hatanaka, Chairman of the Board	Neil Hunt, newly appointed Director	William Morrow, newly appointed Director

Sumi-san, our outgoing Chairman of the Board, previously served as President and then Chairman of the Board of Tokio Marine Holdings, Inc. and is currently Advisor to Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance. As a leader in the world of Japanese finance, he was appointed to Sony's Board of Directors in 2017, and then appointed Chairman of the Board the following year. Throughout this time, he exerted his leadership to bring together the various views of our Board members who hail from diverse backgrounds. I particularly recall the very helpful and encouraging advice he provided me in 2019, when the U.S. hedge fund Third Point proposed the realignment of our business portfolio.

Tim Schaaff joined Sony in 2005 after 14 years in media technology development at Apple, and helped to lay the groundwork for the PlayStation Network. After stepping away from the Sony Group at the end of 2012, from the following year he served as a Director for ten years, during which time he contributed through his deep knowledge of areas such as technology and information security. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to both for their valuable expertise and advice regarding Sony's management and businesses over many years.

With Shuzo Sumi (3rd from right in the front row) and Tim Schaaff (2nd from right in the same row). On the left in the front row are Shigeki Ishizuka and Natsuko Takei, who moved on from Sony at the end of March (click image to view names)

■Senior HR Leadership Meeting

The day after the General Meeting of Shareholders, the leaders of human resources for each of our businesses gathered at our headquarters in Shinagawa. I was also able to join the meeting, and spoke about the importance of human resource initiatives from a management perspective. There were further sessions with Totoki-san, John Kodera, Executive Vice President, CDO and CIO, and also Naomi Matsuoka, who was appointed Lead of Group Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) in April, and I understand that each generated lively discussion.

Naomi Matsuoka, Senior Vice President and Lead of Group Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Amidst a changing business environment, the challenges we face in terms of reexamining our work styles and places of work, and maintaining employee engagement are ever-increasing. As such, I was very encouraged to see HR leadership from across our diverse businesses share their views on initiatives to support employees, and further deepen our discussions by inviting management responsible for DE&I to participate in this meeting for the first time.

Totoki-san shared his belief that people are the most important asset in business growth, and discussed wide-ranging themes including the evolution of diversity, Group-wide collaboration and work-life balance	Kodera-san introduced a DX project to support value creation and the acceleration of collaboration across the Sony Group, and exchanged opinions and engaged in discussion about the project from an HR perspective

In Matsuoka-san's session, while revisiting the roots of the diversity that has existed since the company's founding, the team exchanged views on the challenges facing each business and future strategies for collaboration	After I shared my views on the importance of human resource initiatives, we had a dialogue about the significance of diversity in terms of both our business and employees within the Sony Group

Together with the HR and DE&I leadership team (click image to view names)

As always, I look forward to receiving your thoughts and feedback.