Advantest holding firm seen springboard for U.S

Electronic News, July 14, 1997 by Chad Fasca

Each company will be a wholly-owned subsidiary under the new structure and will report separately to the newly-formed holding company. Advantest also reported that Nicholas Konidaris has been named president, CEO and chairman of AAI. Mr. Konidaris has also been named CEO of the newly created Advantest America Corp.

The creation of AAC is a sign from Advantest that the company has set its sights on the U.S. market and could be preparing itself for even bigger steps in America. As Mr. Konidaris explains, "A holding company provides the framework of an adoptive organization and a dynamic organization that will allow if we want to unfold a new operating company, you could do so without changing the organizational structure," he said.

Another reason for creating the holding company, according to Mr. Konidaris, is that the holding company will serve as a bridge between the American sales and American research arms of Advantest, creating an integrated company with distribution and development pulled together.

Advantest has now set the stage for a second act in its business history in America. According to Mr. Konidaris, the company spent between 15 and 20 years through its first act engaging in growing up to what Mr. Konidaris considers a form of adulthood. And if the establishment of Advantest America Corp. makes one thing clear,"it is a signal that the American market is very important to Advantest and that Advantest is committed to broaden and to deepen its share of the ATE market in the U.S.," said Mr. Konidaris.

Mr. Konidaris did not go into any further details about Advantest's plans for U.S. growth, but implied in his statements is that the value of this holding company is as an enabler for expansion. "This change is not going to change our basic method of doing business; however, (it opens) plans to enhance it, to focus more of our resources in more specific ways in the American market." said Mr. Konidaris. He mentioned that Advantest plans to double the company in the next four years as part of the company's "Excellence 21" strategy, a four-year program implemented to increase market responsiveness and speed the introduction of advanced technologies.

In taking his new position, Mr. Konidaris succeeds Robert Oakley at AAI, with whom he worked closely as AAI's strategic business manager. Mr. Oakley will assume the staff director position at AAC and participate in special projects. Other officers of the new holding company include Hiroji Agata, president; Stephen Wuttke, secretary; and David Rebmann, CFO. The board of the holding company, AAC, will be Hiroshi Oura, chairman; Toshio Maruyama, vice chairman; Messrs. Konidaris and Agata; and Shigery Sugamori. The company will further reorganize its middle management ranks, with those announcements to come soon.

Mr. Sugamori was named president, CEO and chairman of ARDC. He was previously a managing director and GM of logic test system development in Japan. He replaces Hiromi Maruyama, who returns to Japan to assume what Mr. Konidaris described as "a major role in Japan involving Advantest's plans for a major expansion."