Woodford made an unprecedented move when he blew the whistle on accounting scandals at the firm.
Whistleblowing chief executive of Olympus Michael Woodford, who was fired as president and CEO back in October, has now stepped down from his position as director of the Japanese company and is planning to urge shareholders to vote some new blood onto the board.
News reports suggest that Woodford is currently assembling a team of potential candidates for a new board and is in discussions with shareholders about ousting the existing board of directors by February. He denied allegations he was considering the idea of heading up an overseas buyout, Reuters says.
In October, Woodford made an unprecedented move when he blew the whistle on accounting scandals at the 92- year old camera manufacturer. Olympus has since admitted to disguising investment losses amounting to more than $1 billion as payments made during acquisitions.
Woodford was officially fired due to his western management style but he remained a non-executive director of the company; only a resignation or a shareholders’ meeting could remove him from that position.
But the fight to regain his seat may not be easy. Woodford is about to embark on a battle against Olympus current president Shuichi Takayama who, according to reports, will be able to gather more shareholder votes. Takayama became the embattled company’s CEO and president after Tsuyoshi Kikukawa tendered his resignation in the wake of the revelations of accounting fraud.
In an effort to cure its tainted reputation and regain stability, on Tuesday Olympus announced to employees that it would set up internal teams to revamp its governance policies and make changes to its organizational structure, which Takayama will oversee.
