[/floatl]WSJ: Nomura Turns to a Foreigner From Lehman
Nomura Holdings Inc. has admitted a foreigner into its top decision-making body in a bid to globalize the culture of the Japanese firm. The move also aims to retain former Lehman Brothers bankers brought on board after the U.S. firm collapsed in 2008. Japan's largest investment bank by revenue said Wednesday that it has restored former Lehman Brothers executive Jasjit "Jesse" Bhattal to a position of power, making him the first foreigner to take a seat on Nomura's 10-person executive-management board in charge of strategy and the group's budget...more...
All the articles I've seen are calling Bhattal the first foreigner to be appointed to the main board. In a technical sense, it's true because "Nomura Holdings" was only set up in 2001. However, in the broader sense of a foreigner serving on the main board of the key Nomura company, then Max Chapman predates Bhattal by 20 years. Chapman was CEO of Nomura USA and then invited to join the Tokyo board in 1990:
Chapman was talked up a great deal at the time. Institutional Investor ran a story with the headline "Goin' Gaijin" which spoke about the new freedom being given to local employees at Japanese companies. However, although Max had a good run, he was out by 1999 after Japanese managers had eventually succeeded in taking back control.
