Visions - Summer 2007 - (Page 3)

Executive View Meet SCOA’s New President & CEO Michihisa Shinagawa Having been here for a couple months, what are your impressions of living in the U.S.? How do you like New York City? Until now, I’d spent only four weeks in the United States, visiting Washington, Houston, Memphis, and New York. That is not enough time for me to form a good impression about life in the United States. America is an enormous country, with three hours time difference from the East to the West coasts and thousands of miles in between. And as for New York, my basic impression is that it’s not a city, but a country, a big country. It’s different from other cities in the U.S. and also different from other world cities, like Tokyo, London, and the various Asian and European cities. New York is vast, with many cultures and energies – I am very excited to be living here. You spent 7 years in London as Manager of the Petroleum & Carbon Department. How did you like living in London? What are some of the lessons you learned about business while in that position? Market risk and regional, even global risk, needs to be predicted as far as possible, and then evaluated to help determine the best strategy to implement on a shortterm and long-term basis. You headed up the Mineral Resources and Energy Business Unit for two years before being appointed President and CEO of SCOA. How do you feel your experience prepared you for your new position? I lived in London from 1981-1987, and I really enjoyed the business as well as private life with my family. At that time, London was the global center of oil trading with which I was deeply involved. The main market was Japan; it was an emerging market at that time, like China nowadays, and we had a lot of crude oil and product going to Japan. Among the many things I learned while in London was that business has a lot of risk built into it, and that risk cannot be avoided if we want to make money. As they say, “no risk, no reward.” Rather than being shy and avoiding risk, the key is managing the risk. Business is always changing, and with changes in business come changes in the kinds and degree of risk involved. Market risk and regional, even global risk, needs to be predicted as far as possible, and then evaluated to help determine the best strategy to implement on a short-term and long-term basis. We must hedge the risk and be quick to change course based on market changes. In London, we were always thinking about what may happen tomorrow, and at the same time we positioned ourselves for long-term gains. Of course, it’s sometimes hard to do, but we should give it our best effort each time. Actually, I like to think that my entire career at SC has helped to prepare me for this new challenge. Yes, I was responsible for Mineral Resources and Energy for almost three years. And at that time, Sumitomo was trailing other trading companies like Mitsui and Mitsubishi in my business area. I wasn’t sure how we could catch up, though I thought the best strategy might be through gradual expansion of our business activities, especially mining. We developed a business plan and got company approval to invest a large amount of money in upstream mining such as copper, oil and gas field, coal, and more recently, uranium, iron ore, zinc, silver, and nickel. And all along, we continuously estimated profit and monitored the risk contained in the venture. Now SC is very diverse in mineral resources. I really enjoyed the process of helping develop Sumitomo’s mineral resources business. Although it is very early in your tenure, do you have any idea of the direction or business strategy you intend to pursue as President & CEO of SCOA? Are there any business areas in particular where you think SCOA should be focusing its efforts? SCOA has a success record in many areas, and especially so in several business units. I would like to continue that track record by improving on what is working so well, and at the same time nurturing those areas of the business that need a little more help. Of course, I’m still discovering the depth and breadth of the company and its subsidiaries, and that discovery process is one of the very exciting aspects of this new assignment. I’ve got a lot to learn. Over the years, SCOA has carefully built a solid portfolio of investments in businesses that have a strategic synergy with our core businesses. What are your thoughts on the further expansion of SCOA’s Group Company network? TBC was the largest acquisition that we have made so far. What are your thoughts on future acquisitions? Do you have any thoughts or comments you would like to make about any of SCOA’s current subsidiaries? continued on page 4 of America Sumitomo Corporation New York is vast, with many cultures and energies – I am very excited to be living here. 3

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Visions - Summer 2007

Contents Meet SCOA’s New President & CEO SCOA Delivers First APMs to Washington Dulles International Airport SC Minerals America to Mine Alaskan Gold Trade Show Marketing Stimulates SCOA Business Unique Machine Gets Dual Quality Certifications SCOA & HSSSI: Big Players in Next Phase of NASA Space Exploration

Visions - Summer 2007

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