Toshiba America President Promoted, Going to Tokyo

Atsutoshi Nishida, who presided over the comeback of Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. in recent years, has been promoted and will return to the parent company’s headquarters in Tokyo.

Shunki Yatsunami will succeed Nishida as president of the Irvine notebook computer company. Yatsunami had been responsible for Toshiba’s copier business.

Toshiba’s Irvine operations, which have 1,600 employees, include sales, distribution and assembly plants for portable computers and electronic components.

Nishida, who will head Toshiba Corp.’s worldwide computer division, was named to lead the North American division in 1992 at a time when the company’s market share was slipping and the company had laid off nearly 500 workers.

Although Toshiba remained the world’s largest maker of notebook computers during those years, new models from competitors such as NEC Corp. and Compaq Computer Corp. had cut Toshiba’s market share almost in half to 12% by 1992, according to figures from Dataquest Inc. a San Jose-based market research company.

In response, Nishida instituted price cuts and new distribution arrangements that helped Toshiba regain some of its market share, other executives said.