Hitachi Vantara, the data storage, infrastructure and hybrid cloud management subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., announced that Akinobu Shimada, President of Hitachi Vantara Japan, has been appointed CEO of Hitachi Vantara, effective April 1, 2026. Shimada will succeed Sheila Rohra, who will resign from Hitachi Vantara for personal reasons on March 31, 2026.
Sheila joined Hitachi Vantara in February 2023 with over 20 years of leadership in technology companies. She sharpened the company’s strategic focus and accelerated growth. Under her leadership, the company improved profitability while delivering revenue growth and advancing innovation in data infrastructure. This included the expansion of storage technology platforms, the launch of Hitachi iQ to power AI-ready infrastructure solutions, and strategic alliances with NVIDIA and Supermicro to accelerate AI and hybrid cloud adoption. Sheila also forged broader ecosystem partnerships, laying a strong foundation to extend the value of Hitachi Vantara to a wider global customer base.
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As she steps down from her role, the company thanks Sheila for her leadership, strategic vision, and lasting contributions to the organization.
“I am incredibly proud of the meaningful progress we have made in strengthening our data infrastructure portfolio and delivering trusted, high-value solutions to customers around the globe,” said Rohra. “As I step into my next chapter, I have full confidence that Shimada-san’s leadership and vision will propel Hitachi Vantara into its next phase of growth, helping clients build the resilient, trusted data foundation essential for AI and mission–critical workloads.”
Akinobu Shimada, who will serve as the new CEO and will also continue as President of Hitachi Vantara Japan, has spent more than 30 years with Hitachi, leading key initiatives in business strategy, technical strategy, and product strategy and development for storage and related hardware and software businesses. Most recently, as Global Executive and President of Hitachi Vantara Japan, he has contributed to advancing the company’s data infrastructure services business globally, with storage at its core. With a career firmly rooted in Hitachi’s storage business, he has been instrumental in driving its evolution—building foundational strengths that define mission–critical reliability and resilience, together with a strategic approach to data innovation that has reshaped how data is managed and elevated it to a new level of enterprise value.
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“In recent years, as customers face increasingly complex and mission–critical data management challenges, expectations for trusted data infrastructure—and for Hitachi Vantara in particular—have continued to grow across industries,” said Shimada. “It is an honor to take on the role of CEO at such a critical moment. By growing together with our teams and uniting the insight, expertise, and passion of our people across the globe, I am committed to building the world’s most trusted data infrastructure and delivering meaningful value to our customers and their most critical initiatives.”
“Akinobu Shimada has powerfully led the IT infrastructure business in the age of AI by merging Japan’s highly reliable engineering and manufacturing technology with a fast-paced, agile business approach from overseas,” said Jun Abe, Executive Vice President and Executive Officer, Hitachi, Ltd. “I am confident that his leadership is essential for our future global growth and is critically important for the Hitachi Group to achieve a ‘true One Hitachi’ with digital at its core, and to sustainably accelerate our global growth. I would also like to express my gratitude to Sheila for her immense contributions to both Hitachi and Hitachi Vantara, and I wish her continued success in her future endeavors.”
