Satoru Iwata

Satoru Iwata|岩田 聡|Iwata Satoru|extra=born December 6, 1959}} is a Japanese businessman and the fourth president and CEO of Nintendo Co., Ltd., and CEO of Nintendo of America. When he worked as a programmer at HAL Laboratory in his early career he was considered to be a "genius programmer".Citation needed|date=April 2014 He joined Nintendo in 2000, and succeeded Hiroshi Yamauchi as the company's president in May 2002. Barron's Magazine named Iwata one of the world's top CEOs, due mostly to the Wii sales, as well as Nintendo's increased stock price. He is the first Nintendo president who is unrelated to the Yamauchi family through blood or marriage.

Biography

Early life
Satoru Iwata was born and raised in Sapporo, Japan. He expressed interest in the creation of video games early on, and began producing electronic games at his home during his high school years. The several simple number games Iwata produced made use of an electronic calculator he shared with his schoolmates. Following high school, Iwata was admitted to the Tokyo Institute of Technology, where he majored in computer science. While attending the school, he did freelance work for HAL Laboratory, Inc., a subsidiary of Nintendo, as a programmer.

Career
thumb|Satoru Iwata presenting a Wii console prototype at Nintendo's 2005 E3 press conference

After completing college, Iwata joined HAL Laboratory in a full-time capacity. Iwata was eventually promoted to president of HAL in 1993. As one of his first changes as CEO of Nintendo of America, Iwata decided that they wouldn't hold large press conferences at E3, and instead have several smaller events, each aimed at a certain demographic.{{cite web|last=Goldfarb|first=Andrew|title=No Nintendo Press Conference at E3 2013|url=>