Yoshiaki “Aki” Ito

Senior Advisor

Aki Ito is a Senior Advisor in DHR Global’s Tokyo office where he leads business transformation initiatives to support major Japanese companies operating internationally through strategy and management consulting.

Known as a transformation leader and change agent, Aki is an expert at driving growth and leading the turnaround of various Fortune 500 companies such as The Coca-Cola Company, Dell, Lenovo, Adidas, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Haier. Aki has extensive experience in managing businesses in Asia Pacific and North America, having turned around or greatly increased the performance of every organization he has led. A Japanese national, Aki was born and raised in Thailand and received his higher education in the U.S. His cross-border background and diverse experience add a blend of foreign and familiar to his business approach.

Aki founded and led a management consulting firm X-TANK Consulting which specializes in turnaround and business transformation initiatives for Japan Inc. Prior to that, Aki was CEO of Haier Asia Group where he was responsible for US$1.2 billion in P&L and 6,400 employees with a mission to turn around the former home appliance giant, Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. Under his leadership, and in the first year of his appointment, Haier Asia Group recorded a fiscal-year profit for the first time in 15 years.

Aki graduated from Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona, U.S., with a Master of Business Administration and a Master of International Management.

Consultants