NTT Comms' New Chief Likes the Fast Lane

NTT Communications has a new president and CEO, 60-year-old Tetsuya Shoji, who starts in his new role today. He takes over from Akira Arima, 65, who had been president and CEO for five years.

The appointment, part of a broader management reshuffle at the international operator, is worth noting for a couple of reasons.

First, NTT Communications Corp. (NYSE: NTT) is arguably the most aggressive international cloud and connectivity services provider out there: It has been using its M&A power to expand within and beyond Asia, particularly in Europe, and has been at the forefront of introducing cutting-edge networking technology over the past few years. (See NTT Offers On-Demand Services Via Portal and NTT Comm to Open Mega Data Center in India.)

Its major international push began in 2010 when it spent more than $3 billion buying enterprise services and systems integration specialist Dimension Data, a move that Light Reading described as highly significant for the international services sector at the time. (See NTT Splashes $3.2B on DiData and DiData Deal Spells Bad News for SIs.)

Since then it has made a series of targeted acquisitions, particularly in Europe: Only a few months ago it acquired a majority stake in German data center firm e-shelter for $830 million, a move that made NTT Comms the third-largest data center operator in Europe. (See NTT Making Aggressive Data Center Push.)

So Shoji, who for the past three years has held the role of senior executive vice president and director of NTT Comms, is now in charge of a massive global player -- reporting revenues in the fiscal year to March 2015 of $16.2 billion -- that has built a reputation as a fast-moving innovator. Can he keep up the pace?

Well, consider this. He already has a message for his customers on the NTT Comms website, which includes one of his favorite mottos (attributed to F1 racing driver Mario Andretti): "If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough."

Don't expect NTT Comms to make a pit stop any time soon.

— Ray Le Maistre, , Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading