Japanese shareholders approve new Olympus board

The shareholders of scam-hit Japanese camera and imaging systems major Olympus Corporation on Friday approved the choice of Yasuyuki Kimoto, a former executive of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, as chairman and Hiroyuki Sasa, who headed marketing for Olympus's medical business, as its new president.

In the extraordinary general meeting held in Tokyo, the company had also nominated a new 11-member board after all of its previous members quit in the wake of an accounting scandal.

The scam became public in October last year after it had admitted to hiding $1.5 billion (£1 billion) in losses for as long as 20 years.

''The new management will implement a new structure to fundamentally overhaul and improve our system of governance'', Sasa said in a press release adding that his immediate priority was to ''fix the damaged brand and win back trust as soon as possible''.

''By working together with the new management, I plan to do my best to rebuild trust and improve the firm's value,'' he said.

However, Michael C Woodford, the sacked chief executive officer who blew the lid on the scandal, has threatened to have the results annulled.