Kazuo Inamori

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Kazuo Inamori (right) at the Crowne Plaza Cabana, in Palo Alto, CA.

Kazuo Inamori (稲盛和夫 Inamori Kazuo) (born 1932 in Kagoshima, Japan) is a Japanese businessman and the founder of Kyocera Corporation.

[edit] Biography

He graduated from Kagoshima University in 1955. In 1959, at age 27, he established Kyocera Corporation, which has grown into a multinational high-tech conglomerate employing over 30,000 people, supplying a wide range of products including cellular phones and cameras.

In 1984, he founded DDI Corporation (currently called KDDI), which is now Japan's second largest telecommunications network.

Using his own funds, he established the Inamori Foundation in 1984. A large endowment from the foundation backs the Nobel-class Kyoto Prizes: international awards that honor significant contributors to humanity in the fields of Advanced Technology, Basic Sciences, and Arts and Philosophy.

He has been ordained as a Zen Buddhist priest and remains the guiding force behind all aspects of his international empire.

As an entrepreneurial visionary, his commitments include technological and social innovation, solving urgent world problems, and "contributing to the material and spiritual happiness of humanity and society". He has received honorary doctorates from several universities in the U.S., the U.K., and Japan.