CMIC Holdings Eliminated Executive Titles and Consolidated Authority Into One Person After Its Founder Died.

On December 23, 2025, CMIC Holdings announced it would discontinue the titles of Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer, effective immediately. The company said the change followed the passing of its founder and Chairman, Kazuo Nakamura. Keiko Oishi, who had been President and COO since April 2018, became President and Representative Director, the sole operating title at the C-suite level.

This was a structural reversal. In 2018, when Nakamura stepped back from day-to-day operations, the company had deliberately split the roles. Nakamura kept the CEO title (strategy, board accountability, long-term vision). Oishi took the President and COO title (business execution, daily operations, managing division heads). The split meant Nakamura could think about the next acquisition while Oishi managed what was already running. They could push back against each other.

After Nakamura's death, that structure became redundant. The board could have appointed a new CEO to own strategy and hired a new COO to handle operations. Instead, it chose to eliminate both titles and give one person all the operational and strategic responsibility.

Oishi now reports directly to a Board that includes five new members appointed just weeks earlier, on December 1. She owns business execution, strategy development, M&A, and international operations. The Board includes a CFO, a CHRO, and a Chief Business Execution officer, but none of them have the president title. None of them can say no in the way a co-equal CEO or COO once could.

The company framed it as simplification. What it was, structurally, was centralization. When one person holds all titles, there is no peer who can credibly object before the decision reaches the board.

What I would look for: whether Oishi stays in the President role when her term comes up for renewal, or whether the board separates the titles again. Whether the new board members actually scrutinize her decisions or function as a rubber stamp now that Nakamura is gone.

The bigger lesson: founder death changes not just who decides, but how many people have to agree before decisions move forward.