The company also plans to propose Rob Hale, a partner at ValueAct, as a director, a move that will need approval at its June shareholder meeting – and which is also part of its efforts to strengthen global governance. And it will “seek advice from ValueAct” over filling two additional director slots, according to the news agency.

“The governance changes Olympus announced today will better enable the board to support and supervise management in their implementation of Olympus's strategy to become a global leader in the medical technology industry," Hale said, according to Reuters.

As part of the announced moves, Vice President Yasuo Takeuchi will also be elevated to CEO on April 1, while present chief, Hiroyuki Sasa, will become a board director at that time.

“The Transform initiatives we are announcing today are the culmination of the multiyear effort to rebuild Olympus led by Hiroyuki Sasa when he became CEO in 2012 after a highly challenging period,” Takeuchi said in a statement.

In December, 2018, Olympus Medical Systems was in the news when it reached a final plea deal with the U.S. Department of Justice over its errors filing and supplementing Medical Device Reports for its TJF-Q180V duodenoscopes concerning infections linked to the device, and to selling the device during that period.

The company, in a statement, “acknowledged that it failed to submit two required supplemental MDRs and one initial MDR” to the FDA over the problems with the devices that led to a rash of patient illnesses from 2012 to 2014, some of which proved fatal.

Former Olympus senior executive Hisao Yabe also pleaded guilty to distributing misbranded devices, and could get a year in prison at his scheduled sentencing March 27, according to Reuters.

“Olympus deeply regrets its failure to file and supplement the MDRs identified in the plea agreement and accepts full responsibility for these failures,” Sasa said at the time.

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