Satoru Iwata ( ) (December 6, 1959 - July 11, 2015) was the 4th president and CEO of Nintendo from 2002 until his death in 2015. Prior to this he worked at HAL Laboratory as a programmer, and he served as president of that company between 1993 and 1999.

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Biography

While studying computer science at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Iwata was one of several unpaid interns at Commodore Japan, assisting the subsidiary's general manager with technical and software development tasks. Upon graduation, he joined HAL in 1982 as a programmer and helped create major games such as Balloon Fight, Kirby's Dream Land, and EarthBound. In 1993, Iwata was promoted as the president of HAL Laboratory, at the request of Hiroshi Yamauchi, then president of Nintendo.

In June 2000, he left HAL and joined Nintendo as the General Manager of the Corporate Planning Division. In this position, he helped Nintendo grow economically and as a result Hiroshi Yamauchi elected him as his successor in May 2002, becoming the 4th president of Nintendo and the first president of the company not related to the Yamauchi family.

During his tenure as presient he saw the release of the Nintendo DS, Wii, Nintendo 3DS, and Wii U systems, and he was also a significant part of Nintendo's transition into the "blue ocean" strategy, where the company would push the release of more casual and family-friendly titles (like the Touch Generations series) unlike what most rival companies did. Iwata also hosted a set of interviews with employees and game developers called Iwata Asks, and he also hosted most of the Nintendo Direct presentations.

On April 24, 2013, Iwata announced at the year end shareholders meeting that he was taking the role of CEO of Nintendo of America, alongside his duties and Global President. Former NOA CEO Tatsumi Kimishima was given the roll of Managing Director of NCL.

In June 2014, it was discovered that a tumor was growing within his bile duct and, from which, he had to undergo surgery. Although he recovered from the illness, he relapsed the following year and passed away due to complications on July 11, 2015.

Upon his passing, Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda assumed temporarily the roles of Representative Directors of the company until Tatsumi Kimishima was elected as Iwata's successor on September 16, 2015.

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