Maki Akaida

The 40-year old senior vice president of Uniqlo’s parent company, Fast Retailing, has spent most of her working life with the group, joining in 2001 and overseeing operations at high-demand stores across China and Japan. In June, Akaida took over as CEO of Fast Retailing’s most profitable unit, Uniqlo Japan, which generated $1.11 billion in profit for 2018. With nearly twenty years of experience leading some of the group’s most profitable stores, Akaida is a prime candidate to take over as group CEO when founder Tadashi Yanai, who says he wants a woman to replace him, decides to step down.

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