Hiroshi Yamauchi

Hiroshi Yamauchi (山内博, November 7, 1927 - September 19, 2013) was the third president of Nintendo Co, Ltd., from 1949 until 2002, when he declared Satoru Iwata his successor. He was Chairman of Nintendo's Board of Directors, and was the third richest man in Japan. During his nearly sixty years in office, Hiroshi changed Nintendo's focus from a small hanafuda playing card company into a leading video game developer. He assisted in the production of Donkey Kong, and supported the development of nearly all of Nintendo's games, including the Mario games.

The last console created by Yamauchi was the Nintendo Gamecube, which was released in 2001.

His persistence in marketing the Robotic Operating Buddy (R.O.B.) with the Nintendo Entertainment System allowed Nintendo to revitalize the dying video game market following the video game crash of 1983.