Hiroshi Yamauchi

Hiroshi Yamauchi (born November 7, 1927) was the third president of Nintendo Co, Ltd., from 1949 until 2002, when he declared Satoru Iwata his successor. He remains Chairman of Nintendo's Board of Directors, and is 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. His persistence in marketing the Robotic Operating Buddy (ROB) with the Nintendo Entertainment System allowed Nintendo to revitalize the dying video game market following the Crash of 1983.