The Front Office

Scouting report · 8604.T

Kentaro Okuda

  • Director, Representative Executive Officer, President & Group CEO; Representative Director & President of Nomura Securities, 8604.T since 2020-04src

Nomura investment banker since 1987; President & Group CEO since April 2020

—thin record

Not ranked yet

Scouting sheet

as of 24 Sep 2026
Delivers guidance—no promises on the record yet
Answers the question—no call reviewed yet
Capital allocation—company not reviewed yet
Pay design80revenue, margin, eps, roe, tsr, strategic · 0.45% of net income
Skin in the game—no holding or price on file
In the role
6 yr
Promises scored
0
Hit rate
—
Dodges / 100 answers
—
Airtime on calls
—
Every promise, oldest firstno scored promises yet

What to weigh

Red flag 1

  • Nomura took about $2.9bn of losses on Archegos, the first of them in March 2021, a year into his tenure as CEOsrc

Watch 5

  • Autumn 2024: the FSA found JGB futures manipulation by a Nomura trader on one day in March 2021; he returned 20% of his pay for two monthssrc
  • Late 2024: a former Nomura Securities employee was charged with robbing and trying to kill a client; he returned 30% of his pay for three months and nine other officers 20-30%src
  • Pay more than tripled in two years, from ¥506.0m (FY ended March 2024) to ¥1,644.6m (FY2026); the 20-F says performance-linked pay was raised because pre-tax income hit ¥539.8bn and ROE 10.1%src
  • The annual bonus is set against KPI targets and then adjusted by qualitative evaluation and competitor benchmarking; the 20-F lists the KPIs but gives no target values or weightssrc
  • Holds 0.017% of the company per the yuho, about ¥0.8bn at the ¥4.88tn market cap IRBANK shows for 2026-09-18 (computed here), roughly half of his FY2026 paysrc

In their favour 1

  • The long-term PSU pays out only on three-year average ROE (8% target, zero below 3% or the three-year low) and absolute three-year TSR (125% target, zero at 100% or below), each 50%src

Career

  1. 2021-06 – now
    Nomura Holdings / Nomura Securitiessrc
    Director, Representative Executive Officer, President & Group CEO; Representative Director & President of Nomura Securities
  2. 2020-04 – 2021-06
    Nomura Holdings / Nomura Securitiessrc
    Representative Executive Officer, President & Group CEO (director from 2020-06); Representative Director of Nomura Securities
  3. 2019-04 – 2020-04
    Nomura Holdingssrc
    Executive Officer, Deputy President & Group Co-COO
  4. 2018-04 – 2019-04
    Nomura Holdings / Nomura Securitiessrc
    Executive Officer & Group Co-COO; Director & Deputy President of Nomura Securities; CEO of Nomura Holding America
    The yuho title for March 2018 adds Head of the Americas, based in New York (IRB-OKU)
  5. 2017-04 – 2018-04
    Nomura Holdings / Nomura Securities / Nomura Holding Americasrc
    Senior Managing Director; EVP of Nomura Securities; CEO of Nomura Holding America
  6. 2015-04 – 2017-04
    Nomura Holdings / Nomura Securitiessrc
    Senior Managing Director; Executive Vice President of Nomura Securities (Executive Officer from 2016-04)
  7. 2012-08 – 2015-04
    Nomura Holdings / Nomura Securitiessrc
    Senior Corporate Managing Director (Senior Managing Director of the holding company from 2013-04)
  8. 2010-04 – 2012-08
    Nomura Securitiessrc
    Senior Managing Director (Senior Corporate Managing Director from 2012-04)
  9. 2008-06 – 2010-04
    Nomura Securitiessrc
    Managing Director, Global Head of M&A
  10. 2007-07 – 2008-06
    Nomura Holdings / Nomura Securitiessrc
    Managing Director, Corporate Planning Department
  11. 2006-04 – 2007-07
    Nomura Securitiessrc
    Managing Director, Investment Banking Department 4
  12. 1987-04 – 2006-04
    Nomura Securitiessrc
    Joined

Not located: 1987-2006: the filings give only the joining date and the 1992 Wharton MBA, not his roles in those years. The filings give corporate titles, not the business lines he ran from 2010 to 2017

Achievements

  • Nomura lifer since April 1987; an investment banker (Global Head of M&A from 2008) who ran Nomura Holding America before becoming Group Co-COO in 2018 and Group CEO in April 2020src
  • Net income attributable to shareholders went from ¥165.9bn (FY ended March 2024) to ¥340.7bn (FY2025) and ¥362.1bn (FY2026)src
  • FY ended March 2026: net revenue ¥2,167.7bn, pre-tax income ¥539.8bn, EPS ¥118.99, ROE 10.1%, inside the 8-10%+ ROE target the pay plan measuressrc
  • Closed the acquisition of Macquarie Management Holdings and two sister Macquarie asset-management entities on 2025-12-01; the 20-F names asset-management growth one of the group's prioritiessrc

Education

  • Keio University, BA Economics (1987)src
  • The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, MBA (1992)src

Background

  • Family Family relationships among officers were not reached: the 20-F Item 6.A table does not address them, IRBANK's copy of the yuho table does not show that column, and the yuho itself is out of reachsrc
  • Other The 20-F gives a date of birth rather than an age, so no age is recorded heresrc
  • Other Press at his appointment described him as the first Nomura leader drawn from outside the core domestic brokerage businesssrc
  • Other Holds both the group CEO post and the presidency of the main operating subsidiary, Nomura Securities (since June 2021)src

The promise ledger

No promise on the record yet: the research routine has not scored this company's guidance.

Sources

10
  1. Filing Nomura Holdings 20-F for the FY ended 2026-03-31 (accession 0001193125-26-277134): Item 6.A officer table, Item 6.B pay, Item 6.E shareholdings, selected financial data · 2026-06-22
  2. Filing Nomura Holdings 20-F for the FY ended 2025-03-31 (accession 0001193125-25-144222): Item 6.B individual pay table · 2025-06-23
  3. Filing Nomura Holdings 20-F for the FY ended 2024-03-31 (accession 0001193125-24-168473): Item 6.B individual pay table · 2024-06-26
  4. Filing Nomura Holdings 6-K, 'Nomura Announces Management Changes' (accession 0001193125-19-303701): Okuda named Group CEO from 2020-04-01, with his education and career from 1987 · 2019-12-02
  5. Web search result IRBANK officer page for 奥田健太郎 (E03752): copies the yuho officer table (career 略歴, title and shares held by year, 2018-2026) and the ≥¥100m individual pay from the 第122期 yuho (FY 2025-04-01 to 2026-03-31) · 2026-09-24
  6. Web search result IRBANK pay page (E03752): copies the yuho's per-category officer pay and the ≥¥100m individual totals, FY ended March 2014 to March 2026 · 2026-09-24
  7. Web search result WebSearch: Nomura CEO pay cut, bond market manipulation (Fortune, 2024-11-03; summary: Okuda voluntarily returned 20% of his pay for two months after the FSA found JGB futures manipulation by a Nomura trader on one day in March 2021) · 2026-09-24
  8. Web search result WebSearch: Nomura cuts CEO Kentaro Okuda pay after ex-worker charged with robbery (Fortune, 2024-12-03; summary: Okuda returned 30% of his pay for three months, nine other directors and executives 20-30%) · 2026-09-24
  9. Web search result WebSearch: Nomura reports $2.9 billion hit as total losses from Archegos collapse climb past $10 billion (Forbes, 2021-04-27; summary: $2.3bn/¥245.7bn booked in the Jan-Mar 2021 quarter, about $572m/¥62bn more in the FY ended March 2022) · 2026-09-24
  10. Web search result WebSearch: The Japan Times, 'Nomura CEO Kentaro Okuda's honeymoon ends with $2 billion Archegos losses', 2021-03-31 (summary: the first Nomura leader drawn from outside the core domestic brokerage business) · 2026-09-24