Skills Matrix of Directors

The skill items required for directors and the reasons for their selection

Overview

To realize our corporate philosophy, we have set the necessary knowledge, experience, and capabilities as skill items based on management strategies such as the Kurita Group's value creation story and medium-term management plan.
The skill items are largely divided into two categories. One is corporate governance and management, under which three skill items of "corporate management and corporate planning," "finance and accounting," and "legal and HR management" are set as basic elements that are particularly essential. The other is about creating shared value with society by providing solutions that make full use of "water knowledge,"which is obtained by leveraging diversity^*1 of human resources and other elements. To drive this initiative, we have set six skill items of "human rights," "global," "understanding and solving issues on site," "R&D, technology, and engineering," "digital transformation (DX)," and "environment."
We believe that our Board of Directors should possess these nine items of skills for oversight of management.

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	full name	Corporate governance and management			Leveraging diversity ▶ Making full use of water knowledge ▶ Creating social value
	full name	Corporate management Management planning	Financial and accounting	Legal and HR resources	Human rights	Global	Understanding and solving issues on site	R&D, technology, and engineering	DX	Environmental
Director	Michiya Kadota	◎	◎	○	○	○	◎^*2	-	-	○
	Hirohiko Ejiri	◎	-	-	◎	○	◎	◎	◎	○
	Shuji Shirode	○	◎	-	-	◎	-	-	-	◎
	Yukihiko Mutou	○	◎	◎	○	-	-	-	-	-
	Kenjiro Kobayashi(external)	◎	◎	-	-	◎	-	-	-	-
	Keiko Tanaka(external)	○	-	◎	○	◎	-	-	-	-
	Masahiro Miyazaki (external)	◎	◎	◎	-	◎	-	-	-	-
	Yoshiko Takayama (external)	◎	○	-	-	◎	-	-	-	-

Among the knowledge and experience of each director, those with ○ are fields where they have strength while ◎ indicates an area where they are especially promising.

*1 The "diversity" means the variety of elements that form "diverse points of contact with sites" that are the source of the Kurita Group's competitiveness, such as contact points with customers, business fields, business development areas countries, and technology fields, in addition to human resources.
*2 "Understanding and solving issues on site" is a skill item expected of Internal Directors. Those who have experience as president are marked with a ◎ because they have sufficient skills in "Understanding and solving issues on site" as supervisors based on their experience in supervising an entire company.

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High-level concepts	Skills	Reason for appointment
Corporate governance and management	Corporate management/ Management planning, finance/accounting, legal affairs/ Human resources	These are regarded as the skills, knowledge, and experience that provide a foundation for conducting management oversight.
Leveraging diversity▼ Making full use of water knowledge ▼ Creating social value	Human rights	In developing its business globally, the Kurita Group encounters diverse working environments, business customs, and trading practices, and there is a need to engage in business activities while respecting the human rights of stakeholders. To this end, the Group has defined a basic materiality theme as "Conduct business activities respecting human rights." The Group is promoting initiatives to ensure respect for the human rights of employees, suppliers and other stakeholders in the countries and regions where it conducts business. The Group also recognizes the importance of leveraging diversity in human resources as a foundation for innovation and as a source of value creation leading to sustainable growth. "Human rights" has thus been selected as a skill category for Board oversight of management due to its importance as a management issue.
	Global	To accelerate global business development, the Kurita Group is working to speed up the development of products and services tailored to local and regional market characteristics. The category "Global" represents a level of international experience and understanding of these regions and countries. We see it as one of the essential elements in cultivating the "diverse points of contact with sites" that constitute a source of the Group's competitive advantage. "Nominating Committee" has been selected as a skill category for Board oversight of management because we consider a deep knowledge of global markets as essential for developing business globally and increasing corporate value.
	Understanding and solving issues on-site	The Kurita Group delivers solutions addressing water-related issues at the sites of various customers worldwide. At "diverse points of contact with sites," we engage seriously with customers’ issues, utilizing our "water knowledge" in the form of accumulated information and data to create proprietary and innovative solutions. We see this as the source of shared value creation with customers and society. This area has been selected as a skill category for Board oversight of management because we value having a deep understanding of the points of contact with customer sites as a source of value creation, alongside extensive experience of addressing such issues.
	R&D, technology, and engineering	The Kurita Group combines technology and expertise acquired from various business domains to create new products, services, and technologies. Amid significant recent changes in the external environment, we consider ensuring customer business continuity to be one area where we can provide added value. Accordingly, we have reviewed our methods of product, service, and technology delivery and the procurement and production set-up to improve our cost competitiveness and production capacity. Because we see strengthening of development, technology, and production as a key platform for creating and providing solutions, this area has been selected as a skill category for Board oversight of management.
	DX	The Kurita Group aims to achieve DX by utilizing digital technology to change business processes and to transform business models. "DX" has been selected as a skill category for Board oversight of management since we consider it a priority for the deployment of digital tools, AI, and IoT, and for the utilization of information and data collected from diverse customer sites as "water knowledge," resulting in creation of innovative shared value with customers and society.
	Environmental	The three shared value themes that the Kurita Group has defined as the Kurita Group’s Materiality are "Solve issues related to water resources," "Contribute to the realization of a decarbonized society," and "Contribute to building a circular economy society." These are priority issues that we seek to address. We have defined as "CSV business" the Group products, technologies and business models that significantly contribute to water saving, the reduction of GHG emissions and resource input, and the recycling of resources compared with prior levels. We are working to create shared value with society via their development and provision to customers. ‘Environment’ has been selected as a skill category for Board oversight of management because we regard it as part of our mission to reduce environmental impact through our business activities.