Following the approval of JERA Asia Private Limited’s investment in Aboitiz Power Corporation, JERA Asia CEO Toshiro Kudama took his seat in the board of the country’s largest power generator.

Kudama is scheduled to take his seat this Wednesday, based on AboitizPower’s disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday. He takes over from Mikel Aboitiz, who resigned as director.

The Japanese executive began his professional career at Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. (TEPCO) in 1982, eventually working at its office in Washington, DC. Maximizing his engineering background and international management skills, Kudama led TEPCO’s overseas businesses in executive positions in the company’s International Affairs Department for decades.

TEPCO, through subsidiary TEPCO Fuel & Power, owns 50% of JERA.

Kudama also worked for global organizations, including the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development and the International Energy Agency, both based in Paris.

In 2016, he joined JERA and took the post of Chief Power Development Officer and Senior EVP in charge of diverse energy projects including offshore wind power, liquefied natural gas liquification, and state-of-the-art storage battery projects in different markets. To date, he has engaged in investments of over 30 projects in 14 countries with a total value of around $3 billion.

Aboitiz Equity Ventures, AboitizPower’s parent firm, first announced JERA’s $1.58 billion investment in late September. AboitizPower and JERA are expected to collaborate in the development of renewable energy (RE) and liquefied natural gas projects in the country.

Back in August, AboitizPower said it would invest Php190 billion to increase its RE capacity to half of its generation portfolio by 2030.