Our vision is that all future OLED displays, from smartwatches to TVs, will contain our knowledge and that our high performance materials will contribute to a large range of electronic applications.
Mission / Vision
Every day we all spend hours looking at various displays: smartphones, TVs or other screens. By offering Idemitsu’s comprehensive OLED technology and expertise in the field of organic electronics to customers and partners, our mission is to make your daily experience more colorful, bright and fascinating.
Working for Idemitsu in Basel
We carry out material research and development at the forefront of display technology. Working for Idemitsu in Basel is an opportunity to make a difference and contribute towards the OLED displays that millions of people will use in future generations of smartphones and televisions.
Our operations in Basel commenced in April 2017 with a team of 29 experienced chemists, physicists and technicians and is growing. Idemitsu in Basel has the feel and dynamics of a start-up with the organizational backing of a major parent corporation in Japan. Diversity is an important factor for our team. To date we have 12 nationalities represented and 40% of the workforce are female. The philosophy of our mother company's founder, Sazo Idemitsu, influences strongly our company culture.
Message from the President, Mr. Shunichi Kito
"We are an energy co-creation company that values diversity and inclusiveness, creates new values with customers and stakeholders, and seeks harmony with the environment and society". President Kito
Key Team Members
Fumiaki Tarui President
Fumiaki joined Idemitsu Kosan (Japan) in 2003 after completing his Master’s degree in Industrial Chemistry at Tokyo Metropolitan University. He was engaged in Marketing & Wholesale Section in Petroleum Marketing Department for 10 years and then was delegated to Japan Petroleum Energy Center Brussels Representative Office in Belgium as Chief Representative for 3 years. He worked in Corporate Planning Department as Executive Secretary for 2 years and at the same time he got MBA in Kenichi Ohmae Graduate School of Business. He was engaged in OLED Marketing & Sales at headquarters as a Manager for 2 years. After a short delegation to be General Manager Customer Support in Chengdu, China in 2020 and transferred to Switzerland in March 2022.
James Mills Administration Director
James moved to Basel in 2000 having overseen the Allied Colloids acquisition in North America after the purchase by Ciba Specialty Chemicals. He was a project lead for Ciba’s global SAP implementation and headed up the global transformational change management team.
Following the BASF acquisition of Ciba, he became the research controller for BASF in Switzerland. James transferred to Idemitsu in April 2017 to manage the administrative processes. James received his business degree from Nottingham Trent University and subsequently qualified with CIMA as a chartered management accountant.
Felicitas Dietwiler Human Resources
Felicitas qualified as an HR Specialist (SBFI - Swiss Federal Diploma of Higher Education), focusing on Corporate Human Resources Management, in 2016.
She has more than ten years of experience in Human Resources, primarily in the chemical sector. She joined Idemitsu from DSM in April 2017 when the company was founded in Switzerland.
Yuichi Nishimae Team Leader BD
Yuichi joined Ciba Specialty Chemicals in Japan after completing his PhD degree in chemistry at Osaka University. Following the BASF acquisition of Ciba, he was delegated to BASF in Germany and subsequently Switzerland.
He transferred to Idemitsu in April 2017, when the company was founded, to lead the research project as the team leader. He has more than 10 year experience in projects relating to organic electronics.
Natalia Chebotareva Team Leader Application
Natalia joined Idemitsu in April 2017 start from the establishment of Idemitsu in Basel.
She graduated from D. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia in Moscow and completed her PhD in the group of Prof. K. Müllen at Max-Plan Institute for Polymer research (MPIP) in Mainz in 2003. After 2 years of Post Doc research in the group of Prof. E. W. Meijer at Technical University of Eindhoven (TU/e), Natalia joined Ciba Specialty Chemicals in 2005 in Basel. Following the BASF acquisition of Ciba, Natalia was involved in many research projects in the field of organic electronics concerning OPV, OFET, organic photodiodes and OLEDs.