Michael Woodford is 'boldest business person of year'

Michael Woodford, the former Olympus CEO who blew the whistle on one of Japan’s most high-profile frauds, added the title of “boldest business person of the year” to his list of awards for unearthing the $1.7-billion accounting scandal.

Woodford, a rare foreign CEO in Japan who was fired last October after questioning a series of murky acquisitions and fees, received his latest accolade at the Financial Times ArcelorMittal Boldness in Business Awards on Tuesday.

“If there was one person who captured the spirit of boldness in business in 2011, it was Michael Woodford at Olympus,” said FT editor Lionel Barber. Armed with a laptop, a clutch of documents and a tale of intrigue, 51-year-old Woodford alerted prosecutors and journalists around the world to a scandal that has seen seven arrested and which sent Olympus’s stock plunging 80 per cent.

Woodford is one of the few business people to have received awards from almost all major British newspapers. Woodford is penning a memoir of his experiences — to be published around October.