Hideo Tanaka (1948 – ) is a global developer and designer of plastics processes and processing machinery. Hideo helped lift the Toshiba Machine Company to its preeminent position as a leader in the plastics machinery industry.

After earning his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical and Motion Control Engineering at Tokyo Denki University in Japan, Hideo joined the Toshiba Machine Company in 1971, working with nylon inflation-blown film process development. He then worked on developing and designing large-tonnage plastic injection molding machines for Toshiba.

In the late nineteen seventies and early eighties, he came to the United States to work as the Chief Technical Engineer for Injection Molding Machinery for Toshiba Machine Company, America. Moving up through the positions of General Manager and Managing Director, he became president of Toshiba Machine Engineering in 2009.

Hideo is responsible for Toshiba’s worldwide growth by developing new injection molding machine technologies, manufacturing facilities, and modern customer service processes.

He is a past Vice-Chair of the Association of Japan Plastics Machinery, a Director of the Japan Society of Plastics Technology, and a member of the Japan Society of Polymer Processing.