Satoru Iwata was the President of Nintendo from 2002 to 2015. Among the most talented programmers in his field, he provided freelance coding work for HAL Laboratories while in college, and served as its CEO from 1993 to 2000, when he joined Nintendo's executive board. He was appointed company President in 2002, becoming the first person outside the Yamauchi family to hold the position. Under his leadership, Nintendo produced its most successful generation of consoles.