SENIOR BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER AT AMAZON WEB SERVICES JAPAN NAMED CTO OF UPWARD

(Location: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Ryusuke Kaneki), whose mission is to "Innovate the Last Mile in the Field," announces that Akihiro Kadohata has been appointed Chief Technology Officer (CTO) on April 24, 2023. (Tokyo, Japan), announced today that Akihiro Kadohata has been appointed Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the Company.

Background

UPWARD offers "UPWARD" as a sales engagement service that transforms CRM into on-site sales force, and has supported sales DX for approximately 400 companies, mainly major corporations. Most recently, UPWARD has been selected by Google for its "Google for Startups International Sales Academy" (https://www.upward.jp/info/20221208), a support program for startups to expand their business not only in Japan but also overseas. With Mr. Kadohata, a researcher in the field of operations research and a professional in business promotion using IT and cloud computing, joining UPWARD as CTO, the company aims to further enhance the technological domain related to the stay detection technology, which is one of UPWARD's strengths, as well as to further expand its business, improve customer satisfaction, and increase the number of customers. The addition of Kadohata, a professional in the field of IT and cloud-based business promotion, as CTO will allow UPWARD to further expand its business, improve customer satisfaction, and enhance its presence as a leading sales engagement service company.  

RYUSUKE KANEKI, PRESIDENT AND CEO, UPWARD CO.

We are very proud to announce that Akihiro Kadohata is joining UPWARD as CTO. With his experience in technical research at JAXA and NTT Laboratories, as well as business consulting experience at Accenture and AWS (Amazon Web Service), we expect him to dramatically improve UPWARD's basic technology, service development capabilities, and solution level. In recent years, the world has been witnessing the emergence of CRM in the field. Recently, the service area of "sales engagement," in which CRM is used in the field, is growing rapidly in the world. In this area, automation of data entry into CRM, AI that recommends the most appropriate next actions for individual salespeople, and data intelligence are the core technology areas of the service. With Kadohata joining the UPWARD team, we will push these technology areas to a globally competitive level and achieve optimal use of edge computing such as smartphones and cloud computing technology, which is also a service platform, at high speed.

AKIHIRO KADOHATA, CTO, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, UPWARD CO.

I was attracted to UPWARD by CEO Kaneki's words, "We will create a SaaS product from Japan that will be used around the world," and I was fortunate to have the opportunity to join UPWARD. I am now joining UPWARD because I was attracted by CEO Kaneki's words "to create a SaaS product from Japan that will be used around the world." I will utilize my past experience to advance UPWARD's strengths in stay detection technology and GIS (Geographic Information System), and to further develop the technology to make data entry easier and more automated. Furthermore, we would like to develop products that support data-driven management so that sales staff can execute the next most appropriate action based on the accumulated data. We will shift to a customer-driven organizational structure that places product development at the center of our business strategy, and the entire team will work as one in our research and development efforts.

AKIHIRO KADOHATA, CTO, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, UPWARD CO.

HE HOLDS A BACHELOR OF SCIENCE DEGREE FROM TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND A MASTER OF SCIENCE DEGREE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO. IN 2007, HE WAS ENGAGED IN RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF MATHEMATICAL OPTIMIZATION IN TELECOMMUNICATION NETWORKS AT NTT HOLDING COMPANY'S RESEARCH LABORATORIES. AFTER WORKING AT ACCENTURE, HE JOINED AMAZON WEB SERVICES JAPAN, LLC (AWS), WHERE HE WAS IN CHARGE OF BUSINESS STRATEGY FORMULATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF USER SUPPORT PROGRAMS TO OPTIMIZE CLOUD COSTS IN THE BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIVISION. HE JOINED UPWARD IN APRIL 2023. D. IN ENGINEERING FROM NAGOYA UNIVERSITY.

CONVERSATION WITH UPWARD CEO X CTO X CPO

In commemoration of the appointment of Mr. Monohata as CTO , CEO Kaneki, CTO Monohata, and CPO Kenmochi held a discussion on the topic of "Sales Tools of the 'Near Future' that AI Will Lead to Success: Product Strategies to Win Globally". The discussion was on the theme of "Product Strategy to Win Globally". In this dialogue, they discussed UPWARD's technological development prospects and SaaS products that will be used globally in detail.
The discussion can be viewed here.
https://dx.upward.jp/CEO_CTO_CPO