Joining Cloudflare to support Japan’s digital shift
I’m happy to announce that I’ve joined Cloudflare in Japan as Vice-President and Managing Director. My focus is on growing our customer and partner base, and strengthening Cloudflare’s presence in the country. Cloudflare first expanded its network to Japan in 2010, shortly after the company launched. More than a decade later, the mission to help build a better Internet continues, and I’m eager to contribute to that effort in Japan.
Career background
I’ve spent 35 years in the IT industry at some of the largest technology companies, holding roles across both sales and technical functions. That mix is one of my key strengths. Along the way, I’ve gained expertise spanning custom development, packaged systems (ERP, CRM), Microsoft Office products, and cloud solutions.
Most recently, I served as director of the Enterprise Business Group for Japan at AWS, responsible for commercial industries like manufacturing, process, distribution, retail, telecommunications, utility, media, service, and pharmaceuticals. Before AWS, I was at Microsoft as Managing Executive Officer in charge of the Public Sector, where I handled business and strategic relationships with central and local government, as well as healthcare, pharmaceutical, and education customers, helping them accelerate their cloud adoption. In 2005, I joined SAP Japan, where I spent eight years building the partner ecosystem and managing about 250 partners. My final role at SAP had me driving sales for public, utility, and telecommunication industries. Earlier, in 1999, I joined IBM as a founding member of the ERP business unit, where I managed large ERP implementations as a Senior Project Manager.
Reflecting on these years, I’ve been able to view the industry from many angles. I started my career as a programmer right out of university — the first time I’d ever encountered a computer. It was an exciting period, quickly picking up new skills as technology evolved. Even after moving into sales and management, I’ve kept that engineering spirit. After two years of programming, I spent 12 years as a Systems Engineer at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). When DEC set up a new manufacturing facility in Japan, my mission became designing, developing, and maintaining the application systems that supported production: master schedules, manufacturing resource planning, inventory, purchasing, work orders, shop floor control, and finally an automated warehousing system. My last role at DEC was leading the Japan implementation of SAP R/3 as part of a global rollout, which gave me broad multinational experience — an excellent and rewarding period in my career.
Why Cloudflare fits the moment
Looking back, I’ve worked with technology as a customer, a partner, and a salesperson. Over the last 35 years, that has clarified what I can offer at a global IT company: helping drive digital transformation for customers and for Japanese society by sharing global best practices. I chose to join Cloudflare specifically to accelerate the digital change that can improve Japan’s competitiveness. I have the same excitement and motivation now as when I took my very first job, and I see significant potential to assist Japanese companies in this transition.
Growth opportunities and readiness in Japan
Japan has often been characterized as slower to adopt digital models than the US, Europe, or some other parts of Asia. To address that, the Japanese Government introduced a “Cloud By Default” policy and, in September 2021, established a Digital Agency. Much work remains, and the cloud migration has just started. Businesses are moving workloads from on-premise into the cloud, with many choosing multi-cloud environments as their next-generation platform. Cloudflare has the solutions, people, and strategy to help Japanese organizations through that shift.
Cloudflare’s model centers on a fast, global cloud platform that secures applications, improves performance, and removes the cost and complexity of managing individual hardware. The network, one of the fastest on the planet, is trusted by millions of web properties and connects to nearly every service and cloud provider. Cloudflare’s standing infrastructure can reach 95% of the world’s population within 50 ms and includes 250 data centers worldwide, with two sites in Japan — Tokyo and Osaka.
Cloudflare is positioned to support Japanese customers in accelerating their digital transformation, and I’m looking forward to playing a part in both the company’s growth locally and the speed of change for Japanese enterprises.
