1. And you may ask yourself, "Well... how did I get here?" (Tell us your journey?)
I was born in Tokyo and grew up in a city called Machida which is a suburb of Tokyo. When I was 8 years old I moved to Paris and spent my life there until I was 13 years old where I learned a lot about diversity and also identity as a Japanese. After coming back to Japan I went to a Japanese local junior high school. I remember I was really shocked by the cultural differences between France and Japan. After spending my time at high school and university, I graduated with a degree in economics and started working at a Japanese system integration company as a sales representative. I was selling IT infrastructure products like servers, storages, and networks facing all industries clients. After spending 10 years as a salesperson, I was transferred to Silicon Valley and my role was to find a startup product that can create a new business in the Japanese market. I brought many startup products to the Japanese market in almost all technology fields like machine learning, computer vision, AR/VR, behavioral biometrics and so on. I got to know and work with Persefoni when I was at my previous company - I was really impressed by the platform and the people in the company. And just like that - it comes to the present day and I myself am a Persefonite.
2. And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile. (What do you do at Persefoni?)
I work as a Director of Sales and Partnership for the Japanese market. I face customers directly but since we are still a small team in Japan, we have partners that help us sell our platform into the Japanese market. I manage partners and collaborate with them to help scale partner’s business that come directly to our success. I am spending 50% of my time collaborating with partners and others are direct customer meetings or thinking about the Japanese sales strategy.
3. And you may ask yourself, "Where does that highway go to?" (What are your hopes for your time at Persefoni?)
I want Persefoni to be a leader not only in Climate Tech but also in global sustainability. I want to develop the Persefoni Japan market to be as big as the US and European market, and lead the sustainability momentum from Japan. I also hope and I am sure that in the near future we will see companies decarbonisation steps realized one by one with the help of our product and people.
4. And you may say to yourself, "My God! What have I done?" (Why is Persefoni a great home for you?)
I spent 15 years in the tech industry and really wanted to contribute something good towards nature and the future of our children through technology. I really feel excited doing my work here at Persefoni - it lets me realize my wish. My teammates are really talented with a lot of passion to solve climate change and everyday I am learning a lot of things from my teammates. As we are aiming for the same goal, I feel confident everyday that we can change the world and that makes me feel this is a great home for me.
5. And you may find yourself in another part of the world... (Tell us about your life/hobbies away from work?)
I love spending my time with my wife and my two kids, mostly playing at a beach or going camping. My 2 biggest hobbies are Surfing and DJing (Music). I live in a beach town near Tokyo called Chigasaki which is a famous surfing city around tokyo and I surf every morning before work to start my day.
I spent my twenties DJing all Friday and Saturday night at a Tokyo downtown nightclub and I’m still continuing DJing once a month with my friends and with my old vinyl records.
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