We believe the future of work lies in robotics, with the potential to make our lives more productive and more fulfilling – but also more filled with joy, excitement, and wonder. It all starts, though, with the right technology – enhancing the way robots learn, interact, and connect with people.
Right now, we have a one-way relationship with our technology – we tap on screens, we talk to speakers. Robotics offers the potential for something more – something interactive, responsive, multisensory, personal.
At SoftBank Robotics, we’re committed to cobotics, or collaborative robotics, creating helpful assistants to perform tasks that alleviate, and elevate, human work.
Robots are designed to help – we’re here to make sure they help the right way, elevating how we work, how we learn, how we connect, and how we grow.
Supporting our core team in San Francisco, SoftBank Robotics’ leadership spans the globe from Tokyo to France, offering a combined 130 years of technical expertise.
President & CEO
Fumihide Tomizawa began his career at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation in 1997 before joining SoftBank Group in 2000. He sat in various key positions in SoftBank Group's major business segments including broadband services and mobile communication services, and successfully led many new business ventures such as data communication services, new natural energy, and many JV establishments with global partners. He was chosen to lead of the SoftBank's robotics project in 2011, which was founded to be the core bearer of SoftBank Group’s vision, and became the President and CEO of SoftBank Robotics Group Corp. in 2014.
EVP, Chief Creative Officer
Kazutaka Hasumi has served on the Board of Directors in the content marketing division at SoftBank Robotics since 2014. He joined SoftBank in 2008 and was responsible for the content service department of SoftBank’s mobile division. He also launched the company’s e-book distribution service, “Viewn” as a board director. Kazutaka started his career in the broadcasting industry by joining TV Asahi after graduating from Hitotsubashi University. During his time at the company, he oversaw the production of a wide variety of Japan’s most famous and popular TV programmes, broadcasted across the nation, working as the primary producer.
EVP, Chief Business Officer
Kenichi ‘Kent’ Yoshida is serving as the Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer at SoftBank Robotics, leading the SoftBank robotic project for the past 4 years since the beginning of the project. Prior to joining SoftBank Group, he was a co-founder and COO of an enterprise software startup company called Realcom and led the company to IPO. Kent has been working at starting new businesses in SoftBank since 2010.
Vice President & CISO, CCO
Kazuo Nohara first worked as a general affairs and accounting in a real estate company and transitioned into SoftBank in 1994 via J-Phone and Vodafone Japan, has over 30-years-experiences of finance, accounting and tax, In that field, he was also responsible as corporate auditor, and managed projects of business improvement and internal control. He is now serving as a head of Corporate Management Division, CCO and CISO in SoftBank Robotics besides CFO and CCO in SoftBank Robotics Group.
VP
Manabu Matsuura has strong background from the major distribution industry which he was responsible for operation management of over 10,000 stores and other various positions. Prior to joining SoftBank Robotics in 2018, Manabu was a board director of leading interior company and president of its subsidiary EC & logistics company. With eyes of foresight, he realized some of Japan’s first introduction of state-of-the-art technologies such as IT and robotics which had a great impact to the industry.
EVP, CTO Software
Dai Sakata is serving as Chief Technology Officer of Software at SoftBank Robotics and has been managing the Software, IT, Cloud, Fleet and Product teams since 2016. For more than 10 years, he has been leading various product planning and development in eAccess (acquired by SoftBank) and SoftBank Group Corp.
EVP, Chief Technology Officer
Akiho Shibata is serving as the Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at SoftBank Robotics. He has been leading the technical project of our robotics products since 2014.
For more than 10 years, Akiho Shibata has been leading various product planning and development in SoftBank Corp.
VP, Chief Information Officer
Joshua Bellendir is the Vice President and Global Chief Information Officer at SoftBank Robotics. He leads the global IT/IS division, and is responsible for driving the global transformation of IT and SoftBank Robotics’ enterprise systems.
Prior to joining SoftBank Robotics, he has more than 15 years experience of managing global teams across US, Europe and Asia as global IT leadership position at Deloitte, Fast Retailing, and Abercrombie & Fitch.
EVP, CTO Hardware
Xavier Lacherade has gained a strong background from his 18+ years in Healthcare Industry, with a focus on both Manufacturing and Engineering positions. He has led many new product launch projects and been an integral member of the design, development and qualification process. Always eager to learn and improve, Xavier has his certified Six Sigma Green Belt and brings his expertise in all technical processes at SoftBank Robotics.
VP, Chief Information Officer
Charles Broussaudier has a deep expertise in leading teams and is responsible for SoftBank Robotics' information technology and computer systems which support the enterprise's goals.
VP, Chief Services Officer
Alain Hui Bon Hoa has fifteen years of experience with General Electric, where he held several senior leadership positions in Operations and Strategic Projects. He brings strong experience in developing Fleet services, driving customer centricity and leading large teams in a matrix organisation structure.
VP, Sales and Marketing, EMEA
Prior to SoftBank Robotics, Nicolas was in charge of managing businesses in the IT security and electronic design automation markets. He joined SoftBank Robotics in 2011 as Europe Business Manager to expand the use of humanoid robotics in education and in new markets such as retail, healthcare and tourism. He is now responsible for business development and marketing in the EMEA region.
VP, Global Product
Julien Seret brings an in-depth understanding of a wide range of technologies and business models in diverse industries. He held business development and technical marketing positions at STMicroelectronics, Archos and Gostai. He successfully launched complex B2B products ranging from national e-ID card programs, secure payment solutions, to the first 3G-enabled tablets and telepresence robots.
General Manager
Stanley comes to SoftBank Robotics China with over 25 years’ experience in the high-tech industry. As the General Manager, he looks after the overall strategy and execution of SoftBank Robotics business in the Greater China region and has built the business and service operations teams from the ground up since its inception in January 2018. Prior to joining SoftBank Robotics, Stanley was the General Manager - Global Alliances, of Shanghai Blue Cloud Network & Technology Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of 21Vianet Group (NASDAQ: VNET). 21Vianet is the largest carrier-neutral data center with an exclusive partnership with Microsoft to operate both Azure and Office 365 in China. Stanley was responsible for driving the global partnerships by introducing world-class global cloud services, applications and tools into China that require to meet complex country regulations and compliance. During his tenure, Stanley sealed deals with connected-car cloud services and Akamai, a Content Delivery Network service, for the Chinese market. Stanley started his tech career at Microsoft as one of the first Microsoft Network R&D team members (later renamed MSN) and helped ship multiple commercially successful products including Internet Information Server (IIS) on Windows NT, Encarta Reference Suite and BizTalk Server. A multi-lingual and cultural professional, Stanley is an enterprising entrepreneur who has the capacity to bring diverse talents to the table and has great passion to pursue common goals. Stanley holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science & Engineering from the University of Connecticut.
The heart of SoftBank Robotics is in San Francisco. These are the humans bringing our robots to life and building the foundation for the future.
Brady Watkins
Senior Vice President & General Manager
Kass Dawson
VP, Brand Strategy & Communications
Naoki Mikoshiba
VP, Operations & Incubation
Julien Seret
VP, Global Product
Sean Reardon
Director of Fleet Operations
Matt Willis
Senior Director of Product