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Hitachi
Research & Development

Worldwide strategy

Itaru NISHIZAWA, Ph.D., P.E.

Itaru NISHIZAWA, Ph.D., P.E.

Vice President and Executive Officer, CTO,
GM of the Research & Development Group,
Hitachi, Ltd.

As Vice President and CTO of Hitachi, Ltd., Nishizawa is responsible for research and development in the Hitachi Group, intellectual property and standardization to accelerate innovation, as well as leading the Research & Development Group of Hitachi, Ltd. as its General Manager.

Nishizawa joined the Central Research Laboratory of Hitachi, Ltd. in 1996 as a researcher, working on parallel database management systems, middleware systems, and stream data management systems. In 2013, he transferred to the business side of operations working in the IT Platform Division to develop real-time data management solutions for the global market. In 2015, he returned to the newly established Global Center for Social Innovation in the research organization to lead customer co-creation projects in CME (communications, media, and entertainment) and finance verticals. In 2017, he was appointed to the Center for Technology Innovation, where he led the research centers responsible for digital technology and services until March 2023 before assuming his current position as the head of the entire research organization.

Nishizawa received his PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Tokyo. He was a visiting scholar in the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University (2002-2003) and is also an alumnus of the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program (2018). He is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Information Processing Society of Japan (IPSJ), and Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (IEICE).

Seishi HANAOKA, Ph.D.

Center for Digital Services (CDS)

Seishi HANAOKA, Ph.D.

General Manager, CDS
Hitachi, Ltd.

Responsible for R&D for technology innovation with a special focus on digital technologies supporting social innovation business.

Hanaoka joined the Central Research Laboratory of Hitachi after completing his master’s degree in telecommunication engineering at Osaka University in 1996. After engaging in R&D for next-generation wireless communication systems (3G, 4G, 5G, cognitive radio) and in international standardization activities, he changed his area of research focus to network systems, connectivity, IT platforms, and their management. From 2018-2019, he worked as a senior manager in the Management Planning Office of the Strategy Planning Division at Hitachi headquarters before returning to the Research & Development Group in 2020 to serve as the Head of the Digital Technology Innovation Center, and in 2021, as the Head of the Digital Platform Innovation Center, before assuming his current position in April 2023.

Hanaoka is a senior member of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (IEICE) and a member of a member of IEEE and the Information Processing Society of Japan (IPSJ).

Naohiro KUSUMI, Ph.D.

Center for Sustainability(CSU)

Naohiro KUSUMI, Ph.D.

General Manager, CSU
Hitachi, Ltd.

Responsible for technology innovation initiatives in energy, mobility, industry, and production engineering fields aimed at realization of a sustainable society.

Kusumi joined Hitachi, Ltd. in 1999 as a researcher after completing his Ph.D. in electrical and electonics systems at the Graduate School of Information Science and Electrical Engineering, Kyushu University. As a researcher, he worked on the development of support systems for the control and design power plants, power transmission and distribution equipment at the Power & Industrial Systems R&D Laboratory, Energy & Environmental Systems Laboratory and the Hitachi Research Laboratory. In 2018, he was appointed to lead energy research as the General Manager of the Center for Technology Innovation – Energy and served as a Research Director at the European R&D Centre, Hitachi Europe Ltd. in 2021 before assuming his current position in 2022.

Kusumi is a member of IEEE, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Society of Instrument and Control Engineers (SICE), Atomic Energy Society of Japan (AESJ) and a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan (IEEJ).

Shinji NISHIMURA, Ph.D.

Center for Exploratory Research

Shinji NISHIMURA, Ph.D.

General Manager, CER
Hitachi, Ltd.

Responsible for vision-driven exploratory research for the Hitachi R&D group. This includes fundamental and frontier research in information sciences, physical sciences, life sciences and environment sciences, as well establishing new areas of research to address challenges faced by society.

Nishimura joined the Central Research Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd., in 1991 and as a researcher worked on optical device, network equipment, parallel processing system, sensing electronics system and edge computing for IoT.
He assumed his current position in April 2019.

Nishimura received his M.Eng. and Ph.D. in electronics engineering from the University of Tokyo in 1991 and 2001, respectively.

He is an IEEE Senior Member and a member of IEICE.

Regional strategy & Operations

Yuichiro NAKAYA, Ph.D.

Americas

Yuichiro NAKAYA, Ph.D.

Sr. Vice President and CTO,
General Manager, Research & Development Division,
Hitachi America, Ltd.

Responsible for R&D strategy development, technology development, collaborative creation with customers, and open innovation in North America.

Nakaya joined the Central Research Laboratory of Hitachi, Ltd. in 1993 as a researcher in the area of video coding after completing his Ph.D. in electronics engineering at the University of Tokyo. He brings a wealth of research, management and business creation experience to his current position which he assumed in April 2022, after serving as Project Leader and Deputy General Manger of the Future Investment Division (2017-2022), General Manager of the Global Center for Social Innovation (2016), and research and management positions in the areas of digital media processing, robotics, wireless communications, biotechnology, production engineering, IT platform, physical security, etc. in both the US and Japan.

Nakaya is a member of IEEE, Institute of Image Information and Television Engineers (ITE), Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (IEICE) and Information Processing Society of Japan (IPSJ).

Kazuyuki SUGIMURA, Ph.D.

Europe

Kazuyuki SUGIMURA, Ph.D.

CTO and General Manager, European R&D Centre,
Hitachi Europe Ltd.

Responsible for R&D in Europe, participation into local community, creation of Social Innovation Business and cutting-edge technology development.

Sugimura joined the Mechanical Engineering Research Laboratory of Hitachi, Ltd. in 1996. As a researcher, he was engaged in research for simulation, numerical optimization and data mining technologies targeting home appliances, railway rolling stock and industrial compressors. In 2001, he was a visiting researcher at the University of Cambridge. He assumed his current role in April 2020 after working in corporate technology strategy development, management of mechanical engineering research at Hitachi, and completing the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.

Sugimura is a member of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers.

CHEN Yangqiu

China

CHEN Yangqiu

Vice President, Hitachi (China) Ltd.
Senior General Manager, Hitachi China Research Laboratory

Responsible for R&D strategy, technology development, collaborative creation with customers and open innovation in China.

Chen joined Hitachi (China) Ltd. in 1998. From 2000, she played a key role in the establishment of Hitachi (China) Research & Development Corporation, and was appointed its President in 2014. From October 2021, Chen assumed the position of Vice President of Hitachi (China) Ltd. as well as Senior General Manager of the Hitachi China Research Laboratory. She is responsible for R&D strategy, technology development, co-creation with customers, and open innovation in China.

Chen received her Masters degree in Engineering, Economics and Management from Jilin University of Technology (current, Jilin University), and Executive MBA from Tsinghua University. She is also a certified Senior Engineer in China.

Kingshuk BANERJEE, Ph.D.

India

Kingshuk BANERJEE, Ph.D.

Director, and Head of the Research & Development Centre,
Hitachi India Pvt. Ltd.

Responsible for global digital platform development and engineering.

Banerjee is a specialist in the development and deployment of artificial intelligence systems. Prior to his current role, Banerjee was a Partner in IBM Services where he led the delivery of Cognitive-Business-Decision-Support (CBDS) services worldwide. A computer science graduate by training, he earned his Doctorate in Engineering Management from George Washington University, USA.

Banerjee is certified by Cornell and Harvard University in Executive Leadership and Change Management. He loves traveling, Net-surfing and meeting the "new" that includes people, culture and technology.

Hiroki KITAGAWA

Southeast Asia & Australia

Hiroki KITAGAWA

General Manager, R&D Center,
Hitachi Asia Ltd.

Responsible for R&D strategy, technology development, collaborative creation with customers and open innovation in Southeast Asia and Australia.

Kitagawa joined the Design Center of Hitachi, Ltd. after completing his M.Eng. (Industrial Design) at Chiba University in 1992. As an industrial designer, Kitagawa engaged in the development of enterprise systems for financial institutions. In 2009, he used a design thinking approach to systematize the highly upstream process methodology for system development as “Ex-approach,” experience-oriented approach in the Information and Telecommunication Systems Company of Hitachi, Ltd. He also led the development of the collaborative creation methodology, “NEXPERIENCE,” in the Design Division in 2012. From 2017 until 2019, Kitagawa promoted collaborative creation projects utilizing NEXPERIENCE, product design and vision design activities as the General Manager of the Center for Social Innovation - Tokyo. He assumed his current position in 2020.

He is a member of the Japanese Society for the Science of Design (JSSD), and an advisory committee member for the Design School at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST).