Lectra has announced the appointment of Akihiko Tanaka as Japan managing director.
Based in Osaka, Akihiko Tanaka’s role is to support Lectra’s Japanese fashion & apparel and automotive customers as they undergo transformations related to Industry 4.0.
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“Japan’s automotive industry is one of the most important in the world: its ecosystem radiates internationally,” said Tanaka.
“I am proud to promote Lectra’s solutions, designed to facilitate the co-ordination of all actors in the production chain, whether they are based in Japan, the ASEAN countries, Europe or North America.
“Japan is also a land of fashion, which benefits from an active local market and also has a strong position on the world stage. Our solutions, rooted at the heart of our customers’ transformation, enable them to respond rapidly to both the digitalisation of their respective industries and to their evolving relationships with consumers.”
For his part, Lectra chairman and CEO, Daniel Harari added: “Akihiko Tanaka’s international experience, and his robust knowledge of technological professions, are a major asset to reinforce our value proposition.
“The major challenge facing our Japanese customers is accelerating development cycles for their products within a fast-evolving automotive market and a fashion industry on a quest for greater agility.”
Tanaka has more than 20 years of experience as sales director in the automotive and electronic industries. From 1994 to 2000, he worked in France as sales director of Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic) in charge of commercialising automation equipment to the automotive and electronic industries.
In 2000, he returned to Japan and in 2001, joined INCS, a consulting and engineering company, to develop the footprint of a 3D CAD offer, initially within Japanese markets, then elsewhere in Asia, and Europe.
In 2005, Tanaka joined Dassault Systèmes where he successively held the roles of business developer for PLM solutions, then sales and marketing director for the design solution 3D CATIA and finally as director, academic programmes.
