- As of February 2014, NNG has hired industry expert Heisuke Ikeda as Director of OEM Relations Japan. Ikeda will further strengthen the capability of the company in the Japanese automotive market helping NNG to widen its presence in Asia.
Since NNG’s Japan entry in 2012, the company has claimed its place as a successful foreign navigation software developer supplying Japanese navigation software to the Japanese market. As a next step, the company is opening a Japan office, a move planned for later this year.
With more than 20 years of experience in the navigation industry, Heisuke Ikeda will continue to introduce NNG’s proven navigation solutions and expertise to the local automotive market. His role includes consulting Japanese OEMs and Tier1 suppliers about the status of innovation in the industry, global market trends, and new dimensions of cost-efficient software development that NNG has introduced.
“By building its global software solutions around a single navigation engine, NNG has a very unique position in this industry and is able to drastically reduce development costs compared to traditional local suppliers. I’m confident that this approach will make NNG the preferred partner for Japanese OEMs,” says Ikeda.
“Ultimately we would like NNG to be seen as a trusted advisor by our OEM partners so that they turn to us along with their Tier1s to develop the next-generation of in-vehicle navigation and infotainment systems. Heisuke Ikeda will help us achieving this in Japan, one of the key automotive markets for NNG,” explains Peter Balogh, CEO of NNG.
Before joining NNG, Ikeda was CEO at eRide for 4 years, a start-up company in San Francisco. Throughout his career he has been engaged in penetrating new markets with GPS technology, and paving the road for new business opportunities in the cell phone-, digital TV broadcasting and other industries.
