NEWS

2023.3.1

Appointment of New Directors and Notice of Introduction of Executive Officer System

• NEWS
• プレスリリース

AWL, Inc. (“AWL”, Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan, President: Muneharu Kitade), a Hokkaido University-Certified Venture Company and a leading edge AI camera solutions provider, hereby announces the appointment of Shinichi Togawa, as Board Director and CFO, and the introduction of Executive Officers. Under the new management, AWL intends to realize further acceleration and expansion of each business and increase corporate value.

●Shinichi Togawa: Board Director, CFO, Senior Executive Vice President, and Division Director of Corporate Business Strategy Division
March 2023 – Present: CFO of AWL, Inc
September 2022: Joined AWL, Inc.
April 2021: Joined Nishimoto Co., Ltd.
June 2015: Appointed as Director, Yaoko Co. Ltd.
March 2012: Joined Yaoko Co. Ltd.
November 2011: Joined DeNA Co., Ltd.
September 2005: Joined Accenture Japan Ltd
June 2005: MBA in Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College
April 1998: Joined NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION
March 1998: M. S. in Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo

●Mina Tsuchida: CHRO, Senior Executive Vice President, and Division Director of Corporate Division
March 2023-Present: CHRO and Senior Executive Vice President
August 2021: Appointed as CHRO
June 2018: Joined AWL
April 2001: Joined Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. now Panasonic Corporation
March 2001: B. A. in School of Education, Hokkaido University

●Hiroshi Fujimura: Vice President and Division Director of Research and Development Division
March 2023-Present: Vice President
August 2022: Joined AWL
March 2022: Ph. D. in Graduate School of Computer and Information Sciences, Hosei University
April 2005: Joined TOSHIBA CORPORATION
March 2005: M. S. in Graduate School of Information Science, Department of Media Science, Nagoya University

●Renteria Rochin Francisco: Vice President and Division Director of Advanced Development Division
March 2023-Present: Vice President
October 2019: Joined AWL
September 2019: M. S. in Computer Science Course, Graduate School of Information and Science and Engineering, Ritsumeikan University
October 2015: Transferred to Directo, S.A. de C.V. (Subsidiary of Red Efectiva, S.A. de C.V.)
June 2008: Join Red Efectiva, S.A. de C.V.
May 2008: B. S. in Electric Systems Engineer, Tecnológico de Monterrey

●Yoshio Shimbo: Vice President, and Division Director of System Integration Division
March 2023-Present: Vice President
June 2022: Joined AWL
January 2009: Joined Panasonic Corporation
March 2008: Ph. D. in The Department of Organic and Polymeric Materials, Tokyo Institute of Technology
April 2007: Research Fellowship for Young Scientist at Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
April 2000: Joined OMRON SOFTWARE Co., Ltd.
March 2000: B. S. in Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Tokyo University of Science

[Comment by Muneharu Kitade, President and CEO (Founder)]
Since its foundation in 2016, AWL has contributed the realization of media-oriented stores and improve operational efficiency and productivity through high-quality and affordable edge AI camera solutions, primarily in the retail industry.
In particular, AWL quickly noticed the problem that edge AI camera solutions that cannot be deployed on a large scale due to the time and effort required to re-learn AI models to for each camera’s installation environment. To solve this problem, AWL developed “AWL Trainer”, a fine-tuning technology that efficiently optimizes AI models individually and “AWL Engine”, the ML Ops engine that prevents the obsolescence of AI models accuracy due to aging.
With the DX acceleration under the COVID-19 pandemic and the growing need for labor-saving and unmanned operations due to the declining workforce, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become indispensable, and we feel the high level of anticipation for AWL.
AWL’s unique edge AI camera solutions technology has been highly acclaimed also in overseas, and we will strengthen our management structure to develop our business to contribute to solving problems in a various industries worldwide, in addition to our solutions for the retail industry in Japan.