Stretch Inc. Appoints Shigemi Kawai as Representative Director of Japan Subsidiary
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., October 25, 2004 (TOKYO, October 26, 2004) — Stretch Inc., a pioneer and leader in software-configurable devices, today announced the appointment of Shigemi Kawai as representative director of Stretch KK, the company’s first international subsidiary. Headquartered in Tokyo, Kawai is responsible for sales, application support and training in Japan and Asia.
"Stretch is strongly committed to providing a high level of service to customers in Japanese and Asian embedded markets, which is driven in part by an experienced and knowledgable sales organization," said Gary Banta, CEO and co-founder of Stretch. "In particular, Kawai’s leadership skills and vast knowledge of the semiconductor industry will allow Stretch to swiftly target customers designing compute-intensive applications in a multitude of markets and thoroughly address their requirements. I am delighted that Kawai is joining the Stretch management team."
"By establishing our presence in Japan, we will greatly increase our accessibility to customers and provide the highest levels of support possible, said Shigemi Kawai, representative director. "I believe that Japan will be an integral part of Stretch’s success and I am pleased to be a member of the team that is at the forefront of this truly ground-breaking technology. They are clearly committed to serving the customers here and maintaining a strong presence."
Kawai was previously country manager at Intrinsity International Inc., Japan, targeting major customers in the communications, imaging, and vision markets. While there, he was responsible for sales and marketing activities and the establishment of the Japan office. Prior to that, Kawai spent more than a decade with Motorola in various management positions in sales, marketing and operation areas. He has also held positions at Intel Japan, Teledyne Japan, and Fujitsu.
About Stretch
Stretch Inc. is delivering a family of software-configurable processors, the first to embed programmable logic within the processor. Using familiar C/C++ programming tools, system developers automatically configure Stretch's off-the-shelf processors to achieve extraordinary performance, easy and rapid development, significant cost savings, and flexibility to address diverse markets and changing application needs. Founded in March 2002, Stretch is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., and has been funded through investments from Worldview Technology Partners, Oak Investment Partners and Menlo Ventures. For more information, visit www.stretchinc.com.