Leadership Team

Dr. Sakyasingha Dasgupta is the founder and CEO of EdgeCortix group companies. He is an artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologist, entrepreneur, and engineer with over a decade of experience in taking cutting edge AI research from ideation stage to scalable products, across different industry verticals. Having lead teams at global companies like Microsoft and IBM Research / IBM Japan, along with national research labs like RIKEN Japan and Max Planck Institute Germany; in his more recent roles prior to founding EdgeCortix, he helped establish and lead the technology division at lean startups in Japan and Singapore, in semiconductor technology, robotics & autonomous vehicles and Fintech sectors.

After spending more than a decade in research and development in diverse areas like, brain inspired computing, robotics, computer vision, AI acceleration on semiconductors, wearable devices, internet of things, machine learning in finance and healthcare, Sakya founded EdgeCortix in 2019, as a fabless semiconductor design company focused on enabling energy-efficient edge intelligence. EdgeCortix has its R&D headquarters and semiconductor design team based in Tokyo, Japan, working on the radical idea of taking a software first approach, while designing an AI specific reconfigurable processor from the ground up using a patented technique called "hardware & software co-exploration". Targeting advanced computer vision applications first, using software IP on existing processors like FPGAs and custom ASIC design, EdgeCortix is positively disrupting the rapidly growing AI semiconductor space across defense, security, aerospace, smart cities, industry 4.0, autonomous vehicles and robotics.

Sakya holds a PhD. in Physics of Complex Systems from the Max Planck Institute in Germany, along with Masters in Artificial Intelligence from The University of Edinburgh, U.K. Prior to founding EdgeCortix he also completed his entrepreneurship studies from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He holds over 20 patents worldwide and his research has garnered over 1000 citations.

Jeffrey is EdgeCortix’s Executive VP of Marketing & US Operations. Prior to joining EdgeCortix, he brings over three decades of experience in marketing, branding, management, and operations leadership roles with world-class companies while leading them through rapid growth and large-scale transformation.

Previously, Jeffrey led as COO of Determine Inc. (NASDAQ: DTRM) through the eventual acquisition by Corcentric. While serving as COO for Determine, Inc. he was responsible for driving the operational cadence, business planning, and analytics for the global company. Prior to Determine, Inc., Jeffrey was the CMRO at Youbet.com (NASDAQ: UBET) through the eventual acquisition by Churchill Downs Incorp. (NASDAQ: CHDN).

Jeffrey holds an MBA from Emory University and an undergraduate degree with dual major in Computer Science and Sociology from Rutgers University.

Stanley Crow recently retired from Northrop Grumman as CTO and VP Technology, Engineering and Manufacturing for the company’s Defense Systems sector. Previously he was the Chief Executive for Northrop Grumman Japan where he was responsible for leading Northrop Grumman's overall development in Japan. During his tenure, he served in various roles at Northrop Grumman including President, Northrop Grumman International, Inc, as a Director of International Customer Engagement & Strategy and Director of Business Development for Directed Energy.

Prior to joining Northrop Grumman, Mr. Crow served as an Associate Principal at McKinsey and Company, where he helped technology, aerospace and defense clients in the U.S. and U.K. Additionally, he served almost three decades in the United States Air Force, including both active duty and reserve assignments focused on space, intelligence, and advanced capability needs in the IndoPacific. Mr. Crow received a Department of Defense award for anti-terrorism and several awards for leadership and significant contributions to national defense. He will serve as EdgeCortix Defense and Security Sector Advisor.

Sudhakar Kale assumes the role of Vice President of Silicon Engineering and Head of the India Design Centre at EdgeCortix. In this capacity, he spearheads worldwide Hardware Engineering teams, driving advanced Silicon solutions. Sudhakar brings in more than three decades of expertise garnered from eminent global semiconductor entities such as Samsung, AMD, Intel, Texas Instruments, Synopsys, Blaize, and Chelsio Communications. He held senior leadership positions in these organizations, delivering state-of-the-art products by collaborating with international teams. Sudhakar has a track record of successfully delivering complex System-on-Chip (SOC) solutions for mobile, data center, and client markets, as well as advanced Deep Learning accelerators optimized for Edge computing. His technical proficiency spans a wide spectrum of SOC domains, covering SOC Integration, Design Verification, Physical Design, and Methodology. Sudhakar is the co-author of two patents and multiple publications.

Sudhakar holds a degree in Electronics & Communications Engineering from JNTU, Kakinada, a Masters in Computer Science from Hyderabad Central University, and an MBA from Colorado State University.

Jeff is responsible for driving the global EdgeCortix hardware product engineering team, with specific focus on product and test engineering, quality assurance and the execution of hardware products from concept through successful production ramp. Previously, Jeff has held numerous senior roles in recent decades at leading hardware acceleration companies, with a focused drive on both growth and profitability. He joined EdgeCortix after 24 years with BittWare, where he was formerly CEO, President, and Chief Technology Officer. In addition to his operational responsibilities, he also managed the transition of BittWare and the previously acquired Nallatech into a unified 'BittWare, a Molex company’. Prior to Bittware, Jeff was the Founder and CEO of Ixthos, a company which became a leading supplier of advanced DSP hardware, which was subsequently acquired by Curtiss-Wright (NYSE:CW). Prior to Ixthos, Jeff held positions at Avtec Systems, Booz Allen, and NASA. Jeff holds a Bachelor's in Physics from the University of Maryland and a Masters in Electrical Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University.

Matsumoto comes to EdgeCortix with deep experience in the areas of Finance, HR, IT, and Supply Chain across a variety of business sectors. He has spent the majority of his career working in multinational companies including Cable & Wireless (telecom), Philip Morris and NBCUniversal. Most recently he held the position of Chief Financial Officer of Warner Music Japan.

Matsumoto holds a BA in Economics from Keio University.

Nikolay Nez is EdgeCortix’s Senior Director of Software Engineering. After joining EdgeCortix, he played a key role in defining the overall direction to be taken on hardware architecture and software stack, while also working together with the engineers through finer details of it, from numeric algorithms at a high level, down to microarchitecture and compiler optimizations, mentoring team members, along with hands-on design of the low-level components of the microarchitecture himself. Under his leadership at EdgeCortix, he and his team have been named as co-inventors on 10 key patents (5 granted & others patent pending), taped out the first company's SoC at TSMC 12nm process, and developed robust Neural Network Compiler stackable to support a wide range of CNN models implemented in major Machine Learning frameworks.

Nikolay started his career working in the System Software branch of the CPU startup Soft Machines (acquired by Intel in 2016). He has more than 10 years of hands-on industry experience spanning areas of compiler backends, binary translation, fault-tolerant distributed systems, hardware architecture, and technical leadership.

Nikolay received his Bachelor's and Master's education from Computing Systems Design department of Russian State University of Aviation Technology (MATI).

Tada has over 25 years of senior corporate financial management experience with well-respected global entertainment companies such as Universal Pictures, Viacom, Sony Pictures, and most recently as CFO for Warner Bros. Japan. Tada has a BA and an MA from Waseda University in Tokyo. He also holds an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Jay currently serves as the Director of Engineering for Silicon Design at EdgeCortix, overseeing Verification, Integration, and Validation activities. Since joining EdgeCortix in 2020, Jay has led the development of a comprehensive System-on-Chip (SoC) verification infrastructure. In this role he is responsible for RTL functional and gate-level simulations, synthesis, power analysis, and full verification emulation using Palladium. Jay plays a crucial role in the SoC integration and backend activities, as well as contributing to key design decisions for the company's first ASIC SoC, SAKURA-I. Under his leadership, Jay and his team successfully taped out SAKURA-I, EdgeCortix's debut SoC, using TSMC's 12nm process.

Jay has over a decade of engineering and verification experience in the semiconductor industry. Prior to joining EdgeCortix, he was a Senior ASIC/FPGA Design Verification Engineer at LeapMind, where he led verification development for their AI Accelerator IP. Prior to LeepMind, Jay was a Senior Design Engineer at Renesas through Quest Global Japan, responsible for the verification of R3-Gen Car Modules for the R-Car Gen3 project. Jay started his career at Xilinx in 2012 and during his six-year tenure, he played a critical role in DRAM memory controller verification, and also contributed to multiple tape-outs and global verification projects, earning high performance and ‘X factor’ awards.

Jay received his Master’s degree in VLSI from Manipal University.

Akira Takata currently serves on the Board of Directors of SiTime, the market leader in the MEMS based precision timing market. Previously, he was the President and CEO of MegaChips Corporation, from 2011 to 2019, the second largest fabless semiconductor company based in Japan. During his three decade tenure at MegaChips, Mr. Takata ascended the ranks of the company, from a member of the MegaChips founding team, through various senior positions, including director of Business Unit, director of production management, officer of alliance strategy office and officer of business strategy office, ultimately to the role of CEO. During his tenure, he facilitated the transformation of the company from a largely Japan focused business into a leading, global fabless semiconductor company. From 2014 to 2019, Mr. Takata also served on the Board of Directors of Global Semiconductor Alliance, a leading Semiconductor industry organization. He will serve as EdgeCortix Semiconductor Sector Advisor.

Dr. Sunami is currently serving as the President of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation. Additionally, Dr. Sunami is a member of the expert group for Economic Security Policy, Government of Japan. He also serves as Chair of the Consortium for Satellite Earth Observation (CONSEO) and Co-Chair of the Luner Industry Vision Council. Sunami also serves as the Director of the SciREX center and Executive Advisor to the President at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) and Guest Professor at the Research Organization for Nano & Life Innovation at Waseda University. Previously he was the Special Advisor for Science & Technology Innovation Policy, Government of Japan.

James (Jim) brings over 40 years of experience in vital leadership roles from CEO, COO, and CFO with Fortune 50 global corporations. Jim led business transformation and mergers & acquisitions in five different industries across Asia Pacific, US and Canada.

Previously, Jim served as Managing Director of NBC Universal Japan and prior to that as CFO at Philip Morris International, where he led two key Mergers & Acquisitions deals.

Jim holds a CA degree along with Bachelors in Commerce, Accounting and Law from UBC Canada.

Daniel Fujii is the President & CEO of Trust Capital Co., Ltd. Previously, Mr. Fujii was the Representative Director for Blackstone Group Japan. Before Blackstone, Mr. Fujii spent six years at Shinsei Bank as founder and head of its private equity practice. He has served on the investment committees for several private equity platforms dedicated to leveraged buyouts, retail, infrastructure, PIPES, corporate restructurings, and Greater China opportunities. He currently also serves as a Board Director of the Harvard Club of Japan, Asia Council Board of Phillips Andover, Board of Councilor for US Japan Council, Executive Committee of Silicon Valley Japan Platform, Founding Member of Asia Society Japan, Advisory Board of Asian Cultural Council Japan and Board of Trustees of American School in Japan.

Historian, statesman, and Israeli leader, Michael Oren served as Israel’s ambassador to the United States, as a Member of Knesset, and as Deputy Minister of Diplomacy in thePrime Minister’s Office. A graduate of Princeton and Columbia, he has taught at Harvard, Yale, and Georgetown. He holds four honorary doctorates and was awarded the Statesman of the Year Medal by the Washington Institute for NearEast Policy and the Dr. Martin Luther King Legacy Prize. Moving to Israel in1979, he served as a paratrooper in the IDF and participated in several wars, reaching the rank of major. Michael Oren was named by NPR as one of the best college commencement speakers ever, by Politico as one of the fifty most influential thinkers in America, by the Forward as one of the five most influential Jews in America, and by the Jerusalem Post as one of the ten most influential Jews worldwide.

Norishige (Noly) Morimoto graduated with a BS of EE from Keio University and joined IBM in 1987 as a hardware engineer. After he earned a MS in Electronic Engineering and Computer Science from MIT, he joined IBM Research in 1995. In 2004 he led a company-wide collaborative project between IBM Research and IBM Business Consulting Services (IBCS) called On-Demand Innovation Services (ODIS) and worked as a managing consultant at IBCS to deliver new technology to clients and consulted innovation management processes to various companies. In 2005 he returned to research to lead the hardware research group and in 2009, he was appointed to Director of IBM Research-Tokyo. In 2015, Noly took a new position as VP & CTO in IBM Asia Pacific, and since 2017, he served as the VP of IBM Research & Development in Japan. In 2020, he was appointed as a CTO of IBM Japan in addition to his previous role. Noly has more than 20 patents and has over 6000 research citations.