United States site instead?Incoming president to focus on building sales channel and new alliances
Tokyo/Budapest – August 6, 1999
Amid a dynamic growth period in its Asia/Pacific region revenues, Graphisoft® (Frankfurt Neuer Markt: GPH) today named Nobuhiro Hara as the new president and general manager of Graphisoft Japan K.K.
Formerly President and General Manager of J.D. Edwards Japan, Nobuhiro Hara worked with IBM Japan for 27 years. He was primarily engaged in sales activities and worked for three years on assignment in the United States. Nobuhiro Hara assumes the position as head of Graphisoft Japan on August 16.
“Given the enormous potential for Graphisoft to become one of the leading providers of CAD solutions to the Japanese building industry, we are committed to expanding our resources accordingly,” Hara explained. “We will continue to provide premium service to our rapidly increasing partner and customer base, and build on the solid reputation Graphisoft Japan has achieved since its inception in 1994.”
Bence Kovács, president and general manager of Graphisoft Japan from its early period, could achieve the fastest penetration of a new, large market in the history ofGraphisoft. His vision, ambition and deep understanding of the local architectural environment helped Graphisoft to become a trusted partner of large Japanese companies. It was his merit that Graphisoft could become one of the “most Japanese” non-local companies.
Incorporated in 1996, Graphisoft Japan opened a second office in Osaka in 1998 to better serve the needs of this important business center west of Tokyo. Many large companies, including Kajima and NTT Facilities, as well as thousands of small architecture firms throughout the country rely on Graphisoft in their day-to-day business.
“During our five years in Japan, we have been successful in creating architectural CAD-solutions optimized for the Japanese architectural community as well as setting up mutually profitable partnerships with several of Japan’s most respected companies,” commented Gábor Kazár, Graphisoft’s Vice President of Sales & Marketing. “Entrusting the executive level management responsibilities of Graphisoft Japan to Mr. Hara, with his excellent track record of accelerating business development, underlines our commitment to playing a dominant role on the Japanese AEC software market.”
Nobuhiro Hara’s predecessor, Bence Kovács was appointed product marketing director for Graphisoft R&D. “In my new role, I will be able to offer Graphisoft Japan premium application engineering support and fulfill the Japanese architectural community’s requirements on an even higher level,” Kovács said.
Graphisoft is a leading provider of computer-aided design (CAD) software
solutions for the architectural profession and the building industry.
Founded in 1982, Graphisoft is ranked today among the largest AEC CAD
software developers in the world, with 12 offices all over the world in
addition to its headquarters. Graphisoft’s flagship product, Archicad, is
used by more than 75,000 architects worldwide and distributed in 25
languages and 80 countries. Shares of Graphisoft are traded on the Frankfurt
Stock Exchange Neuer Markt under the symbol GPH. More information about
Graphisoft is available at www.graphisoft.com.