For Release: May 13, 2002
Altera's Hiro Higuma to Lead Japanese Operations
Eight-Year Veteran Promoted to President of Altera Japan
San Jose, Calif., May 13, 2002 — Altera Corporation (Nasdaq: ALTR) today announced the promotion of Hiro Higuma to president of Altera Japan. Higuma, previously Altera's director of communications market strategy, will be responsible for developing and executing strategies to grow market share in the region and will report directly to George Papa, Altera's senior vice president of global sales.
"Japan represents a strategic area of growth for Altera," said Papa. "Hiro's record of success during the past eight years makes him the perfect candidate to take advantage of these market opportunities. His strategic and tactical expertise as well as his knowledge of the country and semiconductor market will be invaluable to Altera Japan."
Due to the power and flexibility to adapt to changing standards and protocols, Altera's programmable logic technology and system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) solutions are widely used in the build out of wireless infrastructure and are instrumental in the development of current- and next-generation wireless technology. Japan's aggressive development and rapid adoption of new wireless technologies, such as 3G-based W-CDMA service, opens many opportunities for the company's SOPC solutions. Additionally, Altera's proprietary Nios® soft core embedded processor and extensive digital signal processing (DSP) offerings have seen significant success with Japanese companies developing applications for digital video, and other high-end consumer markets. The cost migration path to HardCopy™ devices offers a compelling solution for volume production.
"The Japanese market plays directly into Altera's sweet spot and I am looking forward to leveraging these opportunities. The widespread adoption of the Excalibur™ embedded processor solutions in Japan, particularly the Nios soft core embedded processor, as well as the successful penetration of the APEX™ II and HardCopy devices makes the region ripe for significant growth," said Higuma. "With the recent addition of the Stratix™ device family, Altera is armed and ready to roll."
Higuma, who has a BSEE and MBA from Carnegie Mellon University, joined Altera in 1994 and has served in various marketing roles. His career responsibilities included a three-year assignment in Altera Japan from 1996 to 1999 as the regional marketing manager. Most recently, he has been a key player in the company's communications marketing strategy, which accounts for more than half of the company's total revenues. Higuma is relocating permanently to Japan from the United States and officially starts in this new role today.
About Altera
Altera Corporation (Nasdaq: ALTR) is the world's pioneer in system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) solutions. Combining programmable logic technology with software tools, intellectual property and technical services, Altera provides high-value programmable solutions to approximately 14,000 customers worldwide. More information is available at http://www.altera.com.
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