EXECUTIVE SEARCH FOR JAPAN

Japan Country Manager Search
for Enterprise Technology

We help US enterprise software and AI vendors appoint the leadership that determines success in Japan. Retained executive search and structured RPO for 0–1 market entry and 1–10 scale.

20+
Years in Japan
50+
Executive Placements
3
Firms Led & Acquired
22+
Years Leading Search
10+
Years Leading RPO
MEET OUR FOUNDING PARTNER

Murray Clarke

For over twenty years I have advised global technology companies on leadership hiring in Japan.

I built and sold my previous search firm to ManpowerGroup Japan following a joint venture partnership. Since then, I have continued to operate at senior mandate level, focusing on Japan Country Manager and commercial leadership appointments.

My work spans early market entry through to scaled operations. Many leaders I placed during early expansion phases went on to run Japan businesses for global vendors across cloud, cybersecurity, data, and enterprise SaaS.

I have worked closely with executive teams at VMware during its hyperscale phase in Japan, and have longstanding relationships with leaders now responsible for Japan operations at companies including Snowflake, Datadog, Tanium, Workday, Confluent, Wiz, and Automation Anywhere.

I have spent my professional career in Tokyo, completed further study at the University of Tokyo, and work fluently in Japanese across US and Japan executive environments.

TRUST EARNED, NOT CLAIMED

What Clients Say

Testimonials from APAC VPs, CROs, and talent leaders across enterprise technology.

Impressive research and a job well done! Thanks for the great work. Happy to be a reference.

Josep Garcia
Josep Garcia
SUSE/Rancher
APAC VP

We almost exclusively found Murray to be our go-to recruiter. I highly recommend him.

Matt Young
Matt Young
Nutanix
APAC VP

One of the top recruiters VMware has worked with, across the whole of Asia Pacific. Exceptional.

Kate Berkeley
Kate Berkeley
VMware
APAC Talent Acquisition

Thanks for your work. Nice job! I appreciate you running at a very intense pace.

Anthony Palladino
Anthony Palladino
mabl AI
CRO

Murray has been a tremendous help in hiring dozens of individual contributors as well as key leaders.

Jon Robertson
Jon Robertson
VMware
APAC VP

If you need someone to assist as you try to enter the Japanese market don't look any further.

Gerry Sillars
Gerry Sillars
CommVault
APAC VP

Murray can build a strong relationship and he drives things very passionately.

Keita Nozaki
Keita Nozaki
VMware
Services Director

His business sense and creativity helped fill a high level executive position in a relatively short period of time.

Matt Thatcher
Matt Thatcher
Pure Storage
Global Sales VP

Murray has done outstanding work for PARC in a difficult talent space. Thank you!

Patrick Cook
Patrick Cook
Xerox PARC
Director Innovation

Murray was invaluable. His advice, cultural guidance, and results were outstanding. I highly recommend him.

Stephen Beck
Stephen Beck
VMware
Services VP

Instrumental in hiring key people, including Country Manager, and delivering RPO.

Goh Hattori
Goh Hattori
Splunk / Dell-EMC
APAC Talent Acquisition

Murray helped build our Japan team, securing very high quality sales and engineering hires.

Sung Hae Kim
Sung Hae Kim
Pivotal
Global Head of People

Murray helped us lock in a key leader for our Japan business. He did an excellent job.

Mathew Fleming
Mathew Fleming
DoubleTake Software
CEO & Founder

Excellent work to hire a key sales lead for our new all-flash product in Japan.

Barry Kent
Barry Kent
Pure Storage
Global Sales VP

I see Murray as the only recruiter that really understands the markets that he recruits into.

Brian Burns
Brian Burns
Hortonworks
Founding Partner

Very pleased with the outcome. Murray provided extremely helpful cultural guidance throughout.

J
James Moore
DoiT
Global Sales VP

Great job Murray. Thanks so much for this. We are really happy with this key hire!

T
TJ Chandler
Fivetran
APAC VP

Impressive research and a job well done! Thanks for the great work. Happy to be a reference.

Josep Garcia
Josep Garcia
SUSE/Rancher
APAC VP

We almost exclusively found Murray to be our go-to recruiter. I highly recommend him.

Matt Young
Matt Young
Nutanix
APAC VP

One of the top recruiters VMware has worked with, across the whole of Asia Pacific. Exceptional.

Kate Berkeley
Kate Berkeley
VMware
APAC Talent Acquisition

Thanks for your work. Nice job! I appreciate you running at a very intense pace.

Anthony Palladino
Anthony Palladino
mabl AI
CRO

Murray has been a tremendous help in hiring dozens of individual contributors as well as key leaders.

Jon Robertson
Jon Robertson
VMware
APAC VP

If you need someone to assist as you try to enter the Japanese market don't look any further.

Gerry Sillars
Gerry Sillars
CommVault
APAC VP

Murray can build a strong relationship and he drives things very passionately.

Keita Nozaki
Keita Nozaki
VMware
Services Director

His business sense and creativity helped fill a high level executive position in a relatively short period of time.

Matt Thatcher
Matt Thatcher
Pure Storage
Global Sales VP

Murray has done outstanding work for PARC in a difficult talent space. Thank you!

Patrick Cook
Patrick Cook
Xerox PARC
Director Innovation

Murray was invaluable. His advice, cultural guidance, and results were outstanding. I highly recommend him.

Stephen Beck
Stephen Beck
VMware
Services VP

Instrumental in hiring key people, including Country Manager, and delivering RPO.

Goh Hattori
Goh Hattori
Splunk / Dell-EMC
APAC Talent Acquisition

Murray helped build our Japan team, securing very high quality sales and engineering hires.

Sung Hae Kim
Sung Hae Kim
Pivotal
Global Head of People

Murray helped us lock in a key leader for our Japan business. He did an excellent job.

Mathew Fleming
Mathew Fleming
DoubleTake Software
CEO & Founder

Excellent work to hire a key sales lead for our new all-flash product in Japan.

Barry Kent
Barry Kent
Pure Storage
Global Sales VP

I see Murray as the only recruiter that really understands the markets that he recruits into.

Brian Burns
Brian Burns
Hortonworks
Founding Partner

Very pleased with the outcome. Murray provided extremely helpful cultural guidance throughout.

J
James Moore
DoiT
Global Sales VP

Great job Murray. Thanks so much for this. We are really happy with this key hire!

T
TJ Chandler
Fivetran
APAC VP
WHAT I DO

Three Service Models for Japan Success

Different roads require different drivers. We match the service model to your stage.

Build

0–1
Executive Search

Builders First — Retained, top-down search for Japan Country Managers and senior commercial leaders. Phase-fit leaders for 0–1 entry.

Fivetran, DoiT*, Veeam*, Commvault*, Recorded Future*, Rapid7*, Darktrace*, Fusion-io*, Druva*, SundaySky*, Pure Storage, WeWork*, mabl AI, GitHub*, and more

Scale

1–10
Outbound RPO

Controlled Market Execution — Structured direct sourcing to build teams once leadership is in place. Scale without prematurely expanding headcount.

ZenDesk*, Celonis*, ServiceNow, Stripe, Nutanix, VMware

Lead

(Or Transform)
10–100
High-Impact Search

Key Hires That Change Trajectory — Targeted search for leaders who reset, transform, or accelerate established Japan operations.

Splunk*, SUSE*, Dell Technologies, Nutanix, VMware, Lenovo

* Denotes Japan Country Manager appointment

RECENT PLACEMENTS

Track Record

Recent mandates completed — from first hire to scaled teams.

Fivetran
Fivetran
1st Japan Enterprise Sales Lead to build the Japan business
SUSE
SUSE
Country Manager to transform the Japan operation
mabl AI
mabl AI
Japan GTM team to build the market from zero
Databricks
Databricks
Senior Manager, Solution Architects + Solution Architect
DoiT
DoiT
Country Manager for Japan launch
Recorded Future
Recorded Future
Country Manager scaling the Japan business
SUSE
SUSE
Senior Partner Executive
+
Multiple mandates underway
Country Manager and senior leadership searches in progress

TRUSTED BY PORTFOLIO COMPANIES OF

Our clients are backed by the world’s leading investors

Sequoia
a16z
Insight Partners
Accel
Greylock
GV
General Catalyst
KKR
EQT
Spark Capital
SoftBank
Presidio Ventures
REFERENCES

Selected References

Available on request. Each reference relates to a specific mandate.

Anthony Palladino
Chief Revenue Officer
— on transformation at mabl AI
Brian Burns
Founding Partner
— on building Hortonworks/Cloudera
DQ Li
APAC VP
— on building Recorded Future
Goh Hattori
APAC Talent
— on scaling Splunk, leading Dell-EMC
Jon Robertson
APAC VP
— on scaling and leading VMware
Josep Garcia
APAC GM
— on transformation at SUSE/Rancher
Matt Young
APAC VP
— on building and scaling Nutanix
TJ Chandler
APAC VP
— on building Fivetran

Ready to discuss your Japan leadership search?

Whether you're entering Japan for the first time or scaling an existing team, let's talk about what the right hire looks like.

Also explore our Japan Cybersecurity Channel Intelligence Map — the most comprehensive mapping of vendor-to-partner relationships in Japan.

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