About Us
Though we are a new Silicon Valley startup, NTT Research comes from a rich lineage of ground-breaking research and development. The NTT R&D Lab in Tokyo, Japan boasts over 1600 patents. We intend to bring that kind of basic research to the Valley, and the world.
Kazuhiro Gomi
President and CEO, NTT Research, Inc.
Kazuhiro Gomi leads NTT Research, Inc. as president and chief executive officer (CEO). Mr. Gomi has been at NTT for more than 30 years and was involved in product management/product development activities at the beginning of his tenure. In September of 2009, Mr. Gomi was first named to the Global Telecoms Business Power100 — a list of the 100 most powerful and influential people in the telecoms industry. He was the CEO of NTT America Inc. from 2010 to 2019 and also served on the Board of Directors at NTT Communications from 2012 to 2019. Mr. Gomi received a MSIE from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a MSEE from Keio University, Tokyo. Mr. Gomi is a member of the board at US Japan Council, a non-profit organization aimed at fostering a better relationship between the US and Japan.
Takami Abe
Chief Operating Officer, NTT Research, Inc.
Takami Abe is the Chief Operating Officer of NTT Research. Prior to his current position, he was with NTT East Co. in Tokyo where he oversaw network service quality assurance and also developed and executed company-wide strategy. His portfolio of experience also includes serving as the general manager of NTT’s representative office in Washington, DC between 2021 and 2022, and as deputy general manager between 2019 and 2021. Takami received both his Bachelor and Master of Engineering degrees from The University of Tokyo and holds an MBA from the University of Texas, Austin.
Hideaki Ozawa
Chief Technology Officer, NTT Research, Inc.
Hideaki Ozawa is the CTO of NTT Research Inc. He oversees Corporate and Technology strategy at NTT Research Inc. His focus is on research and development of new technologies regarding Environmental Recognition systems. These include image recognition, speech recognition language media recognition etc., Artificial Intelligence for human machine interaction etc, As general manager of the Smart Navigation division at NTT Resonant, he overseas technology-based web services, Web search for mobile, Multimedia search service, Mobile cloud service, Interactive Digital map, Local search service, Tele health service etc. Formerly, as General Manager of the IT development division at Walkerplus.com, he launched a major Japanese local portal service, Walkerplus.com, with Kadokawa Shoten publishing Co. Dr. Ozawa received his Ph. D, M. Eng and B. Eng, from Department of Electrical Engineering at Keio University.
Yoshihisa Yamamoto
Director of NTT Research PHI Laboratories
Professor Yoshihisa Yamamoto is a director of the NTT PHI Laboratories and a professor of Applied Physics & Electrical Engineering, Emeritus, at Stanford University. He led research laboratories focused on quantum optics and quantum information processing for more than 30 years. His current research interests are in the areas of quantum information, quantum optics, and mesoscopic physics such as squeezed states, quantum nondemolition measurements, cavity quantum electrodynamics, quantum computers, and mesoscopic electron transport and tunneling.
Brent Waters
Director of NTT Research CIS Laboratories
Dr. Waters earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Princeton University in 2004. From 2004-2005, he was a post-doctoral at Stanford University and then work at SRI as a Computer Scientist. In 2008 he joined the faculty at The University of Texas at Austin. In 2019, he was recruited to NTT Research as a Distinguished Scientist. His research interests are within the realm of cryptography computer security. His work focuses on Identity-Based Cryptography, Functional Encryption, and code obfuscation. Recipient of numerous awards and invited papers, he is noted as a founder of Functional Encryption and Attribute-Based Encryption.
Joe Alexander
Director of NTT Research MEI Laboratories
His background is in engineering and medicine. After graduating with a degree in Chemical Engineering from Auburn University, he studied medicine as a fellow of the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at Johns Hopkins Medical School, receiving both M.D. and Ph.D. degrees – with the latter in Biomedical Engineering. He specialized in cardiovascular dynamics, training with Dr. Kenji Sunagawa in the laboratory of the late Dr. Kiichi Sagawa. Immediately afterwards, he completed a fellowship in research cardiology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine before additional training as a Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellow at Kyushu University. Academic faculty positions followed in Biomedical Engineering and Medicine at Vanderbilt University while simultaneously completing his residency in Internal Medicine at Vanderbilt Hospital. During that time, he also helped train astronauts like Dr. Chiaki Mukai for the Neurolab Spacelab Mission. Dr. Alexander collaborated with The National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center as a Visiting Researcher supported by the Science and Technology Agency of Japan. Following academia, he entered Pharma – first Merck, then Pfizer, working in various capacities including Field Medical Director, R&D, Business Development, and Medical Affairs. In Pharma as in academia, his passion for modeling and simulation extended across therapeutic areas. He is credited with creating several Pharma modeling platforms including The Lyrica Virtual Lab, The Neuropathic and Neuropathic-like Pain Virtual Lab, and The Pulmonary Vascular Disease Virtual Lab. Finally, he is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology (FACC) with interests in heart failure, pulmonary hypertension, and in medical devices.
Robert L. Byer
Distinguished Scientist, NTT Research PHI Laboratories
Jon Peterson
Distinguished Scientist, NTT Research MEI Laboratories
After obtaining a degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University, he studied the molecular mechanisms underlying cardiac relaxation at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, receiving a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering. During postdoctoral and faculty appointments at the University of Vermont, he delved into molecular energetics in the normal and diseased heart. Shortly thereafter he joined a small consulting group, working on biomedical projects ranging from the detection and classification of atrial fibrillation to a teleoperated surgical robotics system. For the past 15 years, he has focused on implanted sensors, systems and simulations for diagnosis of cardiac rhythm disorders and heart failure. His primary interest is in the application of engineering principles to medical challenges.
Bennett Indart
Senior Vice President, Product Incubation, NTT Research, Inc.
Bennett Indart leads technology incubation at NTT Research, focusing on transforming early-stage innovations into scalable products and services. He brings over 25 years of experience in technology services, enterprise software, and early-stage product development.
Before joining NTT Research in 2025, Bennett held executive roles at NTT DATA, where he led the global strategy for developing and launching the SMART Management Platform and helped originate and scale the company’s Salesforce.com Consulting Practice into a global business. He was instrumental in the acquisition and integration of Centerstance and has contributed to multiple NTT Group growth initiatives. Earlier in his career, he held leadership roles at Symphony Technology Group, Informatica, and Influence Software. He began his career in SAP consulting at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture).
Bennett holds a BA in Architecture from UC Berkeley and an MBA from the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business.
Chris Shaw
Chief Marketing Officer, NTT Research, Inc.
At his core, Chris is a storyteller who believes creativity moves us forward. His marketing career began at a small California firm that employed IBM mainframe computers to read electrocardiogram data over phone, a radical innovation at the time. Later, Chris would write for a TV game show before rejoining the ad world, writing commercial copy for a software startup. That work earned him his first gold Effie, a prestigious industry award that recognizes the effectiveness of a campaign. Landing a creative director role, Chris then shepherded one of the world’s most iconic brands: Coca-Cola. At the time, Chris and his team used the ubiquitous technology of the day, voicemail, to create what could be called the world’s first social network. In 2005 Chris launched his own agency. Always looking for new ways to tell stories, Central Coast Agency embraced the digital space and was a very early proponent of content marketing. For the next 14 years, Central Coast was agency of record for NTT Communications global social media content marketing. In that world, Chris touched many aspects of NTT’s worldwide business. When NTT Research approached him to lead marketing efforts for a new research facility in the vein of Bell Labs, Chris quickly realized that this opportunity exceeds the realm of advertising. As head of marketing for NTT Research, he is part of something extraordinary. With world class thinkers in the fields of Physics, Encryption and Medicine coming together for the fundamental research which will someday improve and even extend human lives, this is a story Chris is eager to tell.
Laura Zaccone
Vice President, Head of Legal, NTT Research, Inc.
Matthew Ireland
Chief Information Security Officer, NTT Research, Inc.
Matthew Ireland serves as Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Chief Information Officer, and Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer at NTT Research. He leads cybersecurity, physical security, privacy, risk, compliance, and workplace safety programs across the organization.
With over 30 years of experience in security, IT, and enterprise operations, Matt has held leadership roles at NTT Security and NTT Ltd., including VP of Global Cybersecurity Operations and Regional CISO. He began supporting NTT Research as a virtual CISO in 2019 before transitioning to a full-time role in 2021.
Matt holds a BS in Information Assurance & Security, an MS in IS/IT Management, and is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).
Tamra Dedmon
Vice President of Human Resources, NTT Research, Inc.
Nicole Diep
Controller
Kazuhiro Gomi
President and CEO, NTT Research, Inc.
Kazuhiro Gomi leads NTT Research, Inc. as president and chief executive officer (CEO). Mr. Gomi has been at NTT for more than 30 years and was involved in product management/product development activities at the beginning of his tenure. In September of 2009, Mr. Gomi was first named to the Global Telecoms Business Power100 — a list of the 100 most powerful and influential people in the telecoms industry. He was the CEO of NTT America Inc. from 2010 to 2019 and also served on the Board of Directors at NTT Communications from 2012 to 2019. Mr. Gomi received a MSIE from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a MSEE from Keio University, Tokyo. Mr. Gomi is a member of the board at US Japan Council, a non-profit organization aimed at fostering a better relationship between the US and Japan.
Susumu Yamamoto
Senior Vice President of Research and Development Planning, NTT
Susumu Yamamoto is a vice president of Research and Development (R&D) planning department for NTT Group and is responsible for shaping the R&D strategies and visions of NTT laboratories. He is a visionary technical lead of network and computing services that explore extensive business opportunities and drastic cost reduction. Through 25+ years of his career in NTT and NTT East, he architected a variety of nation-wide broadband and enterprise network services and a large-scale private cloud that leveraged leading edge technologies of optical transport, converged routing, virtualization and orchestration. His current focus includes cyber security and artificial intelligence that change the way IT infrastructure and services are offered from the foundation. Mr. Yamamoto received an MBA from the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge and a BEng and an MEng from the University of Tokyo.
Hideaki Ozawa
Chief Technology Officer, NTT Research, Inc.
Hideaki Ozawa is the CTO of NTT Research Inc. He oversees Corporate and Technology strategy at NTT Research Inc. His focus is on research and development of new technologies regarding Environmental Recognition systems. These include image recognition, speech recognition language media recognition etc., Artificial Intelligence for human machine interaction etc, As general manager of the Smart Navigation division at NTT Resonant, he overseas technology-based web services, Web search for mobile, Multimedia search service, Mobile cloud service, Interactive Digital map, Local search service, Tele health service etc. Formerly, as General Manager of the IT development division at Walkerplus.com, he launched a major Japanese local portal service, Walkerplus.com, with Kadokawa Shoten publishing Co. Dr. Ozawa received his Ph. D, M. Eng and B. Eng, from Department of Electrical Engineering at Keio University.
