Motorola's director of Japanese operations has left to join Celunite, a vendor of Linux-based mobile phone software and development services. Tom Okada will serve as VP of sales and business development at Celunite, of Sunnyvale, Calif. and Pune and Hyderabad, India.

Previously, Okada managed Motorola's mobile devices group in Japan, sat on Motorola's Japan board, and served as VP of its entire Asia Pacific operation. His career highlights include launching the MotoRazr line — which includes several Linux-based models — as well as the M1000, described as Motorola's first UMTS/WiFi phone for Japan.

Okada comes from an engineering background, having previously served as senior engineer and program manager at Motorola Mobile, where he focused on developing WCDMA technology with NTT DoCoMo. Okada also established Motorola's Yokosuka Research Park, a private R&D group near Tokyo working on radio telecommunications technology.

Celunite is a private, venture-funded company headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., with development offices in Pune and Hyderabad, India. It markets a mobile phone software stack based on Linux, together with development services around the stack. The stack is said to support “increasingly sophisticated, animated, and Internet-enabled” phones.

CEO Mahesh Veerina stated, “Tom brings hard-won knowledge of the Asian mobile industry as well as a deep understanding of how to supply quality software to demanding mobile phone customers.”

David Helfrich, director of major Celunite investor Garnett & Helfrich Capital, added, “Tom's leadership experience in producing and delivering winning, innovative products to Japan's advanced mobile industry make him an ideal addition.”

Okada said, “Celunite has an outstanding opportunity to shape the mobile industry.”

 
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