Kenichi “Kent” Murata

Kenichi “Kent” Murata is vice president and head of InfoTech Labs (ITL), where he spearheads society-oriented innovations through cross-functional collaboration.

He is responsible for the lab’s strategic growth and efficient management of all the necessary resources for ITL operations. He constantly thinks about how ITL can contribute to better society by Toyota’s major shift toward software-first and mobility and managing the directions and target domain of research that needs to be addressed.

Prior to joining ITL, Murata worked as an engineer in the electronics engineering field for more than 10 years at Toyota’s headquarters in Japan and U.S. Most recently in Toyota Europe and Toyota Connected Europe, he was in charge of all connected businesses, such as product planning and development management, as a senior manager in the connected technology/business field.

Murata holds a Master of Science in Engineering Science from Osaka University.

John Kenney, Ph. D.

John Kenney is director of InfoTech Labs’ Core Connected Technologies (CCT) Group, which supports the mission of connected mobility with research on vehicular communication and cybersecurity. He also directs InfoTech Labs’ Intelligent Connected Systems (ICS) Group, which researches Toyota’s next-generation mobility services and connected vehicle platform.

CCT’s work encompasses Vehicle-to-Everything communication, cooperative automated driving, cybersecurity attack modeling and defense, millimeter wave communication, channel congestion control, spectrum sharing, pedestrian safety, vehicular knowledge networking, and international standards.

ICS’s work focuses on building and prototyping end-to-end systems architecture using Model Based Systems Engineering concepts to research future connected technologies, such as edge computing, digital twin, predictive analytics, personalized ADAS, and cooperative sensor-fusion.

Kenney represents Toyota at IEEE 802.11, IEEE 1609, SAE, ETSI, the Car2Car Communications Consortium and other standards organizations. He also works with research colleagues at various universities.
Prior to joining Toyota, he was a senior research engineer at Tellabs, an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Notre Dame and the campaign manager for a successful U.S. House of Representatives election.

Kentaro Oguchi

Kentaro Oguchi is director of InfoTech Labs’ (ITL) Advanced Development & Planning Group, which creates intelligent connected vehicle architecture that takes advantage of novel AI technologies to provide real-time services to connected vehicles for smoother and efficient traffic, intelligent dynamic parking navigation and vehicle guidance to avoid risks from anomalous drivers.

His team also develops Proof-of-Concept prototype systems of next-generation services for current and future connected vehicles, including in-vehicle systems for object/human detection powered by AI, and cloud system combinations for dynamic presentation of real-time information on-road.

Additionally, Oguchi leads ITL’s activities to seek technologies and startups that may offer benefits for future Toyota vehicles or services.

Prior, he worked as a senior researcher at Toyota Central R&D Labs in Japan.

Oguchi holds a Master of Science in Computer Science from Nagoya University.

Alex Pham

Alex Pham is chief architect of InfoTech Labs’ Infrastructure & Data Platform Solutions Group, which oversees research, design and building of reliable, scalable and robust global infrastructure and data platform. 

He leads research and evaluation of many new and emerging technologies and works closely with technology, data center and infrastructure vendors and partners to identify new and innovative solutions that will enable Toyota to realize its connected car and mobility society vision quickly and cost-effectively. 

Prior to joining Toyota, Pham held a number of senior and executive roles in technology, product and management at global technology and financial service firms, including Visa Inc., SanDisk, Silicon Valley Bank and Veritas.  

Pham holds a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and Statistics and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from San Jose State University and a Master of Business Administration from National University.