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The 2015 Tech 50: Yasuki Okai

The Nomura Research Institute Holdings president jumps to No. 44 on this year’s Tech 50 ranking.

By Tyler Davies

July 27, 2015

< The 2015 Tech 50: Racers to the Edge

Yasuki Okai

President

NRI Holdings America

Last year: 48

Close ties to the Japanese market, and particularly to the financial industry as it has coped with difficult economic cycles and capital constraints, set Nomura Research Institute apart from other systems integration and consulting firms. Launched a half century ago within Nomura Securities International, the now-independent, ¥406 billion ($3.4 billion)-in-revenue NRI was never insular — a predecessor company opened a New York office as early as 1967, and it operates in a growing number of Asian and European locations. Still, much of its reputation rests on a domestic foundation, including two long-standing client relationships (Nomura Holdings and retailer Seven & i Holdings) and support of bank and capital market infrastructure. Since the late 1980s, Yasuki Okai has had much to do with the latter: More than 60 percent of Tokyo Stock Exchange transactions, for example, run through the company’s Star and i-Star back-office systems. Tokyo-based NRI designed Japan’s national “My Number” social security identification system that goes into effect early next year and has helped 150 financial institutions prepare for it. In June, NRI announced a data management framework for compliance with Basel Committee on Banking Supervision principles for risk data aggregation and reporting. “With investment of $35 million in research and development for fiscal year ending March 2015, we keep on leading the industry,” says Okai. Until recently, as head of financial technology solutions, the 52-year-old spearheaded posttrade and other outsourcing initiatives to ease financial firms’ cost burdens. In June, Okai became president of NRI Holdings America in New York, leading a charge to “focus our efforts on robust global expansion,” says chairman, president and CEO Tadashi Shimamoto. Acquisitions are part of the plan; in April, NRI Holdings America bought Plano, Texas–based customer relationship management and loyalty systems company Brierley+Partners.

See the full story, “The 2015 Tech 50: Racers to the Edge.”

The 2015 Tech 50