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| Kazutomo Robert Hori |
It came as a very pleasant surprise when an old friend rang from Osaka to tell me that her son's business had taken off like a rocket. The last time I saw Robert was at his wedding seven years ago -- a spectacular if crazy event held on top of a mountain in Hiroshima Prefecture. Since that day, life has taken him on quite a ride.
For one thing, the marriage dissolved -- though the couple remain good friends and meet for dinner several times a year. This alone is unusual in Japan. But then Robert is hardly the archetypal Japanese male. Now 35 and as bicultural as he is bilingual, he moves between East and West with an ease that is admirable and enviable. He is also tall, good looking, rich and nice with it. But forget eligible. These days, he says, he is totally focused on work.
Kazutomo Robert Hori (as printed on his name card) is president and CEO of Cybird, a company positioned to be the leading content provider in the mobile phone Internet market. "Internet companies are usually only interested in opening a site to pitch sales. Cybird provides solutions to the whole industry. With the strongest R&D section and 100 projects in the pipeline, we're poised to be listed on the stock exchange this coming autumn. We're regarded as one of the best Internet-related companies because we produce revenue."