mento Announces Appointment of New VPoE (Vice President of Engineering)

Image: Management Success Platform "mento" mento inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Norihito Kimura; hereinafter "mento"), provider of the management success platform "mento," announces the appointment of Kohei Kadowaki (kadoppe) as VPoE (Vice President of Engineering) of its engineering organization. He will strengthen development and organizational management to realize our management success platform. ◾️ Background of Appointment: Transformation into a Product Company Following its fundraising in April 2025, mento announced the development of a "Management Success" platform to support middle managers using human expertise and AI technology. Based on the challenges of middle managers revealed through over 80,000 hours of coaching, we have steered our course toward transforming into a product company. In January 2026, we launched "Management AI," which supports self-management for members and behavioral support for middle managers via AI. Furthermore, we will accelerate the development of the "Management Success" platform, which aims to structurally change the management of large enterprises by launching multiple management business support suites and expanding our data infrastructure in the future. To build the engineering organization necessary to realize such a management success platform, Kohei Kadowaki (kadoppe) has been appointed as VPoE. Based on his experience managing a product organization of 100 people and launching multiple products at PLAID, Inc., he will work to strengthen recruitment, improve productivity, and increase organizational speed for mento's engineering team. ◾️ VPoE Kohei Kadowaki (kadoppe) Kohei Kadowaki (kadoppe) Completed his master's degree at Doshisha University Graduate School of Engineering. In 2012, he founded ShareWis Inc. as co-founder and CTO. In 2014, he joined Recruit Technologies Co., Ltd. (now Recruit Co., Ltd.) and served as Tech Lead for the Townwork development team. In 2017, he joined PLAID, Inc., where he engaged in the development of the CX platform "KARTE," and subsequently led the expansion of the engineering organization as VPoE. After serving as Director and CTO of WE UP Inc., he joined mento inc. in April 2025 and assumed the role of VPoE. Sixteen years after starting my career as a software engineer out of a love for craftsmanship and the internet, I found myself deeply committed to managing engineering organizations. While I found it rewarding to be involved in management, which can have a massive impact on business and society, I spent my days facing various conflicts and difficulties, much like many managers around the world. That was when I encountered mento. mento's core businesses, "Management AI" and "Management Coaching," are exactly what could have helped me when I was hitting various walls as a manager in the past. I deeply resonated with and was incredibly excited by the prospect of building such businesses and products with my own hands alongside like-minded colleagues and delivering them to users, which led me to join mento. Immediately after joining, while working on the 0-to-1 launch of the new "Management AI" business, I had the opportunity to rapidly build a prototype from a mere concept and demonstrate it during client meetings. During my commute home, feeling confident about the clients' reactions, I realized that I was once again fully engrossed in startup product development, fully utilizing the power of engineering that I excel at and love. As VPoE, I want other engineers to experience the same thing I did, not just once, but over and over again. To achieve this, it is necessary to create an environment where each individual can bring out their inherent creativity and demonstrate it to the maximum extent. By doing so, I believe we can accelerate the development of the management success platform that mento aims to realize, and shape an engineering organization capable of delivering immense value to our customers. ◾️ Comment from the Executive Officer & CTO Yuki Matsuyama, Executive Officer & CTO, mento inc. Joined Recruit in 2014. After experiencing engineering across various services, he took charge of launching development teams and managing teams as a Scrum Master. He joined mento as CTO in 2019. He drives the entire product landscape, from building the development organization to formulating and promoting technology strategies. As the rise of AI changes human work at an unprecedented speed, organizational management is also reaching a turning point where it must be updated to a "new OS."