Finding Builders & Do’ers.
Executive search for the leaders building Japan’s most successful global tech businesses.
We partner with global technology companies to find the leaders who turn market entry into market impact – building, scaling, and leading Japan from potential to performance.
Who I Am
I’m Murray Clarke, Founding Partner of TalentHub. For over twenty years, I’ve helped global technology companies build the leadership teams that define their success in Japan.
I built and sold my last search firm to ManpowerGroup Japan after a joint venture partnership, leading senior searches hands-on while supporting my team through my network across Japan’s enterprise technology market. While I placed many Japan Country Managers, several earlier IC hires later became Country Managers themselves – building success stories such as Tableau and HashiCorp, among others.
My network and peer group runs deep across Japan’s tech ecosystem. I was the top external search partner for VMware Japan and was invited to join them during their hyperscale phase, which built long-standing relationships with leaders who now run Japan operations for Snowflake, Datadog, Tanium, Workday, Confluent, Wiz, Automation Anywhere, and more.
Originally from New Zealand, I studied at the University of Tokyo and speak Japanese. I’ve spent my entire professional career in Tokyo and now split my time between Tokyo and Auckland as my youngest children finish school “Down Under”. Outside of work you’ll usually find me in the mountains, or out trying my latest hobby: kayaking.
Validation: Trust Earned, Not Claimed
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★★★★★
“Impressive research and a job well done! Thanks for the great work. Happy to be a reference.”
- Josep Garcia, APAC VP
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★★★★★
“We almost exclusively found Murray to be our go-to recruiter. I highly recommend him.”
- Matt Young, APAC VP
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★★★★★
“One of the top recruiters VMware has worked with, across the whole of Asia Pacific. Exceptional.”
- Kate Berkeley, APAC Talent Acquisition
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★★★★★
“Thanks for your work. Nice job! I appreciate you running at a very intense pace. ”
- Anthony Palladino, CRO
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★★★★★
“Murray has been a tremendous help in hiring dozens of individual contributors as well as key leaders”
- Jon Robertson, APAC VP
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★★★★★
“If you need someone to assist as you try to enter the Japanese market don’t look any further.”
- Gerry Sillars, APAC VP
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★★★★★
“Murray can build a strong relationship and he drives things very passionately.”
- Keita Nozaki, Services Director
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★★★★★
“His business sense and creativity helped fill a high level executive position in a relatively short period of time.”
- Matt Thatcher, Global Sales VP
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★★★★★
“Murray has done outstanding work for PARC in a difficult talent space. Thank you!”
- Patrick Cook, Director Innovation
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★★★★★
"Murray was invaluable. His advice, cultural guidance, and results were outstanding. I highly recommend him.”
- Stephen Beck, Services VP
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★★★★★
“Instrumental in hiring key people, including Country Manager, and delivering RPO”
- Goh Hattori, APAC Talent Acquisition
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★★★★★
Murray helped build our Japan team, securing very high quality sales & engineering hires.
- Sung Hae Kim, Global Head of People
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★★★★★
“Murray helped us lock in a key leader for our Japan business. He did an excellent job.”
- Mathew Fleming, CEO & Founder
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★★★★★
“Excellent work to hire a key sales lead for our new all-flash product in Japan.”
- Barry Kent, Global Sales VP
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★★★★★
“I see Murray as the only recruiter that really understands the markets that he recruits into.“
- Brian Burns, Founding Partner
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★★★★★
“Very pleased with the outcome. Murray provided extremely helpful cultural guidance throughout.”
- James Moore, Global Sales VP
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★★★★★
“Great job Murray. Thanks so much for this. We are really happy with this key hire!”
- TJ Chandler, APAC VP
What I Do
I specialise in executive search for enterprise technology vendors entering or scaling in Japan, combining high-touch recruitment with AI-powered sourcing and market intelligence from TalentHub’s proprietary platform.
Executive Search
For startups and scale-ups entering Japan, I lead one-off leadership searches – typically the early stage Country Manager* or key hires who set the foundation for long-term success. Examples of searches under this model include Celonis*, Darktrace*, Rapid7*, Recorded Future*, DoiT*, Fivetran, SolidFire*, Fusion-io*, Druva*, Pure Storage, SUSE*, Veeam*, CommVault*, mabl AI, Zendesk*, ServiceNow, Stripe, Splunk*, and more.
Primary Agency Partnership
For established vendors expanding in Japan, I act as a long-term strategic partner across multiple leadership and key-person hires through successive stages of growth. This model brings consistency, alignment, and confidence in messaging to attract critical leadership. I’ve supported VMware, Pivotal (Tanzu), Dell Technologies, Nutanix, Lenovo (DCG), and Splunk in this capacity.
How I Do It
Having helped establish VMware’s Software Division (later Tanzu), my executive search work spans the full breadth of Japan’s enterprise technology market, including making key hires for:
Cloud & Infrastructure – VMware, Dell/EMC, Nutanix, Lenovo (DCG), Pure Storage (FlashBlade), DoiT
Cybersecurity & Data Protection – Recorded Future, Darktrace, Rapid7, Splunk, Veeam, Druva, CommVault
Data & Storage – Fusion-io, SolidFire, Fivetran, Databricks
Automation & DevOps – mabl AI, SUSE, Rancher
Enterprise SaaS & GTM Scale – Zendesk, ServiceNow, Stripe, Celonis
I also work with a small group of partner agencies across Asia-Pacific covering consumer technology, digital, e-commerce, and gaming, effectively acting as a business development lead for their Japan mandates.
My coverage spans Japan President and Country Manager appointments through to functional heads across Enterprise Sales, Technical Sales, Partner Business, Marketing, HR, Services & Consulting, Strategy & Operations.
My approach is transparent, data-driven, and rooted in real market insight rather than CVs. I work closely with regional and global executives to define what success looks like in Japan, then find the person who can deliver it.
Each engagement begins with benchmarking target profiles against agreed criteria, scoring prospects, and establishing a shortlist. Before outreach, we refine the pitch and anticipate likely candidate objections to ensure we enter the market with clarity and confidence.
What That Means
Whether starting from zero, scaling momentum, or transforming a business that’s lost direction, every placement is about building and scaling Japan for our global vendor clients.
Here are examples of how our Builders & Do’ers shaped their companies’ success – Japan Country Manager* and senior leadership placements by stage of business.
Build
0-1
Fivetran, DoiT*, Veeam*, Commvault*, Recorded Future*, Rapid7*, Darktrace*, Fusion-io*, Medallia*, Alteryx*, Druva*, Pure Storage, WeWork*, mabl AI, and more
Scale
1-10
ZenDesk*, Celonis*, ServiceNow, Stripe, Nutanix, VMware
Lead
(Or Transform)
10-100
Splunk*, SUSE*, Dell Technologies, Nutanix, VMware, Lenovo
References:
The results above have real stories behind them. If you’d like more context or a first-hand reference, just ask.
Everyone featured in the Trust Earned carousel is open to sharing their experience.
You can also find the leaders listed here on LinkedIn – some worked closely with me in earlier roles, others more recently – all of whom can speak directly to how I helped their businesses in the Japan market.
Click their names to access them on LinkedIn.
Anthony Palladino, Chief Revenue Officer - on transformation at mabl AI
Brian Burns, Founding Partner - on building Hortonworks/Cloudera
DQ Li, APAC VP - on building Recorded Future
Goh Hattori, APAC Talent - on scaling Splunk, leading Dell-EMC
Jon Robertson, APAC VP - on scaling and leading VMware
Josep Garcia, APAC GM - on transformation at SUSE/Rancher
Matt Young, APAC VP - on building and scaling Nutanix
TJ Chandler, APAC VP - on building Fivetran
Useful resources.
Practical guides to help your Japan journey.
Free resources to help global technology companies hire and lead successfully in Japan. All resources are free to download as PDFs.
Contingency vs. Search: Horses for Courses
When to use executive search, and why, vs. a standard contingency approach.
Japan Candidate Calibration Guide
Get the best out of cross-cultural interviewing of Japanese leadership candidates.
Potential Interview Planning Framework
Plan your interview structure, stakeholders and evaluation criteria for success.
Attracting Leadership Talent in Japan
Without a strong brand you may need to work at attracting talent. Here’s what to consider.
Winning in Japan: Why High-Touch Sales Matters
A concise look at why Japan’s enterprise market demands high-touch engagement.
Stay tuned as we will add more resources to this section in future.