Former CEO of Komatsu Electronics to head Cognex K.K.

JANUARY 21, 2008--Makoto Inoue has joined Cognex Corporation (Natick, MA, USA ;www.cognex.com) as president of Cognex K.K., the company's Japanese subsidiary. Inoue, who started in the position on January 15, will report to Eric Ceyrolle, Cognex executive vice president of worldwide sales and marketing.

As President of Cognex K.K., Inoue will be responsible for the sales, marketing, engineering, and technical support of Cognex machine-vision products in Japan and will oversee five offices and more than 100 Cognex employees. He takes over leadership of Cognex K.K. from Hiro Ohgusu, who joined Cognex in 1990 and who will continue to assist Cognex K. K. as a member of its board of directors.

Inoue joins Cognex after a career of more than 30 years with Komatsu Ltd., a manufacturer of industrial machinery and equipment with combined revenues in excess of $16 billion. Most recently he served as CEO and president of Komatsu Electronics, a maker of temperature-control systems for the semiconductor industry, where he increased revenue from $50 million to a high of $135 million.