Smartsheet has promoted Jarrod Kinchington to Vice President and General Manager for Asia-Pacific (Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia and India) and appointed Takeshi Osawa as President of Japan, as the work management software company expands its regional leadership team.
The company said the appointments reflect rising customer adoption across technology, manufacturing and professional services in APAC and Japan, alongside increased use of its Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server AI capabilities.
Smartsheet said it has expanded its footprint in the region over recent years, opening offices in Sydney in 2020 and Tokyo in 2023, followed by new offices in Singapore and India earlier this year.
“Customer demand continues to accelerate across APAC, fueling strong growth and reinforcing the region’s importance to our global strategy,” said Kinchington. “Organizations here are looking to transform with AI, but many are starting from a fragmented foundation. Before they can scale AI, they need a platform that shows them how work flows across the business and provides the governance to manage AI responsibly. That’s especially important in APAC, where compliance requirements are stringent. Smartsheet connects work across the enterprise and gives organizations the visibility and control to safely scale AI.”
Osawa brings more than 25 years of enterprise technology experience from Autodesk, SAP Fieldglass, and Cloudera, according to Smartsheet. The company said that since establishing its Tokyo office in 2023, it has grown to more than 400 customers in Japan and its business has grown by approximately 400%.
“I’m honored to join Smartsheet at this pivotal moment for the Japan business,” said Takeshi Osawa, Smartsheet President & General Manager, Japan. “What resonates deeply with me is Smartsheet’s approach: rather than replacing the systems and processes Japanese enterprises have invested in, we connect them securely to deliver visibility, governance and real-time insights across the organization. As AI adoption accelerates, I believe what companies need is not simply adopting AI itself, but translating AI into ‘execution’ that leads to concrete business outcomes. That’s the kind of long-term business partnership Japanese customers are looking for. Together with our customers and partners, we aim to make Smartsheet an indispensable platform that supports the transformation and growth of Japanese businesses.”
Smartsheet attributed recent growth to organisations seeking to connect data, systems and teams in support of AI initiatives, and said it recorded double-digit growth across its fastest-growing sectors in APAC and Japan over the past year.
In professional services, Smartsheet said new customers include Bangkok Bank, and cited examples of use by Anderson Mori & Tomotsune Foreign Law Joint Enterprise and First Sentier Investors. In technology, it said EmberPoint automated 70% of its business process steps using Smartsheet and that EML Payments is among new customers. In manufacturing, it said Motul Asia Pacific used Smartsheet for a warehouse migration and named Maruti Suzuki as a new customer.
The company said adoption of its MCP Server in the region has grown by more than 500% since its launch in March 2026, and that customers have executed over 600,000 AI actions across connected tools including Claude, Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT and Google Cloud Gemini Enterprise.
“Smartsheet is the backbone of how we run our consulting business,” said Mike Ellis, Global Head of Zalaris Consulting at Zalaris. “We’ve unified seven business units across 34 countries on Smartsheet to create a single source of operational truth. Now with Smartsheet’s MCP Server and AI capabilities, we’re transforming our data into real-time intelligence. We can pull insights from across our entire tech stack, including Smartsheet, our BI and CRM platforms, and more, enabling greater automation and efficiency. As a result, we’re seeing approximately 67% productivity gains, allowing our project managers to take on more projects simultaneously.”
Smartsheet Chief Revenue Officer Scott Torrey said APAC organisations are making strategic investments in work management and AI capabilities, and that the company expects continued growth in the region.
