News Release：Pioneer Announces New Chairperson of Pioneer Mr. Sanjay Dhawan

Pioneer Corporation today announced Mr. Sanjay Dhawan has been appointed as the new Chairperson of Pioneer, effective June 30, 2022.

Pioneer aims to accomplish its 2025 corporate vision, " Creating the Future of Mobility Experiences." With Mr. Dhawan’s deep insight and broad knowledge and network within the industry, Pioneer will accelerate its transformation into a software-backed technology company that solves a variety of mobility challenges and offers exciting entertainment value to users globally.

Mr. Dhawan is a strong leader with more than three decades of experience in software technology, the automotive industry, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) applications, and expertise in building solutions at the intersection of devices, sensors, cloud, and data intelligence.

“I am honored to join Pioneer as Chairperson and bring my experience and knowledge to a company with such a strong heritage of product leadership,” said Mr. Dhawan. “The automotive industry is dramatically transforming with connected and electric vehicles and autonomous driving technologies. I am confident that with the right alignment around speed and quality of innovation, Pioneer will shape the future of cars. I look forward to working with the management team and the board to bring the vision to reality.”

Mr. Dhawan is currently CEO of SymphonyAI, a leader in high-value enterprise AI software solutions for multiple industries. Before SymphonyAI, Mr. Dhawan was President and CEO of Cerence, Inc., the premier provider of AI-powered assistants and innovation for connected and autonomous vehicles across a mobility ecosystem with more than 60 OEM customers and more than 350 million vehicles globally. During Mr. Dhawan’s tenure at Cerence, Pioneer and Cerence formed a strategic partnership in June 2021 to develop Conversational AI Infotainment Solutions that transform mobility experiences. Prior to Cerence, Mr. Dhawan spent a decade at Harman, where he served as CEO of the company’s Symphony Teleca division and President of Harman Connected Services.
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Mr. Shiro Yahara, President and CEO of Pioneer, said, “Mr. Dhawan’s wealth of knowledge of SaaS and technologies for automobiles and his global network will be extremely powerful for Pioneer as we transform to a SaaS technology company. We are confident that by fusing Pioneer’s DNA, which has developed an array of world-first products, with our new solution business expertise, we will be able to offer innovative new values to the world faster than ever before.”

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