Society of Women Engineers Honors IBM's Yukako Uchinaga with 2006 Upward Mobility Award.

IBM's Yukako Uchinaga recognized at SWE's annual conference for her contributions to engineering management

CHICAGO -- The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) today announced Yukako Uchinaga the recipient of the 2006 Upward Mobility Award in recognition for breaking gender barriers while developing an outstanding career in software development and the management of software development, ultimately becoming one of the foremost business leaders in Japan.

Yukako Uchinaga is general manager of the IBM's Yamato Laboratory in Japan. In this position, Uchinaga is responsible for a number of organizations, including IBM's largest software development labsCothe Yamato Software Laboratory (YSL), a hardware development organization, the Systems Development Laboratory (SDL), a research laboratory, Tokyo Research Laboratory (TRL), and an engineering services organization, Technology Collaboration Solutions (TCS).

During her 35-year career with IBM, Uchinaga has progressed steadily through positions of increasing technical and managerial responsibility. Uchinaga started with the company in 1971 as a systems engineer and soon thereafter joined the Fujisawa Development LaboratoryCoa research and development division in IBM Japan, where she was tasked with designing and implementing Kanji character representations and input and systems. In 1976 she moved into an architecture group working on microcode design and development for the IBM 3270 Information Display System, IBM's first system network architecture product. This position was a stepping stone for her next position in product line management. In 1984, Uchinaga became a line manager for the development of Systems 36 and 38 for all Asia Pacific countries.

In this position, she established the architecture and development process of supporting Asian languages for computer processing as double byte character set support (DBCS) by extending Kanji (Japanese Double Byte Character Set) Language processing.

"Uchinaga has lead by example throughout her career," says Jude Garzolini, president of the Society of Women Engineers. "She has proven to be an unstoppable force with her perseverance and determination in software management. Her many contributions have resulted in great success for IBM as well as incredible inspiration for women engineers everywhere."

In 1988 she was named executive assistant for the managing director for sales, and later became the strategy director for the manufacturing and distribution industries, followed by several senior management positions in Asia Pacific R&D organizations.

In 1995, Uchinaga joined the board of directors of IBM Japan, becoming the first woman board member of IBM Japan. She was promoted to general manager of Asia Pacific Cross Industry Solutions, and later named vice president of the 700-person Yamato Software Development Laboratory which develops midlleware. And in 1999 she was promoted to managing director of IBM Japan.

"Uchinaga-san is an exemplary IBM leader, most specifically within the Asia Pacific region," says Nicholas M. Donofrio, executive vice president of Innovation and Technology for IBM Corporation. "I have worked with her for most of her 35 years with IBM and deeply admire her for her contributions not only to our business and industry, but also for her unwavering commitment to the advancement of information technology and innovation throughout the world."

In addition to her professional commitments, Uchinaga has been deeply involved in diversity-related and technical support activities within IBM. She works on the IBM Japan Women's Council, an initiative she helped found. The council sponsors women's forums for female engineers and has recommended that IBM Japan establish concrete numerical goals for the participation of women in all parts of the company, including management and technical participation. She also took an active role in the IBM Asia Pacific Women's Council to help increase the development and advancement of women in Asia Pacific. Uchinaga is one of three executive leaders focusing on increasing the numbers and success of women in technology and engineering fields within IBM.

In 1999, Uchinaga was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame, becoming the first woman inducted from outside of the United States.

Uchinaga graduated from the University of Tokyo with a degree in theoretical physics.

The Upward Mobility Award is awarded to a qualified woman who has made an outstanding contribution in the field of engineering and/or technical management such that the nominee has, at a minimum, achieved the level of general manager or equivalent upper management position within her current organization (industry, academia or government service). The award recognizes a woman who has succeeded in rising within her organization to a significant management position such that she is able to influence the decision-making process.

The 2006 Upward Mobility Award will be formally presented Friday night, October 13 at the Society of Women Engineers' National Conference Achievement Award Banquet in Kansas City, Mo. The National Conference, "Women Blazing Technology Trails," is being held at the Kansas City Convention Center in Kansas City, Mo. October 12-14. The more than 4,000 attendees include professionals from every discipline of the engineering profession and a large number of engineering students and educators. The 2007 Conference is scheduled for October 25-27 in Nashville, Tenn.

About SWE

The Society of Women Engineers (SWE), founded in 1950, is a not-for-profit educational and service organization. SWE is the driving force that establishes engineering as a highly desirable career aspiration for women. SWE empowers women to succeed and advance in those aspirations and be recognized for their life-changing contributions and achievements as engineers and leaders. For more information about the Society please visit www.swe.org or call [phone].