Miho Watanabe, Operations Support Manager

By MaaS Global • January 14, 2022

Miho Watanabe joined MaaS Global’s Japan branch in the winter of 2019, just when mobility-as-a-service was beginning to boom in the local transportation and automobile industry.

“I applied to a staffing service as an external support staff. Two years later, I wanted to do more as a company employee with assigned responsibilities and was promoted to my current position.”

As Operations Support Manager Miho’s responsibilities are coordination between the operational teams in Finland HQ and the Japanese project team as well as between the marketing team and local project’s marketing activities. She also supports the billing processes with local partners, does customer care for the local user issues, and sometimes helps with local translation for UI. For her, working for MaaS Global was an opportunity to contribute to a key feature of future technology.

“MaaS concept was considered to be a breakthrough that could be a key when the automobile industry had to make a shift. Now, it seems that MaaS is becoming a more concrete thing that is looking for a way to best fit the market.”

Previously Miho has worked in the translation industry and was keen to be involved with creating UI and content that is enjoyable for the user as well as contributes to environmental sustainability.

“I like Whim as a product, especially how it can nudge users towards a more green way of travelling. MaaS Global’s value of leading with sustainability really made me want to work with the company.”

Even though most of her colleagues are in a completely different time zone, Miho appreciates the supporting community inside the company.

“It is comfortable and enjoyable to work with people from various backgrounds. You learn a lot that way. And everybody cares for one another! My colleagues on the other side of the world always ask me how my family is doing when I’m working overtime in the evening.”