willie banks
WORLD RECORD HOLDER / OLYMPIAN / hsj incorporated
california, usa / tokyo, japan
A 1984 and 1988 Olympian and former world record holder in the triple jump, Willie is the President and CEO of HSJ Incorporated, the distributor in Japan for Fieldturf Tarkett, distributing artificial turf installed in stadiums like Tokyo Dome and Yahuoku Dome. Banks worked as a lecturer for Nagoya’s Chukyo University, where he taught law and sports. In 2001, he consulted for Osaka's bid for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. In 2013, along with Olympian, Carl Lewis, and world record holder, Mike Powell, Banks visited Tohoku to help its recovery and lift the spirit of its athletes.
sponsored by:
Yan Fan
code chrysalis
tokyo, japan
Yan is the co-founder and CTO of Code Chrysalis, Japan's only Silicon Valley style coding bootcamp. Started in 2017 with the mission of changing the way software engineers are trained in Asia and advocating for innovation through diversity and inclusion, Code Chrysalis is helping individuals gain coding skills, make career changes, and helping companies upskill their teams. Prior to Code Chrysalis, Yan worked as a software engineer in Silicon Valley. Code Chrysalis is Yan's second coding bootcamp; she co-founded and served as CTO of a coding school in Jordan helping refugees in 2016.
SPONSORED BY:
michael perry-clemons
empower international / YOUMEWE NPO
TOKYO, JAPAN
Michael has over 22 years of investment banking experience in Asia, having worked in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and Japan and having held various Chief Operating Officer roles in both the financial and philanthropic sectors. Living and working in Japan over the last 26 years, Michael has dedicated the last 7 years working in philanthropy groups, coordinating funding relationships between Investors, NPOs and Social Enterprises. He is the cofounder of EMPOWER and founder of YouMeWe NPO, a non-profit that seeks to empower under privileged children by offering them marketable skills in computer literacy. He aims to place a computer inside every children’s home in Japan.
sponsored by:
mariko mctier
Social Innovation Japan / mymizu
Tokyo, Japan
Mariko, selected as one of Forbes Magazine’s “Self-made Women in Japan”, is a recognized leader in the field of social innovation and circular economy. A former journalist, she has planned, managed and delivered international, multi-stakeholder projects for government, corporations and social ventures, including as Programme Manager for the UK government where she facilitated innovation partnerships between the UK and Japan. She now leverages her experience to build greater cross-sector engagement with social and environmental issues via Social Innovation Japan (SIJ), and co-founded mymizu, a circular economy initiative borne out of SIJ.
sponsored by:
David burkus
davidburkus.com
oklahoma, usa
One of the world’s leading business thinkers, David Burkus’ forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are helping leaders and teams do their best work ever. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in places like The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and USAToday, to name a few. Since 2017, Burkus has been ranked as one of the world’s top business thought leaders by Thinkers50. He’s worked with leaders from organizations across all industries including Google, Stryker, Fidelity, Viacom, and even the US Naval Academy. A former business school professor, Burkus holds a master’s degree in organizational psychology from the University of Oklahoma, and a doctorate in strategic leadership from Regent University.
SPONSORED BY:
niklas karvonen
nordic innovation house
Tokyo, Japan
Niklas is the Community Director at Nordic Innovation House Tokyo – a pan-Nordic collaboration project between the 5 countries to assist Nordic startups, scaleups and growth companies enter into and scale in Japan. He has vast experience in impactful community building both in Japan and Europe within the startup ecosystems, both on the ground as well as the governmental level. He has also worked for a Japanese IoT startup, is an experienced digital marketeer and has been part of the SLUSH Tokyo team. Niklas will share us insights on how to build and foster coordination and communication with the multiple stakeholders involved in startup ecosystems, and identify each’s needs.
SPONSORED BY:
MICHAEL mccoy
CHANGE GEAR JAPAN
TOKYO, JAPAN
Michael is a Leadership Coach with 25 years' experience of crossing cultures, sectors & silos to “Close the Gaps” between leaders, their people & their goals, while learning from the growth of leaders & their diverse, dispersed teams.
By equipping them to harvest the collective intelligence, creativity and discretionary efforts of cross-functional and cross-border teams, he helps CEOs and their Key Managers pivot to a leadership mindset. Michael established ChangeGear Japan in 2011, and has been involved in developing leading teams at Fortune Global 500 companies and other blue chips in Asia. He will speak on the importance of resilience as an entrepreneur.
sponsored by:
Glen wood
SMART VISION LOGISTICS
Tokyo, JAPAN
Originally an accomplished pianist, Glen's creative strengths in adjusting project sails to the changing business winds, as well as consistently delegating work to qualified talent, were honed from the start of his career and continue to build. Glen has spent over 25 years in Asia with experience in both the public and private sectors having worked at Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley, governmental think tanks, and The Council of Local Authorities for International Relations. Glen is currently the President of Smart Vision Logistics (SVL) which he co-founded in 2019. SVL has seen explosive growth focusing on circular economics in the logistics business globally.
sponsored by:
josh flannery
rainmaking innovation japan
osaka, JAPAN
Joshua has just under 20 years of global business experience including being selected as Director of the largest startup hub in the Southern Hemisphere, Sydney Startup Hub launching programs for it’s 480 startup residents in Sydney, as the initiator of one of Australia’s first university based startup programs. Previously, he founded the Innovation Dojo, a company specifically connecting Japan and Australia by innovation, serving clients including Hitachi, Tokyo Institute of Technology and Kyushu University. Currently based in Osaka, Joshua has strong experience with designing and executing programs that connect startups and scaleups to international markets.
sponsored by:
sam davis
amplified ai
TOKYO, JAPAN
Sam Davis is the CEO and founder of Amplified, an artificial intelligence research company that uses patent information to accelerate technology development and simplify patent work. Prior to starting Amplified, Sam was the head of business development at a leading US-based patent research and analytics company where he oversaw Asia expansion and has consulted for Fortune 500 corporate R&D and IP departments. Since 2015, Sam has also worked as an advisor and investor for artificial intelligence start-ups specifically focusing on deep learning.
SPONSORED BY:
sue plumb takamoto
NOZOMI PROJECT
ISHINOMAKI, japan
Sue Plumb Takamoto was born in Zimbabwe but spent most of her early life in New Jersey and Washington, D.C. She spent three years in Japan and then met her husband Eric while working on her leadership PhD from Fuller Seminary. They have been in Japan together for almost twenty years, where they have adopted their four wonderful children. Their family moved in 2012 to Ishinomaki, one of the areas worst hit by the tsunami the previous year. Sue and her team started the Nozomi Project, a social enterprise for local women using broken pottery to make jewelry.
sponsored by:
rochelle kopp
japan intercultural consulting
california, usa / fukuoka, japan
Rochelle is a management consultant specializing in cross-cultural communication, human resources, leadership and organization development. She works with Japanese companies doing business globally and global companies doing business in Japan or working closely with Japanese companies. Rochelle is author of The Rice-Paper Ceiling: Breaking Through Japanese Corporate Culture, Business Etiquette Japan, the upcoming Creating Engaged Employees in Japan, and over thirty books in Japanese. She writes regularly for the Japan Times, the Asahi Shimbun, and the Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun.
sponsored by:
zelia sakhi
virtusize
tokyo, japan
Zelia serves as Chief Experience Officer at Virtusize, a fashion tech startup in Tokyo. She has enjoyed a career at the cutting-edge of Europe’s digital revolution. After starting out as a Creative Director for a leading digital agency in France, Zelia joined Amazon UK in a similar role. She then became Partner and Head of Creative of Sweden’s top digital creative agency, Mobiento. Zelia has led projects across digitalization of retail spaces and design of new ground-breaking e-commerce experiences. Zelia is a frequent presenter at global technology, creative and design events and was selected to judge Cannes Lions in both 2016 and 2019.
sponsored by:
julio corredor
zooterra
new york, usa
Julio Corredor believes in the power of entrepreneurship and innovation to bring positive change in the world. He is the founder of Zooterra, a data intelligence platform that helps companies save time and make smarter decisions when pursuing sustainability efforts. Previously, he worked in Corporate Innovation at Pfizer embedding new organizational capabilities, using open innovation and developing new businesses ventures, among others. He was also a Pfizer Global Fellow at CARE Vietnam helping redesign their private strategy in their fight against poverty. He earned his undergraduate degree from the Colorado School of Mines (Chemical Engineering) and received his MBA from Columbia University.
SPONSORED BY:
RYOICHI NAGATOMI
GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
TOHOKU UNIVERSITY, SENDAI, JAPAN
Ryoichi, internationally recognized as an expert in health and sports science, is the dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering and the director of the Japan Biodesign Program Tohoku, promoting innovation in healthcare.
LAUREN KOCHER
ZAIKO
TOKYO, JAPAN
Lauren is a 12-year veteran of the Japanese entertainment industry. She started at concert promoter Kyodo Tokyo working on tours of international artists, and then spent 6 years in business development at Sony Music Entertainment Japan headquarters, working on merchandise, endorsements, and events including international conference Tokyo Dance Music Event. In early 2019 founded Zaiko, a white-label ticketing startup that has become the market leader for monetized livestream events in Asia after the rise of COVID 19.
SPONSORED BY:
ULRIKE SCHAEDE
university of california, san diego
CALIFORNIA, USA
Schaede is Professor of Japanese Business at the University of California, San Diego, School of Global Policy and Strategy. She is the Director of the Japan Forum for Innovation and Technology where she organizes a weekly seminars on current issues in Japan. Schaede has written extensively on Japanese business organization, authoring many books, her latest title being The Business Reinvention of Japan: How to Make Sense of the New Japan. She has held visiting professor and scholar positions at various universities both within the US and Japan.
