Kunitake Ando

Honorary Director

Experience:

Mr. Ando is a Sony Corporation veteran, joining in 1969 and being put in charge of its management during its heyday as a worldwide innovation leader. He eventually was appointed as the President and COO of Sony Corporation in 2000. In 2005, he became Chairman of Sony Financial Holdings Inc. as well as of Sony Life Insurance. He was the Honorary Chairman of Sony Life Insurance from 2011 to 2018. He is
currently serving as the Chairman of The University of Nagano.

Innovation management:

Mr. Ando was instrumental in successfully diversifying Sony’s business, establishing the Sony Prudential Life Insurance Co., Ltd. (now known as Sony Life Insurance Co., Ltd.), and becoming its Deputy President. From 1996 onwards he was furthermore instrumental in developing the “VAIO” business. Mr. Ando also has extensive overseas experience, having served as President of Sony Engineering and Manufacturing of America in the 1990s.

Yasuo Nishiguchi

Honorary Director

President of HANDY Inc. The former President and CEO of Kyocera Corporation, one of Japan’s leading companies in system electronic devices, telecom equipment and applied ceramic products.
Mr. Nishiguchi obtained his M.S. degree from Osaka Kyoiku University and Ph.D. in management science and innovation policy studies at Doshisha University Graduate School of Policy Studies.

Noboru Konno

Chairperson, Director

Professor Emeritus, Tama Graduate School of Business
Managing Director, EcosyX Lab
Specially Appointed Professor,  System Design Management (SDM) unit of Keio University.
Managing Director, Future Center Alliance Japan (FCAJ)
Board member, The New Club of Paris
Director, Knowledge Creation Principles Consortium
Advisor, Nikken Sekkei Ltd.
BS of the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University.
Ph.D. (Management Information Science, academic)

Publications:

• “Intellectualizing Capability” (Nihon Keizai Shimbun, 1995, FT Best Global Business Book Award)
• “Introduction to Knowledge-based Management: Knowledge Management and Its Era” (Chikuma Shinsho, 1999)
• “Methodology of Knowledge Creation: The Way of the Knowledge Worker” (Toyo Keizai, 2003)
• “The Principles of Knowledge Creation Management: A Practical Theory of Wise Capitalism” (Toyo Keizai, 2012)
• “Methodology of Conceptualizing Capability” (Nikkei BP, 2018), etc. 
  The above books are co-authored with Ikujiro Nonaka
• “The Art Company” (Nihon Keizai Shimbun, 2008)
• “Design Thinking for Business” (Toyo Keizai 2010)
• “Why People Who Think Only about Profit and Sales Fail (Purpose Engineering)” (Diamond, 2013)
• “The Whole Innovation Catalog” (Toyo Keizai, 2020)
• “New Generation Leaders for Transformation: Call for the Dynamos” (co-author, Nikkei BP, 2021), etc.

Taro Sengoku

President

CEO, REWIRED Co., Ltd.
Founder, Co-Representative Director, Knowledge Creation Principle Consortium
Board Member, Future Center Alliance Japan
Auditor, Future Center Alliance Japan

1988 Joined Fuji Xerox and engaged in sales and human resource development.
2000 Participated in the launch of KDI (Knowledge Dynamics Initiative) and supported knowledge management of client companies.
2016 Director of Value Creation Consulting.
2019 Founded Rewired Co., Ltd.
2021 Founded Knowledge Creation Principles Consortium to pursue 21st century management, development of dynamo people, and the place of innovation.

Reference:

• REWIRED Co., Ltd.
• Knowledge Creation Principle Consortium
• Future Center Alliance Japan (FCAJ)
• Council for Economic Education Japan

Hitoshi Funahashi

Managing Director

ICMG Group President, Founder and Group CEO

Experience:

Mr. Funahashi began his career at a large Japanese trading house developing products for overseas sales before joining Recruit Corporation in 1987, where he worked on human resource issues before being put in charge of the new business development office.

Innovation management:

In 1996, Mr. Funahashi successfully led the creation of a business incubation division in Recruit. He also launched the magazine Entre and started to provide venture companies with comprehensive support services. In 2000, he was put in charge of Recruit’s business support services project and established Actcell Corporation. In 2001, Actcell went into partnership with ICAB, a Swedish intellectual capital rating company, and obtained the license for the highly innovative IC Rating® approach for evaluating substantive corporate value that is not clearly listed on balance sheets, and successfully developed a Japanese version of this rating method.

Mr. Funahashi also serves as a member of the subcommittee on Management and Intellectual Assets at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

Reference:

ICMG Group

Takeshi Matsumoto

Managing Director

Experience:

Prior to joining JIN as a full-time Executive Director in March 2019, Mr. Matsumoto was the Vice President of NineSigma Japan, and the Senior Manager of the Open Innovation Department of Osaka Gas Co., Ltd. He also holds posts of Professor in the Business Engineering Graduate School of Osaka University.

Innovation management:

In Osaka Gas, Mr. Matsumoto has been involved in numerous projects on new business creation. He was part of the team developing a freeze-crushing machine, as well as being involved in the research and development of a thin film type gas sensor. As leader of research planning in its Institute of Technology, he was engaged in starting up of several projects such as on fuel cells or on the production and storage of hydrogen energy.
Mr. Matsumoto also led the establishment of a ‘Management of Technology’ (MOT) school at Osaka Gas to promote technology education and innovation.

Aya Omoto

Director

Co-representative of Laere Co., Ltd.
Director of AIDA DESIGN LAB

After joining Grey Worldwide, an advertising company of the WPP Group, in 2008, she worked on brand strategy and communication development for a major consumer goods manufacturer.

She later studied at KAOSPILOT, a business design school in Denmark, for three years, and co-founded Laere inc. in 2015. Taking inspiration from a Scandinavian perspective, she works to create a better society through creative leadership and organizational development for companies, research institutes, and universities. In 2020, she was selected as a representative member of the Japanese side for the 15th German-Japanese Young Leaders Forum hosted by the Japanese-German Center Berlin.

Publications:

• Diamond Online: “Design Thinking in Denmark, a Land of Happiness”
• Newspicks: “Thinking in Chaos”

Reference:

• Laere inc.

Yumiko Kamada

Director

Representative Director of ONE-GLOCAL

Joined East Japan Railway Company in 1989.
In 2001, she became involved in the Ekinaka business and became the President and Representative Director of JR East Station Retailing, which operates “ecute”. After that, she launched the Regional Rediscovery Project at the head office, and worked on expanding sales channels for local products and processing of agricultural products, including Aomori “A-FACTORY” and the local product store “Nomono”
In 2014, she joined Calbee as Senior Executive Officer in charge of B2C and new businesses.
In 2019, she founded ONE-GLOCAL to work on projects co-creation with local communities from the perspective of regional design through the discovery and processing of attractive materials and studied at the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London until April 2020.
In December, she opened the EC site “Each one-A story of regions and materials-“.
She is also deeply involved in local communities as an outside director, a member of various committees in the national government, the administration, NHK, and as an ambassador to Ibaraki.

Publications:

• The Story of Ecute” (Kanki Publishing Co., Ltd.)
• In “Strangers” Change Japan” (Nikkei BP)

Reference:

• ONE-GLOCAL Corporation
• https://hitotsu-hitotsu.net/

Seiko Shirasaka

Director

Dean/Professor, Graduate School of System Design and Management, Keio University

Dr.Seiko Shirasaka earned a Master’s degree in Astronautics from University of Tokyo and Doctoral degree in Systems Engineering from KEIO University.

He worked for Mitsubishi Electric Corporation as a space systems engineer for 15 years. One of the projects which he worked for is HTV, H-II transfer vehicle. His final position in HTV project was a technical lead in Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. He had been an associate professor at Graduate School of System Design and Management at KEIO university since 2010 and he has been a professor since 2017. He has served as a dean of the graduate school since 2023. His main research topics are system development methodology especially systems architecture. He was a program manager on ImPACT (Impulsing Paradigm Change through Disruptive Technologies Program) lead by Cabinet Office of Japan from 2015 through 2019, and developed Small Synthetic Aperture Radar(SAR) Satellite System for On-Demand Observation.

Minoru Noda

Director

Professor, Meiji University Professional Graduate School,Graduate School of Global Business

Experience:

Mr. Noda is Professor at Meiji University’s Graduate School of Global Business and special-appointment Research Advisor at Recruit’s Works Institute, where he in charge of New Business. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Noda served as Executive Manager of Nomura Research Institute’s consulting department.

Innovation management:

Mr. Noda is the founder of J. Feel, Inc., a consulting company focusing on organizational management. He also served as its President until 2010. Mr. Noda specializes in organizational and strategic management. His focus is on individual behaviors and decision-making in a wide range of organizations, from small groups to large corporations.

Having authored numerous books on people motivation and organizational design for talent management, he regularly appears on major TV programs, including as a commentator on Broadcaster (TBS), as news commentator on Zoom In Super (Nippon Television), and as anchor on Keizai Wide Vision e (NHK General) and 7PM (BS Japan).

Tsuyoshi Mano

Director

Experience:

Dr. Mano is a faculty member of the Graduate School of Social Innovation at the University of Nagano and a board member of Amita Holdings Co., LTD. Prior to his appointment of the University of Nagano, he served as Vice Mayor of Toyooka city through the public election for 8 years upon having worked for Kyocera Corp. for 30 years.

Innovation Management:

Dr. Mano was responsible for Corporate Venture Capital activities, Joint Ventures and M&A at Kyocera under Dr. Inamori, the founder of Kyocera and He also served as the President of Kyocera Wireless Corporation in the USA, a global cellphone business after having acquired it from Qualcomm Inc.

Having developed professionally in the private sector, as a Vice Mayor of Toyooka city, he stressed the importance of cooperating with private companies in the public sector, while at the same time reforming current employees’ knowledge and skills by introducing participatory evaluation processes.

Now, as a faculty member of Graduate School of Social Innovation, he started creating “BA” for local leaders from diversified sectors to build a venture ecosystem.

Kanae Kamoshita

Auditor

Managing Partner, Utops Law Office
Japan Logistics Fund, Inc.　Supervisory officer
Attorney at Law (Kanagawa prefecture Bar Association)

Legal Apprentice, The Legal Training and Research Institute of the Supreme Court of Japan
Graduated from Waseda University (LL.B.) and Keio Law School (J.D.)

Hiroyuki Ozaki

Director, Innovation Acceleration Group

Since joining JIN in September 2019, he is a member of the Japanese delegation to the ISO TC279 which standardize innovation management.  He is also a member of the Japan mirror committee of ISO TC279 and plays a key role to coordinate with relevant stakeholders in Japan to make better standards from the Japanese perspectives. 

As a project manager, he has been supporting several Japanese and International companies to establish/mature their innovation management systems by providing accompaniment consulting to install/create the innovation operation processes as well as necessary support systems.  

Prior to JIN, he was the Sustainable Economic Development Expert at United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) New York Office, where he was involved to formulate the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals especially Goal 9, “Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation”.

He holds Master of Diplomacy and International relations from the Whitehead School at Seton Hall University. 

Ai Ohara

Director, Innovation Acceleration Group

Joined JIN in 2016, Ai leads JIN‘s open innovation platform “SDGs Holistic Innovation Platform (SHIP)”, originally founded with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The platform is aiming to accelerate the Japanese private sector’s business engagement in development, towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Prior to joining JIN, Ai was the Private Sector Partnership Consultant based in UNDP Tokyo for 5 years, providing consultations for Japanese private companies to initiate inclusive businesses, as well as advocated UNDP-led initiative, the Business Call to Action (BCtA). 

Before her career at UNDP, Ai has nearly 20 years of experience working for Nomura Research Institute as a consultant providing research and consulting services to the Japanese central and regional governments in urban and regional planning, as well as the Manager of Corporate Communications and the General Manager of CSR.

Ai holds a Master of Development Administration degree from Western Michigan University in the U.S.

Naoki Ogiwara

IMSAP Studio Lead

Managing Director, Knowledge Associates Japan

Professor, Tama Graduate School of Business

Director, Knowledge Associates International

Naoki has extensive experience in knowledge management, change management, and innovation management for more than 20 years. He directs the strategy and execution of consulting, education and research services for private and public organizations in Japan and globally at Knowledge Associates Japan. He currently teaches practical methodologies of knowledge management and change management at Tama Graduate School of Business.

He previously served for the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) as Director, Research & Planning Department, where he was responsible for strategy formulation initiatives to contribute to the productivity enhancement in its 20 member countries. He has also served as Senior KM Officer at The World Bank, where he led KM initiatives at Financial & Private Sector Development Network.

Naoki holds a BA in political science from Keio University (Tokyo) and an MBA, summa cum laude from Babson College.

Publications:

• “Dynamo Revolution” (Co-author, Nikkei BP)
• “Knowledge Management for the Public Sector” (Co-author, APO)

Reference:

• Knowledge Associates Japan, Inc.

Dr. Robert Eberhart

Assistant Professor of Management at Santa Clara University Research fellow at Stanford University

Dr. Eberhart is an Assistant Professor of Management at Santa Clara University and is research fellow at Stanford University as the director at Stanford’s Project on Japanese Entrepreneurship.

His research focuses on the role of Japanese institutions in fostering entrepreneurship. He also studies comparative corporate governance of growth companies. Dr. Eberhart’s academic publications include topics such as entrepreneurship’s intersection with public policy, corporate governance and firm value, and institutional effects on innovation. His work has been quoted in the New York Times, Forbes, and the Nikkei Keizai Shimbun.

He serves as the Vice Chair of the U.S. Dept. of State and METI’s Japan-US Innovation and Entrepreneurship Council, where he leads the policy writing effort. He is also an academic advisor to the American Chamber of Commerce’s Task Force on New Growth Strategies. He lectures in classes on Japanese business and entrepreneurship at Stanford University, New York University, University of Tokyo, and Kobe University.

Dr. Eberhart earned his PhD from Stanford University. He also has a Master’s degree in economics from the University of Michigan. From 1999-2007 he founded and was the CEO of a successful start-up in Japan.

Prof. Leif Edvinsson

Board Director of the Swedish Brain Research Foundation and the Centre for Molecular Medicine at Karolinska Institute

Dr. Edvinsson was the world’s first director of IC (Intellectual Capital) in 1991. He initiated the creation of the world’s first public corporate Intellectual Capital Annual Report in 1994, and inspired the development ever since on IC metrics.

In parallel, he was prototyping the Skandia Future Centre as a Lab for Service Organisational design, one of the very first in the World.

In 1996 he was recognized with awards from the American Productivity and Quality Centre, USA and Business Intelligence, UK. In 1998, Dr. Edvinsson received the prestigious Brain Trust “Brain of the Year” award for his pioneering work on IC. In 2006 he was also listed in by London Business Press as one of The 50 Most influential Thinkers in the World. He is an associate member of The Club of Rome. He is also Cofounder and Chairman of The New Club of Paris, focused on the Knowledge Economy Agenda setting initiatives. In May 2013, he received the Luminary Innovation Award for Thought Leadership by the Peter Drucker Foundation, the EU and Intel.

Since 2000 he has been the Honorary Chairman of the UK based Henley College, KM Forum and Professor Emeritus at Lund University on Intellectual Capital. In 2007, he was also appointed professor at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and in 2009 became Guest Professor at Jiaotong University, Xian, China.

Dr. Edvinsson was educated at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lund University. He is the author of numerous articles on the Service management and on Intellectual Capital.

Prof. Lynda Gratton

Professor of Management Practice at London Business School

Prof. Gratton is Professor of Management Practice at London Business School where she directs the program ‘Human Resource Strategy in Transforming Companies’ – considered the world’s leading program on human resources. Prof. Gratton is the founder of The Hot Spots Movement and for over five years has led the Future of Work Research Consortium which has brought executives from more than 80 companies together both virtually and on a bespoke collaborative platform.

Prof. Gratton has written extensively about the interface between people and organizations. Her eight books have been translated into more than 15 languages. Her case on BP won the EECH best case of the year, her article on ‘signature processes’ the MIT Sloan award, and in 2012 The Shift received the best business book of the year award in Japan.

Prof. Gratton’s work has been acknowledged globally – she has won the Tata prize in India; in the US she has been named as the annual Fellow of NAHR and won the CCL prize; whilst in Australia she has won the HR prize. She is a Fellow of the World Economic Forum and has chaired the WEF Council on Leadership. She serves as a judge on the FT Business Book of the Year panel, chairs the Drucker prize panel and is on the governing body of London Business School. In 2013 she was awarded the Life Time Achievement Award by HR Magazine and equally in 2013 she was amongst the 15 top thought leaders in the Thinkers50 ranking.

Yossi Katribas

Yoka Global Ltd. CEO, Former Senior Deputy Director General of the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office

Mr. Yossi Katribas has been the Senior Deputy Director General of the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office since 2012 till August 2017. Since his retirement from the government, he is the owner and CEO of a consulting company.

Mr. Katribas was born in Tel-Aviv in 1965. He enlisted in the Israeli Defense Forces in 1984 and begun a successful army career, where he held various positions in the Intelligence Corps. He retired from the IDF at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

Prior to joining the Prime Minister’s Office, Yossi worked for several years in the private and finance sectors, as well as in senior technology positions, as part of the biggest Israeli private defense corporate headquarters.

Over the past several years, Mr. Katribas has led a series of large scale national projects, including the establishment of the Israeli government’s”Digital Israel” national initiative which is in charge of the strategic planning and implementation of a national cross-ministry program to upgrade all digital services and infra-structures in the Israeli public sphere.

Yossi was also responsible for enhancing relations with foreign markets, in particular with Japan, India, China and Latin America.

Mr. Katribas is thoroughly familiar with the digital arena and has an extensive experience and strong network and relationship with top executives in the business and governmental spheres in Israel, Japan and many other countries around the world.

Yossi holds a B.A in Middle East Studies from Tel-Aviv University and Master’s Degree in Political Science and National Security Studies from Haifa University. He also graduated from the National Defense College and attended Harvard University’s Senior Executives in state and Local Government program.

Magnus Karlsson

Project manager, Innovation management system, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden

Chairman and national expert, TK 532 Innovation management, SIS Swedish Institute for Standards
Senior innovation management specialist, Amplify AB
Research fellow, IMIT Institute for Management of Innovation and Technology
Chairman of the Board of Innovationsledarna, The Association for Innovation Management Professionals in Sweden
Adjunct professor, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 2011-17
Director, Innovation management, Group Function Strategy, Ericsson, 2007-17
Assistant Attaché, Science & Technology, Embassy of Sweden, Tokyo 1995-96
PhD, Technology and social change, LiU Linköping University, 1998
Master of Science, MSc Applied Physics 1988

Prof. Philip Kotler

S. C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing

Prof Kotler is the S.C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

Kellogg was voted “Best Business School” for six years in Business Week’s survey of U.S. business schools. It is also rated as the “Best Business School for the Teaching of Marketing”. Prof Kotler has significantly contributed to Kellogg’s success through his many years of research and teaching there.

Prof Kotler is the author of Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation and Control, the most widely used marketing book in graduate business schools worldwide; Principles of Marketing and several others. He has published over one hundred and fifty articles in leading journals, several of which have received best-article awards.

Among numerous accolades for his work, Prof Kotler was the first recipient of the American Marketing Association’s (AMA) “Distinguished Marketing Educator Award” (1985). In 1995, the Sales and Marketing Executives International (SMEI) named him “Marketer of the Year”. In 2002, he won the “Marketing Educator of the Year” award from the Academy of Marketing Science.Prof Kotler has consulted for such companies as IBM, General Electric, AT&T, Honeywell, Bank of America, Merck and others in the areas of marketing strategy and planning, marketing organization and international marketing.

He received his Master’s Degree at the University of Chicago and his PhD Degree at MIT, both in economics. He did post-doctoral work in mathematics at Harvard University and in behavioural science at the University of Chicago.

Dr. Jay Ogilvy

Co-founder of Global Business Network (GBN)

Dr. Ogilvy is a co-founder of Global Business Network GBN, the scenario-planning unit of strategy consulting firm the Monitor Group. His research has focused primarily on the role that human values and changing motivations play in business decision making and strategy. He has pursued these interests in collaboration with Peter Schwartz since 1979, when he joined SRI International, and from 1987-2009 with GBN/Monitor.

Many of the scenario projects he led at GBN for both public and private sector clients addressed “public goods” such as telecommunications, health care, and education. While at SRI, James split his time between developing future scenarios for strategic planning and serving as director of research for the Values and Lifestyles (VALS) Program, a consumer segmentation system used in market research. He also authored monographs on social, political, and demographic trends affecting the values of American consumers. Dr. Ogilvy’s work builds on his background as a philosopher.

He taught at the University of Texas, Williams College, and for seven years at Yale, where he received his PhD in 1968. He is the author of Creating Better Futures: Scenario Planning as a Tool for a Better Tomorrow, Living Without a Goal, Many Dimensional Man; co-author of China’s Futures and Seven Tomorrows; and editor of Self and World and Revisioning Philosophy. He is currently at work on a book on emergent systems, e.g. consciousness, leadership, and wealth.

Prof. Yves Pigneur

Professor at the University of Lausanne

Dr. Pigneur has been professor at the University of Lausanne since 1984, and has held visiting professorships at Georgia State University, University of British Columbia, National University of Singapore, and HEC Montreal. He earned his doctoral degree at the University of Namur, Belgium.

He was the former editor-in-chief of the academic journal Systèmes d’Information & Management. Together with Alexander Osterwalder, they invented the Business Model Canvas and in 2010 authored the international bestseller Business Model Generation (million+ copies in 35 languages); and more recently Value Proposition Design. In November 2015, they have been ranked #15 in the Most Influential Business Thinkers by Thinkers50 and received the “Strategy Award” at the Thinkers50 event in London.

Dr. Martha G. Russell

Executive Director, mediaX at Stanford University

Dr. Russell studies relationship systems – people to people, to their brands, to their organizations and for innovation.

With people and technology as the intersecting crosshairs, Dr. Russell has established collaborative research initiatives in ICT and technology leadership and for national agencies and technology companies. She pioneered one of the first US public-private partnerships in microelectronic and information sciences and in manufacturing technologies. She has led interdisciplinary research programs at the University of Minnesota, The University of Texas at Austin and Stanford University. With a focus on the power of shared vision, Dr. Russell has developed planning/evaluation systems and consulted regionally and internationally on technology innovation for regional development.

Dr. Russell has a doctoral degree in Policy Analysis focused on Technology Transfer from the University of Minnesota, and a B.A. from the University of California at Santa Barbara. She serves on the advisory board of the Journal of Technology Forecasting and Social Change and several start-up companies.

Dr. Robert C. Wolcott

Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Kellogg Innovation Network (KIN)

Prof. Wolcott is the Co-Founder & Executive Director of the Kellogg Innovation Network (KIN) and a Senior Lecturer of Entrepreneurship & Innovation at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.

He teaches corporate innovation and entrepreneurship for Kellogg in Evanston, Miami and Hong Kong (with HKUST). Formerly a Visiting Professor at the Keio Business School (Tokyo, Japan) a member of the advisory boards for the Nordic Innovation Center, Nordic Council, Oslo, Norway, the Global Technology Council of Kraft Foods, Inc. and the Innovation Accelerator for GE Corporate.

His book with Dr. Michael Lippitz, Grow From Within: Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation shares over a decade of research into how established companies create innovation for business value and has since been published in Chinese and Japanese. Wolcott’s work has appeared in MIT Sloan Management Review, The Wall Street Journal, Advertising Age, BusinessWeek, The Financial Times (European Edition), The New York Times, The Peking University Business Review and a variety of publications worldwide. He is a frequent speaker at events worldwide. Dr. Wolcott also co-founded and serves as Partner with Clareo Partners LLC, a growth strategy and innovation management consultancy.

Prof. Wolcott received a BA, European and Chinese History; and an MS and Ph.D., Industrial Engineering & Management Science, North-western University, Evanston, Illinois.