Japan-U.S. Business & Technology Symposium 2014 (2014-02-10)

-Opportunities for Innovation: Getting More Involved with Japanese Business-

Monday, February 10, 2014
Marriott Union Square
San Francisco, CA

Video: Opening Address
Opening Adress
Invest in Japan: New Chances for Your Business
Keynote Speech: Open Innovation Best Practice

Video: Breakout - Information Technology
How Technology Will Re-define the US/Japan Economic Relationship

Video: Breakout - Energy & Environment
The Distributed Energy Economy: Made in Japan and California

Video: Breakout - Healthcare & Medical Device
How We Can Maximize Opportunities in Japan and With Japanese Counterparts

Video: Roundtable - Demystifying Japan

Speaker Slides

Opening Address

Tsuneyuki Kato joined the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), formerly MITI, in 1986. From 2000 to 2011, he served in a variety of senior roles as Director of several divisions mainly within METI. These included Paper Industry and Life Cultural Goods Division, Trade Finance and Corporation Division and Policy Planning for Natural Resources and Fuel Department. In 2012 he became Director of the Environment Policy and Coordination Division at the Ministry of the Environment before joining the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) in July 2013 where he now serves as Executive Vice President. He graduated from the University of Tokyo and completed a Masters degree at the University of California, San Diego.

Hidehiro Yokoo has served as the Director-General of the Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau since June of 2013. He joined MITI (currently METI) in 1982. He has served in a variety of positions in many fields including industry, trade and energy policy. He also played a key role at JETRO as its president (2011-2013). He graduated from the University of Toyko and completed a Master's degree at Georgetown University, U.S.A.

Keynote Speech

Stephen Hoover is CEO of PARC, a Xerox company. Practicing open innovation since 2002, PARC develops innovations and new technologies and takes those to market in collaboration with Fortune 500/Global 1000 companies, startups, and governments. Hoover leads PARC's business and research in diverse areas including networking, electronics, cleantech, innovation services, intelligent systems, and more.
Hoover specializes in integrating technology, market, and business opportunities - from fundamental R&D to commercial scale-up. In prior roles, he was responsible for developing and bringing to market innovations ranging from intelligent self-healing products to computational photography solutions and new web services platforms. Dr. Hoover earned his Ph.D. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and B.S. from Cornell University and holds seven patents.

Breakout Session: Information Technology

*Moderator

Phil serves as the President and CEO of the Kauffman Fellows Program and Chairman of Sozo Ventures. The mission of the Kauffman Fellows Program is to develop the next generation of leaders in venture capital. Phil is a veteran venture investor and startup entrepreneur. Early in his career Phil co-founded the publishing company Reference Media in Tokyo, Japan, grew it to scale and sold it to the Princeton Review. Phil has also served as a General Partner at JAFCO America Ventures and at Copan, based in Munich, Germany and has shepherded more than 30 investments, including Ikanos, Web Methods, Com21, Emergent, and Trilibis. Phil currently serves on the board of S2 Technologies, Trilibis, and Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entreprenuers (SVASE), and its an advisor to TL Ventures and the Creandum fund in Stockholm. Phil holds a BS from the Aerospace Mechanical Engineering School at the Univeristy of Arizona, and a MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

*Panelists

Kazuya Minami

-Mitsubishi Estate

: Inviting overseas IT companies to EGG Japan (Tokyo). LP investor of Sozo fund (2013-present)
-Digital Garage: CVC to invest in SF Bay Area companies and funds such as LinkedIn and Twitter (2006-2013)
-Google Japan: Japan Business Development (2005-2006)
-Tokyo Marine Capital: Global VC Fund GP (2004-2005)
-Noeteny: Startup Incubator founded by Joi Ito (2000-2004)
-Regis McKenna: Associate in Japan (1992-1994)
-Mitsubishi Corporation: Global Trading Firm (1987-2000)

Nadeem Sheikh

Nadeem is Vice President and Managing Director, Asia-Pacific & Japan, responsible for Opower's business across Asia, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, and Opower's offices in Singapore and Tokyo. In this role, Nadeem oversees all aspects of Opower's growth strategy as well as key client relationships in the region.
Prior to joining Opower in 2010, Nadeem spent four years at McKinsey & Company, where he was a founding member of the firm's Sustainability & Resource Productivity Practice. Working across Europe, Asia, and the U.S., Nadeem developed the firm's foundational thinking on the marketing of "green" products to consumers, and managed Mc.Kinsey's market research on consumer behavior and sustainability.
Nadeem earned his MBA from the University of California, Berkeley and a BS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Mr. Kelkar runs corporate finance strategy and investor relations for Practice Fusion. He led the recent $85M series D financing round bringing in investors such Kleiner Perkins and Qualcomm. He has a mix of technology, finance and healthcare experience from working in tech startups and healthcare investment banking.

Hiroaki Mizuno worked on numerous internet system development projects during his tenure at NS Solutions Corporation. Hiroaki moved on to help start a foreign consulting office in Tokyo, Japan before joining PayPal Japan as its first employee in April, 2009. As the Merchant Services Manager, Hiroaki devised and implemented the merchant acquisition strategy and helped develop the marketing plans for new product releases. After successfully launching PayPal Here in Japan, Hiroaki took on the role of Regional Head of Enterprise Sales for APAC based out of PayPal's Singapore operations. Hiroaki joined Square as the Country Manager for Square Japan in October, 2013.

*Coordinated by

Sozo Ventures, based in California, is a new family of venture capital funds headquartered in Palo Alto and Tokyo focused on investing in leading information technology companies globally. Its existing investments include Twitter and Palantir Technologies.

Breakout Session: Energy & Environment

*Moderator

Christine Hertzog is the founder and Managing Director of the Smart Grid Library which is focused on the generation, transmission, and distribution of information about Smart Grid, Smart City, and machine to machine (M2M) technologies, services, and solutions.
Ms. Hertzog is the author of the Smart Grid Dictionary that explains the jargon, acronyms, and terminology about technologies, international standards, and regional and global organizations impacting the Smart Grid and M2M communications.
Based in Silicon Valley, Ms. Hertzog serves as an advisor to Smart Grid startups, established companies, and industry organizations including The Energy Collective, ElectricityPolicy.com, Agrion, IBCon, and ZPryme. She has a Master of Science degree in Telecommunications from the University of Colorado - Boulder.

*Panelists

Peter is the Director of Global Product Management at Bloom Energy. He was instrumental to the initial customer selection, feature definition, marketing, and launch of the company's first Energy Server. Peter is an expert in distributed generation technology, policy, and commercialization.
Peter led the creation of Bloom's Joint Venture with SoftBank to bring Bloom's technology to Japan.

Mr. Stuebe is the co-founder and President of Ecoplexus, a solar project developer with projects in six(6) States and Japan. The Company has established a project backlog of over 400 MW representing approximately $800 million in project value with customers including ten(10) utilities across the U.S. and Japan. Mr.Stuebe is a graduate of Harvard Business School and holds a BS in Finance from the University of Minnesota.

Erica He is the Director of New Business Development at Innovation Core SEI, a Sumitomo Electric company. She joined Sumitomo Electric in 2010 and is responsible for business development in the renewable energy and smart grid markets. Prior to joining Sumitomo Electric, Erica was the Business Development Manager at SANYO North America Corporation, where she was responsible for developing new businesses and strategic partnerships, covering a wide range of products from consumer electronics to solar and smart grid. Erica received a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from University College London.

*Coordinated by

AGRION is a global business network for energy, cleantech and corporate sustainability launched in 2007. With offices in San Francisco, New York, Brussels, Paris, and Beijing, and an international community of more than 200,000 industry professionals, AGRION provides a platform for members to connect, exhange ideas, explore innovation, identify business opportunities, and realize sustainable growth in a world challenged by resource contraints, climate change, and evolving political landscapes.
Each office hosts weekely onsite and online conferences to facilitate face-to-face networking and online collaboration with industry leaders. AGRION hosts international conventions in Europe, China and the US, and its website contains updated information and reports about the energy markets and sustainability best practices.

Breakout Session: Healthcare & Medical Device

*Moderator

Thomas Loarie

Tom is a career life science executive with 35 years of growing medical technology companies and successfully commercializing over twenty innovative medical devices including ehealth and drug/device combination products across 11 medical specialties. He serves as Chairman & CEO, Mercator MedSystems, Inc.; Chairman, eMedonline & Silicon BioDevices, Inc.; and board member, Clarity Medical Systems, Inc.

*Panelists

Gary Restani is a proven international executive with over 35 years of worldwide experience in the medical device industry. As the President of ConvaTec, a Bristol Myers-Squibb Company, Gary developed a high performance management team, which helped ConvaTec to become the leading wound and ostomy company with worldwide revenue of over $1 billion. More recently, he served as President & COO of Hansen Medical where he directed the company from late stage development to early stage commercialization and first year revenues.
Gary also has over 11 years of experience in the orthopedic sector, having held divisional President roles with both Smith & Nephew and Zimmer. Gary led Zimmer Europe/MEA through a significant turnaround, contributing to Zimmer's growth. He has served on the board of ADVAMED (1997-2006) as well as the leadership baord of the Cleveland Clinic's Center for Digestive diseases (2000-2006). Gary currently serves on the board of Corpak Medsystems and DFine Inc. He attended Sir George Williams University and Loyola University in Canada. He received a certificate from Dartmouth College for completing the Tuck School of Business flagship General Management Executive Program.

Fumiaki Ikeno is a Stanford Researcher for medical devices and regenerative medicine. He has been also serving as an advisor of medical device industries for more than 10 years. Currently, he has started an incubation fund specific for medical device (Medventure Partners, Inc) as a spin-off from Innovation Network Corporation of Japan. He moved from Japan as a Stanford Researcher after 9 years clinical practice as an interventional cardiologist and also a Family doctor including rural areas in Japan. He finished Graduate Student, Biodesign Certificate Program, Stanford in 2007. He graduated from Jichi Medical School (Japan) in 1992.

Dr.Johnston is managing director of Synergy Ventures II LP and focuses on investment and strategic partnering relationships in medical technology startups. Previously, Dr.Johnston was at Berkeley International Capital in medical technology venture capital, and was Program Manager at SRI International. Dr. Johnston has a Ph.D. in bioinorganic chemistry from the University of Guelph.

Since 2004, Ken McDonnell has been a General Manager for the Terumo Corporation, a $5 billion medical device manufacturer headquartered in Tokyo. Prior to joining Terumo, Ken was involved in early-stage ventures in vulnerable plaque, cerebral monitoring, echocardiography, newborn screening, and pulse oximetry. Ken earned an MBA from University of Washington and a BS from the University of Notre Dame.

Roundtable: An Approach to Demystifying Japan

*Moderator

Masa Ishii

Recognized internationally as an expert in US-Japan corporate development, and as a visionary in innovation and entrepreneurship. Managing Director of AZCA, Inc. and a Partner of Noventi, both based in Silicon Valley. Visiting Professor at WASEDA Business School and Shizuoka University. Formerly, worked at McKinsey & Company, Inc. and IBM. Graduate of the University of Tokyo (B. Engineering) and Stanford University (MS in Computer Science).

*Panelists

Andrew has lived and worked in Hong Kong, Tokyo and London and has managed teams across Europe and Asia. Andrew spent six years in Japan as a General Manager and local Representative Director; there he launched new technology and services and managed regional M&A activities. In his current role at HSP he utilizes his extensive background to support companies with their global operations and international growth.

Rochelle Kopp is founder and Managing Principal of Japan Intercultural Consulting, an international training and consulting firm focused on Japanese business. She is a recognized authority on Japanese culture and business practices. Rochelle works frequently with American firms that have Japanese customers, joint venture partners, and suppliers, and with the global operations of Japanese firms.

Steve Skrysak is the President of Pacific Reach Advisors, a boutique Executive Search firm that specializes in cross-border leadership recruitment and talent acquisition strategy. Prior to founding Pacific Reach in 2012, Steve spent a decade in Japan and was the Technology Director at CDS K.K. - the Executive Search arm of Recruit Co. Ltd., Japan's largest HR Services Company with annual revenue of approximately US$10 billion. At CDS, Steve built one of the leading technology recruitment practices in the Japan market, completing hundreds of searches for US technology companies ranging from new market entrants to global Fortune 500 organizations. Originally from San Diego, California, Steve speaks business-level Japanese and received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Texas at Austin. He currently splits time between Asia and Southern California, where he resides with his wife and daughter.

Toshi Otani is a co-founder and Managing Director of TransLink Capital. Toshi has over 20 years of experience in management of and investment in high-tech companies. Prior to TransLink, Toshi was the President of Hikari Tsushin's VC operation in the U.S. where he managed their investment team in Palo Alto. Toshi also has startup leadership experience as Senior Vice President of Everypath Inc.
Early in his career, Toshi worked for Mitsubushi Corporation, where he was in charge of multiple investment and business development projects in the IT industry.
Toshi received his MBA degree from Stanford University and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Keio University in Japan.