SPEAKERS

Satoshi Nakajima

Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, UIEvolution, Inc.

Mr.Satoshi Nakajima had a strong interest in computers and started writing articles on computer magazines and developing software at ASCII Corporation during high school.
At university he developed “CANDY” a CAD software for PC.
After graduating college he worked at NTT Musashino R&D Center but joined the startup of Microsoft KK. Afterwards he moved to US Microsoft Corporation and worked on the Next Generation OS interface design.
He worked as software architect for Windows95, InternetExplorer 3.0/4.0 and Windows 98.
In 2000 he left Microsoft to work at a VC and then started UIEvolution Inc. as the CEO and began the development of “UIENgine” for GUI.
In 2004 the company was acquired by Square Enix Co., Ltd. but they went independent again via MBO.
They got investments from Intel Capital Corporation and ITOCHU Corporation as a venture business and he returned to the CEO position in 2016.

Kaori Kuribayashi-Shigetomi

Assistant Professor, Nitobe School,
Hokkaido University

Ms. Kaori Kuribayashi-Shigetomi was born in Takikawa and grew up in Eniwa, Shizunai and Sapporo. After graduating from Sapporo Kaisei High School, she enrolled in the Course of Mechanical Systems Engineering, Muroran Institute of Technology. Aiming to develop a solar panel that can be spread in aerospace, she sought for a model in nature and studied the mechanism of how the leaves of Japanese butterbur are spread and folded.
During her stay in the Oregon Institute of Technology in the United States, she took a medical class, which wakened her desire to contribute to the medical services using her knowledge in engineering.
She performed researches to develop medical equipment in the master’s course in Hokkaido University, before developing a medical device named “origami stent graft” using the folding pattern of origami during her doctoral course in Oxford University. Since then, she devoted herself in various studies as a Doctor of Origami Engineering.
Having come back to Japan, she established the “cell origami” technique at the University of Tokyo, which enables three-dimensional cell culture folded like origami, with the micro-nano processing technology. Currently, she endeavors to apply this cell origami technology to regenerative medicine at Hokkaido University.
In 2013, she was the only one from Asia among the “25 women in robotics you need to know about”. And in 2014, she was the only winner of the Young Researcher Best Presentation Award from IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS), in the field of Micro and Nanotechnology in Medicine.

Bruce Gutlove

Winemaker

Mr. Bruce Gutlove was born in New York in1961. While in State University of New York, he took a course on wines, then he got interested in wines and founded a wine club. He tasted a wide variety of wines, gradually deepening his interest.
In 1985, he enrolled in the UC Davis, which had the most authoritative viticulture and enology department in the US. He started learning enology in earnest and determined to become a wine maker.
After graduation, he worked at famous wineries in California, learning and training to make wines in practice.
In 1989, he was called into the COCO FARM & WINERY in Ashikaga, Tochigi as a consultant, and he moved to Japan. COCO produced world-class wines 100% from grapes grown in Japan.
While working for COCO FARM & WINERY, he increased desire to make own wines. In 2009, he established his winery, “10R” in Iwamizawa, Hokkaido. He has been making efforts to spread the wonder and delight in brewing wines and the tips to enjoy them throughout Japan.

Chisa Tsubota

Graphic Designer・Choreographer

Ms.Chisa Tsubota started jazz dance and ballet in her childhood and joined the theater company ‘I’M’ in 2001.

After making appearance on various stages in Hokkaido, she took part in a nationwide tour of ‘HIMIKO’ as one of the main casts.

In 2008, she enrolled in the Broadway Dance Center-in New York and acquired dance styles in jazz, musical theatre, contemporary, tap, ballet, hip hop as well as singing while making appearances on many dance shows and stages.

After returning home, in 2010, she directed, choreographed and played the leading role in an original production by ‘I’M’, “Tsukifune no Miko Monogatari”: The story of Priestess on the Moon Ship, for Art Appreciation Day at Sapopro Odori High School. In the same year, she took part in many other stages including Anne of Green Gables sponsored by S.T. Corporation. On June 2013, she obtained a coaching license from Japan Cheer Dance Association (JCDA), and became a JCDA certified instructor in 2014. Currently, she is a computer graphic designer as well as the Chief Executive Officer at LUFT Co., Ltd. and actively participating many local events.

Her local contributions include directing stage events, making event appearance, organizing flash mob at weddings, choreographing for YOSAKOI, making artist bookings, and holding workshops, as well as being a contracted choreographer.

Hideto Fujino

Rheos capital works president&chief investment officer

Born in Toyama Prefecture, Japan.
Graduate of Waseda University, Faculty of Law, Bachelors degree
Mr.Hideto Fujino, who was aiming to become a public prosecutor or judge, started working for a leading asset management company to receive firsthand experience, where he gradually found interest in asset management through business practices. After interviews with many top leaders of listed enterprise, Hideto found his passion in starting businesses and capital investment, which led him to start his own business.
Hideto worked as a fund manager for asset management companies sponsored by Nomura, JP Mogan, and Goldman Sachs & Co.,. He especially has a long experience in managing small to middle stocks and growing stocks,and has consulted a total of 6000 companies and has interviewed more than 6500 executive officers within the last 25 years.
In 2003, Hideto started his own company, Rheos Capital Works,Inc., and manages Japanese stocks Auditors capital at “Hifumi Investment Trust” and “Hifumi Plus”. He continues to show outstanding achievements as a fund manager and has won the R& I Fund Awards for four consecutive years for “Hifumi Plus”. Hideto also aggressively invests in venture companies where he supported five of these companies to go public and listed on the stock exchange. Out of the five venture companies, one was launched by Hideto himself, Premium Water Holdings,Inc.（formerly Water Direct Corporation）where he is
still currently the Director.
In addition, he actively works as a governing member of the Ministry of the Environment, taking part as a part-time lecturer, an academic fellow in Tosho JPX, and advisor of Medicins San Frontiers.
Finally, he has written several books, such as “Toshi-Baka no Shiko-hou” (SB Creative), “Yankee no Tora” (Toyo Keizai Inc.,), and “Toshika ga Okane yori Taisetsu ni Shiteiru koto” (Kodansha Books).

Masayo Takahashi

NEXT VISION Director

Ms.Masayo Takahashi graduated from the Faculty of Medicine in 1986 and finished her Ph.D. in Ophthalmology and Visual Science in 1992 at Kyoto University.
After serving as an assistant at Kyoto University Hospital, she became a researcher at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in 1955, where she found potential of using stem cells for retina treatment. In 2001 she became an assistant professor at the Translational Research Center in Kyoto University Hospital.
In August 2013, she started a clinical study using autologous induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to treat exudative age-related macular degeneration, and performed the world’s first case of implantation in September 2014.
She is now the project leader at the Laboratory for Retinal Regeneration Research in RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology. She specializes in retinal degeneration, macular affection, regenerative therapy and low-vision care.
Apart from her research, she has launched the “isee!” movement to transform the public image of the visually challenged. She established NEXT VISION in 2014 and assumed its director in 2016, with the vision “to help the supported to support others”.

Sachiko Asanome

Representative director of Baramanda Co., Ltd.
Administration officer of NPO tetote

From Sorachi Sub-prefecture of Hokkaido and she moved from place to place due to her parents’ job within Sorachi District in her childhood. Ms.Sachiko Asanome largely went with the flow and her life led her to become a kindergarten teacher, a kimono dressing instructor and a dental assistant.
In 1995, she somehow applied for a welfare volunteer position for Sapporo Snow Festival, which was the start of her career and she came to realize and find much of interest in “intriguing welfare” by seizing the same society through different points of view.And then, she has been involved in “Welfare volunteer house for Sapporo Snow Festival” by being concerned with Mobility Support Services.
She is mainly engaged in home care support furthermore in-home care, and employment support so that challenged people can live life their own way. In addition to that she works for dispatching caregivers, consulting for travelers, caregiving technical assistance and training, and conducting collaborative projects among agriculture, welfare, and sightseeing.
Moreover, she works as a part-time instructor of the chair of caregiving techniques and welfare at Hokkaido University, Hokkaido Information University, and the Social Welfare Councils and so on. Meeting NSCISA, “Nepal Spinal Cord Injury Sports Association,” through her Nepal Travel, she has strengthened cross-cultural exchanges. Since the earthquake hit Nepal in April in 2015, she has started up a project for establishing a caregiver dispatching support services in Kathmandu.