A Platform For A Better Japan

Evan A. Feigenbaum is Vice President for Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He was also the 2019-20 James R. Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, where he is now a practitioner senior fellow. Initially an academic with a PhD in Chinese politics from Stanford University, his career has spanned government service, think tanks, the private sector, and three regions of Asia. From 2001 to 2009, he served at the U.S. State Department as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia (2007–2009), Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Central Asia (2006–2007), Member of the Policy Planning Staff with principal responsibility for East Asia and the Pacific (2001–2006), and an adviser on China to Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick. 

Michael Sellitto is the Head of Global Affairs at Anthropic, an AI safety and research company.
Prior to joining Anthropic, Michael was the founding Deputy Director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI), which is dedicated to advancing AI research, education, policy, and practice to improve the human condition. As HAI’s first staff member, he was instrumental in designing and executing the Institute’s strategic plans and establishing HAI’s global reputation among policymakers.

Michael served in the White House as Director for Cybersecurity Policy on the National Security Council staff from 2015-2018. He led international engagement on cybersecurity policy and strategy, promoted international adoption of a framework for strategic stability in cyberspace, and advanced issues related to the digital economy and Internet governance. Before that, Michael served as Special Assistant to Deputy Secretaries of State William J. Burns and Antony Blinken, advising the Deputies on political, energy, security, and trade issues related to South and Central Asia and on worldwide cyber policy and counterterrorism strategy.

Jenny Xiao is a partner at Leonis Capital, a research-focused VC fund based in Silicon Valley. Before Leonis, she was a researcher at OpenAI and a Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University. With deep domain expertise in AI/ML, Jenny pioneers a research-driven approach to seed and pre-seed investing, focusing on AI, developer tools, and B2B software. Her Ph.D. dissertation explores the AI landscape in the U.S. and China, covering the two countries’ technological advancement, startup and big tech ecosystems, and policy and regulatory environments. Her research has been featured in the New York Times, WSJ, the Economist, and Foreign Affairs. Her work at Leonis is the topic of an extensive Harvard Business School (HBS) case study. She is also a frequent speaker at startup, business, and policy conferences, including the Columbia China Forum, the Northwestern Kellogg Business Conference, and the Hong Kong Cyberport VC Forum.

Kenji E. Kushida is Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Asia Program directing Japan programming, and he leads the Japan-Silicon Valley Innovation Initiative @ Carnegie (J-SV).  Senior Advisor at Macro Advisory Partners, a global strategic consultancy. Previously a Research Scholar at the Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) at Stanford University, he spearheaded the Stanford Silicon Valley-New Japan Project (SV-NJ). He is also an International Research Fellow at the Canon Institute for Global Studies (CIGS). He holds a PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, an MA in East Asian studies and BAs in economics and East Asian studies, all from Stanford University.

James Everingham is VP of Engineering at Meta, supporting the platforms and tools. Most recently, James was co-founder and SVP of engineering at Lightspark, building core infrastructure on the Lightning Network. Previously, he was Vice President of Engineering for Novi (Meta) and co-creator of Diem. Previously, James was the Head of Engineering at Instagram. James has led many world-class engineering teams throughout his 35-year career as a manager, entrepreneur, and technology developer. At Yahoo, he was Vice President of Engineering for Yahoo media properties after acquiring Luminate, an interactive image technology company he founded. His previous roles include CTO and founding team member of LiveOps, senior director of engineering at Tellme (acquired by Microsoft), and senior director of engineering at Netscape Communications, where he was responsible for the flagship Netscape browser. Before joining Netscape, James held engineering and management positions at Oracle and Borland International.

Catherine Porter is a technology executive with more than 20 years' experience in global consumer and enterprise software companies (e.g., Oracle, Google, LinkedIn, Meta). She specializes in strategic business development and commercial objectives for globally scaling companies. She currently supports Globis Capital Partners and Mysten Labs as an advisor, and is the chief business officer for Prove. 

Emre is General Partner at Globis Capital Partners, leading investments in IT startups targeting digital transformation of various industries. His portfolio includes GLM (acquired), Photosynth (TSE:4379), Sensyn Robotics, MFS, New Standard, Global Mobility Service, Shippio, CADDi, Matsuri Technologies, estie, Leaner Technologies, ascend and Facilo.

He teaches at Globis University Graduate School of Management (MBA).
Emre graduated from Harvard Business School (MBA) and Ohio State University.

Keiko Honda is Adjunct Professor of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where she teaches ESG Investing to graduate students.  Keiko is also a Board Member of Ricruit, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and AGC and serves UN's Investment Committee.
Honda was the CEO and EVP of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), the political risk insurance and credit enhancement arm of the World Bank Group.
Before joining MIGA, Honda was the first woman senior partner in Asia at McKinsey & Company.
Honda holds a bachelor’s degree from Ochanomizu University and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where she was selected as a Fulbright Scholar.

KONO Taro, 60, a ninth-term Member of the House of Representatives, has been appointed Digital Minister, Minister for Cyber Security and Minister for Administrative Affairs.
Among positions he has held in the past are Foreign Minister; Defense Minister; Minister in charge of COVID-19 Vaccine Roll-out; Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission, or Minister in charge of the National Police Organization; Minister for Regulatory Reform; Minister for Administrative Reform; Minister for Civil Service Reform; Minister for Consumer Affairs and Food Safety; Minister for Disaster Management; and Chairman of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives. He is a graduate of the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. He was Chairman of the Japan Race Horse Association and Chairman of the Shonan Bellmare Football Club, the 1995 Asia Champion Soccer Club. He is married to Kaori and has a son, Ippei.

The Hon Dr Rudd AC served as Australia’s twenty-sixth Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010, then as Minister for Foreign Affairs, before a second term as Prime Minister in 2013. Dr Rudd was most recently the President and CEO of the Asia Society Policy Institute.

Dr Rudd holds a PhD from Oxford University and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the Australian National University.

Glen S. Fukushima is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, a Washington, D.C. think tank.  In October 2021, President Joseph R. Biden nominated him to be Vice Chairman of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, and the U.S. Senate confirmed him in April 2022.  After practicing law, he served as Director for Japanese Affairs (1985-88) and Deputy Assistant United States Trade Representative for Japan and China (1988-90) at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), Executive Office of the President. From 1990 to 2012, he was based in Tokyo as a senior business executive with one European and four American multinationals and was elected to two terms as President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and of the Asia Society’s Global Council. A third-generation Japanese American raised in California, he was educated at Deep Springs College, Stanford University, Harvard University, Keio University, and the University of Tokyo, where he was a Fulbright Fellow.

Dan founded Eskridge to help ambitious leaders deploy practical applications of AI. He leads AI strategy and implementation for clients, particularly within marketing use cases. Previously, Dan led Amazon Ads Creative Studio, supporting advertisers through technology and scaled services. He has spent over a decade partnering with Fortune 100 clients on digital transformation initiatives at Huge, founded and successfully exited a SaaS startup and held product management roles at Microsoft and Motorola. Dan holds economics and computer science degrees from UPenn.

Sho Kuwamoto is Vice President, Product on Figma editor. Prior to that he held product leadership positions at Medium, Macromedia, and Adobe. He’s known for having deep customer focus and a love for helping people create.

Dr. Tina Seelig is Executive Director of Knight-Hennessy Scholars at Stanford University, which supports graduate students from across the university, and prepare graduates to address complex challenges facing the world. She is also Director Emeritus of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. She also teaches courses on leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.school) at Stanford. Dr. Seelig earned her PhD in Neuroscience at Stanford Medical School, and has been a management consultant, entrepreneur, and author of 17 books, including inGenius, Creativity Rules, and What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20. She is the recipient of the Gordon Prize from the National Academy of Engineering, the Olympus Innovation Award, and the Silicon Valley Visionary Award.

Mari Iwahara is a brand specialist, cross-cultural consultant, and designer at heart. After graduating with honors from the Rhode Island School of Design, she worked for renowned branding agencies on projects of all industries and scales, from corporate Fortune 500 companies to up-and-coming startups. She also spent years managing Brand Creative at Google Jigsaw, before joining Takram New York, where she currently leads Brand Strategy.  With a love for decoding cultural nuances and crafting brands that resonate across borders, she is also the founder of Sibling, a cross-cultural brand consultancy that helps Japanese brands navigate the US market. As an active member and Emerging Leader of the U.S.-Japan Council, she also spends time building and supporting the Japanese-American community in her hometown, New York City.

Marcus Brauchli is co-founder and managing partner of North Base Media, a partnership that invests in media and technology companies. Its portfolio includes two notable Japanese companies: TNL Mediagene, a digital-media company that reaches two out of three young adults in Japan, and Zaiko, a streaming entertainment platform popular with musical artists and audiences. Brauchli has had a long career in media. He was executive editor of The Washington Post, which won seven Pulitzers during his tenure, and before that the top editor at The Wall Street Journal. Brauchli spent 15 years as a correspondent in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo and Stockholm. Mr. Brauchli is a graduate of Columbia University and Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He is chairman of the Arthur F. Burns Fellowship, chairman of the Osborn Elliott Prize, a trustee of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and an advisor to the Prix Pictet in photography. 

Rachel Kleinfeld is a senior fellow in Carnegie’s Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program. Her work on troubled democracies facing problems such as polarized populations, violence, corruption, and poor governance bridges the United States and international cases. Kleinfeld’s focus on the intersection of democracy and security has led her to regularly brief the governments of the United States and allied democracies on issues of conflict, the rule of law, and policing and security sector reform, and she has also consulted for the European Union, OECD, and World Bank.

Prior to joining Carnegie, Kleinfeld spent a decade co-founding and directing the Truman National Security Project, for which Time magazine named her one of the top 40 political leaders under 40 in America.

Kleinfeld is the author of A Savage Order (Pantheon, 2018); Advancing the Rule of Law Abroad: Next Generation Reform (Carnegie, 2012), chosen by Foreign Affairs magazine as one of the best foreign policy books of 2012. Kleinfeld’s TED talk on improving violent democracies has been translated into 17 languages and viewed over a million times.

Ken Suzuki is co-founder and Chair of the Executive Board of SmartNews. Ken received a Ph.D from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at The University of Tokyo in 2009, and is currently a project researcher at the University of Tokyo. He has authored several published works such as “Namerakana Shakai to Sono Teki (The Smooth Society and Its Enemies)". Ken co-founded SmartNews, Inc. in 2012 with the mission of “delivering the world’s quality information to the people who need it.” In September 2014, he established SmartNews International Inc. and has been leading business growth in the U.S. market.

Kiyoteru Tsutsui is Henri H. and Tomoye Takahashi Professor of Japanese Studies, Deputy Director of the Shorenstein Asia Pacific Research Center (APARC), Director of the Japan Program at APARC, Senior Fellow of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Co-Director of the Center for Human Rights and International Justice, and Professor of Sociology, all at Stanford University. His research on the globalization of human rights and its impact on local politics has appeared in American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, Social Problems, Journal of Peace Research, Journal of Conflict Resolution, and other social science journals. His book publications include Rights Make Might: Global Human Rights and Minority Social Movements in Japan (Oxford University Press 2018), which received three awards from the American Sociological Association, and Human Rights and the State: the Power of the Ideal and the Reality of International Politics (人権と国家：理念の力と国際政治の現実)(Iwanami Shoten 2022), which received the 43rd Ishibashi Tanzan Book Award and the 44th Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities. 

Mitchell Baker co-founded the Mozilla Project to support the open and innovative web. As Executive Chair of Mozilla Corporation, Mitchell represents Mozilla in the public with a focus on policy, open source, and community, engaging in areas that touch on Mozilla’s unique history and ethos. She also works with the executive leadership team to strengthen how Mozilla’s entities work together to advance policy and community goals with greater urgency.

Mitchell advocates for the open internet, open source, and the importance of connecting technology to its impact on individuals and society. Highly regarded as one of the pioneers of the web and for bringing the open internet to consumers, she was instrumental in Netscape’s decision to release its source code to the public. This led to the release of the Firefox browser and the creation of the Mozilla Foundation which spans software product development, educational initiatives, and participatory movements.

Matías Duarte works cross functionally across Google’s Product Areas to lead innovation and design excellence, with a focus on AI experiences in consumer products and Pixel hardware. Up to 2021 Matías led Material Design, and prior to 2015 led design for Android.  Matías designed WebOS at Palm, the T-Mobile Sidekick at Danger, and spent six years in the videogames industry. Matías received his bachelor's in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, College Park.   A first generation Chilean immigrant, Matías has a personal ambition to foster opportunity, through the creative combination of technology, design, and storytelling.

Yohei Nakajima is a renowned venture capitalist and innovator. He is a General Partner at the early stage venture capital firm Untapped Capital, and the creative mind behind BabyAGI, the first open-source autonomous agent with task planning capability. Nakajima has been supporting early-stage startups for 15 years working closely with early-stage startups, and with global corporations such as The Walt Disney Company and Nintendo through his career at Techstars and Scrum Ventures. He is known for his “build-in-public” methodology, where he publicly builds with the latest technologies to both learn and meet founders. His projects span No Code, web3, artificial intelligence, and beyond.

Cory Ondrejka is the CTO for SmartNews, where he is responsible for delivering quality news to millions of people in Japan and the United States. He was previously VP of Product Management and Technical Advisor to the CEO  at Google, where he led the Core Experience team, responsible for improving the product experience across all of Google’s products. His teams delivered an entirely new user experience for Google products in Material You, multiple cutting edge Generative AI experiences, and transformed foundational technology depended on by billions of people. Prior to Google, Cory led the mobile transition at Meta as VP Mobile, was the co-creator and founding-CTO of Second Life, and shipped multiple video games. Cory Ondrejka is a Senior Fellow at the Burnes Center for Social Change at Northeastern University and a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and former Naval Officer.