UNITED STATES-JAPAN FOUNDATION - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Ambassador Julia Chang Bloch ( 1996 - 1998 )

Job Titles:

• Ambassador Julia Chang Bloch ( 1996 - 1998 )

Richard J Samuels is Ford International Professor of Political Science and a former director of the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been head of the MIT Political Science Department, Vice-Chair of the Committee on Japan of the National Research Council, and chair of the Japan-US Friendship Commission. He has also been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and was awarded an Imperial decoration, the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star by the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese Prime Minister. His study of the political and policy consequences of the 2011 Tohoku catastrophe, 3:11: Disaster and Change in Japan, was published by Cornell University Press in 2013. Samuels' Securing Japan: Tokyo's Grand Strategy and the Future of East Asia, was a finalist for the Lionel Gelber Prize for the best book in international affairs in 2007. Machiavelli's Children won the Marraro Prize from the Society for Italian Historical Studies and the Jervis-Schroeder Prize from the International History and Politics section of American Political Science Association. Earlier books were awarded prizes from the Association for Asian Studies, the Association of American University Press, and the Ohira Memorial Foundation. His articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, International Security, Political Science Quarterly, International Organization, Journal of Modern Italian Studies, The National Interest, Journal of Japanese Studies, The Washington Quarterly, and Daedalus. From 2014-2019, he was Einstein Visiting Fellow at the Free University of Berlin, and his latest book, Special Duty: A History of the Japanese Intelligence Community, was named one of the "Best of Books 2019" by the Council on Foreign Relations' journal, Foreign Affairs. Dr. Samuels received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1980 and a gold whistle for a decade of service from the Massachusetts State Referee Committee of the U.S. Soccer Federation in 2009.

Job Titles:

• Outstanding Teacher Award Eligibility Requirements
• Outstanding Teacher Awards
• Teacher Awards

Colleen Hanabusa is a prominent labor lawyer who served in the Hawaiian State Senate (1998-2010) and was the first woman to serve as president of that body (2007-2010). Hanabusa represented Hawaii's 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives for four terms (2011-15) (2016-19). Education, health care, finance and civil service reforms have been areas of special concern during her legislative career. Hanabusa was born in Honolulu to June and Isao Hanabusa and raised in Waianae Oahu's West Side. Her great grandparents immigrated from Japan to work on Hawaii's sugar plantations. Her grandparents were interned during WWII in the Honouliuli Camp on Oahu. She matriculated at the University of Hawaii at Manoa earning, successively, a bachelor's degree in economics in sociology and economics (1973), a master's degree in sociology (1975) and a law degree (1977). Hanabusa resides on Oahu with her husband John Souza.

Job Titles:

• Staff and Strategic Advisor at Coherent

Craig Mullaney is Chief of Staff and Strategic Advisor at Coherent (NYSE: COHR), a global leader in materials, networking, and lasers for the industrial, communications, electronics, and instrumentation markets. An entrepreneurial leader and multi-disciplinary executive, Craig has successfully led organizations of all sizes in the defense, corporate, and public sectors. Before joining Coherent in 2024, Craig previously held executive roles at the Brunswick Group, Meta and Ustream (acquired by IBM). Earlier in his career, he served as an Airborne Ranger-qualified infantry officer in the U.S. Army's 10 th Mountain Division. His book about his experience leading troops in Afghanistan, The Unforgiving Minute, was a New York Times bestseller, a Washington Post "Best Book of the Year," and one of the Military Times's "Best Military Books of the Decade." Craig later served on President Obama's 2008 campaign staff and as a senior official at the Pentagon and USAID. Craig is a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and holds two master's degrees from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

Job Titles:

• CEO
• Member of the OFFICERS and STAFF
• President
• President and CEO of the United States - Japan Foundation

Jacob M. Schlesinger is president and CEO of the United States-Japan Foundation, an organization that gives grants and runs a fellowship program dedicated to bolstering relations between the two countries. Schlesinger joined the USJF from The Wall Street Journal, where he worked for more than 30 years as a reporter and editor in Washington, D.C., Tokyo, and Detroit. At the Journal, he covered economics and economic policy, chronicled elections and summits, trade wars and market crashes, labor strikes, the 9/11 terror attacks in the U.S., and Japan's March 2011 triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami, and Fukushima nuclear meltdown. Schlesinger was the Journal's Tokyo bureau chief, deputy Washington bureau chief, and global financial regulation editor. He is the author of "Shadow Shoguns: The Rise and Fall of Japan's Postwar Political Machine," published in 1997 by Simon & Schuster. While writing that book, he was a fellow at Stanford's Asia-Pacific Research Center. He was later a Stigler Center Journalist in Residence at the University of Chicago. Schlesinger returned to Stanford in 2021 as a fellow at the Distinguished Careers Institute, where he studied the threats and challenges to democracy, in the U.S. and around the world. Schlesinger was a member of the Journal team winning the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting on the dot-com bubble and crash. In 2014, he was given Stanford's Shorenstein Journalism Award, presented annually to a reporter helping global audiences understand the complexities of the Asia-Pacific region. Schlesinger grew up in East Lansing, Michigan, and has a BA in economics from Harvard. He lives in Washington with his wife, Louisa Rubinfien, a professor of Japanese history. They have two daughters, one currently working at the White House Office of Presidential Correspondence, the other doing graduate studies in chemical physics at the University of Minnesota.

Job Titles:

• Executive
• Chairman of the Board, International House of Japan

James Kondo is an executive in the social, technology and policy arena. He is currently Chairman of the Board at International House of Japan, an independent foundation that contributes to building a free, open, and sustainable future. James is also a Trustee at US-Japan Foundation, Senior Advisor at OpenAI, a Global Trustee and Co-Chair of Japan Center at Asia Society, and a Trustee at Keio University. He was previously Vice President of Growth Strategy at Twitter Inc. and Chairman of Twitter Japan, Special Advisor at the Cabinet Office of the Japanese Government, and a consultant at McKinsey. James has been selected Fellow of the US-Japan Leadership Program, Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, Asia 21 Fellow of Asia Society, Inamori Fellow of Inamori Foundation, and Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow of the Robert Bosch Academy. He was a visiting student at Brown University, a graduate of Keio University and Harvard Business School, a World Fellow at Yale University, and a Visiting Scientist at MIT Media Lab.

Job Titles:

• Chairman and Ushio Group Representative

Job Titles:

• Chairman
• Retired Chairman of the Board of Management Sciences

LAWRENCE K. FISH is the former Chairman and CEO of Citizens Financial Group, Inc., a multi-state commercial bank holding company headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island. During his 17-year tenure, CFG grew 30-fold and became one of the 10 largest commercial bank holding companies in the United States in total assets and deposits. In addition to USJF, Fish chairs Bridge Over Troubled Waters, a Boston-area nonprofit providing services to runaway, homeless, and high-risk youth; and the Fish Family Foundation, which administers the Japan Women's Leadership Initiative founded by Fish's wife Atsuko. Fish has a long record of leadership positions in business and the community. He's on the Board of Trustees of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. In July 2003, he was named to the MIT Corporation, which is the Board of Trustees of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in 2005 joined the Executive Committee of the Corporation, and is currently a Trustee Emeritus. He also is an Honorary Trustee of The Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. where he served on the board for 15 years. In 2007 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He is retired Chairman of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the largest educational publishing company in the United States. He also is a retired Director of Textron Inc., a leading global multi-industry company with brands including Cessna, Beechcraft, Bell Helicopter and E-Z-Go golf carts, and Tiffany & Co., a leading American luxury brand with stores throughout the United States and worldwide. In service to the banking industry, in January 1999 Fish joined the Federal Advisory Council, a panel of 12 bankers who serve as a key source of information for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the banking community. In January 2001, he was appointed Vice Chairman of the Federal Advisory Council. Fish served as Director of The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston from 2002 through 2004. Fish is the retired Chairman of the board of Management Sciences for Health, a large international public health organization. He has previously served as an Overseer of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and on the Board of Directors of Boston's Dimock Community Foundation, Inc. A 1966 graduate of Drake, Fish earned an M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1968. He was the recipient of Harvard's Frank Knox Fellowship, which included graduate study at the London School of Economics and travel in India. Fish is the recipient of honorary doctorate degrees from Drake University, Providence College, Bryant College, Roger Williams University, Johnson & Wales University and the University of Massachusetts. Fish and his wife reside in Boston and have three children.

Richard Dyck has spent his career in the semiconductor industry, mostly in Japan. He is the owner and President of TGK-Japan, a company which specializes in semiconductor testing. From 1982 to 1999, Mr. Dyck was Vice President of Teradyne, a Boston based manufacturer of semiconductor capital equipment, where he was responsible for Asia operations. He left Teradyne when he led a management buy-out of the company's Asia-based high speed connection system business. Dyck is a director and investor in Japan Industrial Partners; a Japan-based private equity firm which specializes in carve-outs of businesses from major Japanese corporations. He serves on the board of Hitachi Chemical and the Semiconductor Portal, a company jointly owned by Dyck and Japan's main semiconductor equipment, materials and device manufacturers. He has served on the boards of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), the Tokyo Philharmonic, Nishimachi International School, the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, the Japan-US Friendship Commission and various industrial trade organizations and government advisory committees. In 1999 he was cited by the Japanese Prime Minister for his contribution to Japan's international trade. He supports several projects in Cambodia, including schools, orphanages and regional hospitals. Mr. Dyck received his Ph.D. and M.A, from Harvard University.

Job Titles:

• FOUNDER

Job Titles:

• Managing Director Global Head of Regulatory Strategy and Policy JP Morgan Chase

Job Titles:

• Asia Pacific Chairman of the Trilateral Commission
• Chief Executive Officer of Suntory Holdings
• Chief Executive Officer, Suntory Holdings Limited

Tak Niinami is the Chief Executive Officer of Suntory Holdings, one of the world's leading consumer products companies with operations throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania. Tak spent the first 20 years of his career at Mitsubishi Corporation, where he held a number of management positions and founded Sodex Corporation (now LEOC Co.), a hospital food service joint venture between Mitsubishi and Sodexo of France, ultimately taking the company public in 1999. Prior to joining Suntory in 2014, Tak was CEO of Lawson, Inc., which he grew into one of Asia's major convenience store operators. Outside of Suntory, Tak has served on the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy as senior economic advisor to the Prime Minister since 2014, the longest serving business leader in Japan. He has served for former Prime Ministers Abe and Suga, and the incumbent Prime Minister Kishida. He also represents Japan corporate executives as Chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives. Tak is also Asia Pacific Chairman of the Trilateral Commission, Chair of the Asia Business Council, Vice Chair of the United States-Japan Foundation, and a member of the World Economic Forum's International Business Council, the Global Board of Advisors of the Council on Foreign Relations, and The Business Council in the US.

Job Titles:

• Principal of Heritage Fund Management

Mr. Takeshi Ueshima is a Principal of Heritage Fund Management, LLC in New York, which specializes in alternative Investments for institutional Investors and high net worth individuals. In addition, Mr. Ueshima has served as a member of the International Committee of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a Fellow of UK World Fellowship, a Scott M. Johnson Fellow of the U.S.-Japan Leadership Program, a trustee of Japan ICU Foundation, the treasurer of Tanaka Memorial Foundation, and as a director for various other entities.

Job Titles:

• Member of the OFFICERS and STAFF
• Founding Officer
• Japan Representative

Tomoyuki Watanabe has been Japan Representative of the United States-Japan Foundation since September 2012. He also serves as Deputy Program Director for its US-Japan Leadership Program. He started his career with a major Japanese manufacturing company Asahi Glass in various domestic and international human resources leadership roles, including three years as HR Director in company start-up project in Indonesia, as well as two years MBA at Harvard Business School (corporate sponsorship). He was HR Director and Member of the Board at SC Johnson Japan. Tomoyuki spent seven years at a leading European executive search firm, Egon Zehnder International's Tokyo Office and most recently ran the Tokyo operation of DHR International, a Chicago based executive search firm as Managing Director. As for his non-profit activities, he spent two years assisting Dr. Tomoyoshi Noda in early stage of establishment of a now leading leadership institution, Institute for Strategic Leadership (ISL) as one of the founding members and Co-Program Director. Tomoyuki is a founding officer and currently an active , core member of a leading non-profit organization which aims to identify, develop and encourage social entrepreneurs and next generation business leaders in Japan - ISL (Institute for Strategic Leadership).

Job Titles:

• Chairman the Nippon Foundation

Donna Tanoue is the former Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in Washington, D.C. Donna is the only person of color to have led the FDIC, the independent agency that works to maintain stability and public confidence in the nation's financial system by insuring deposits, examining and supervising financial institutions, working to make large and complex financial institutions resolvable, and managing receiverships. During the Obama administration, she was appointed to serve on the inaugural Consumer Advisory Board of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Subsequent to the FDIC, she served as Vice Chairman of Bank of Hawaii and Bank of Hawaii Corporation (NYSE: BOH) and a member of Bank of Hawaii's Managing Committee, the executive team responsible for the bank's strategic direction. She was also a member of Bank of Hawaii's Board of Directors, and President of Bank of Hawaii Foundation. Previously, she was a partner with the Goodsill Anderson Quinn & Stifel law firm in Hawaii, and Commissioner of Financial Institutions for the State of Hawaii. She served on the boards of Longs Drug Stores Corporation, Walnut Creek, CA (NYSE: LDG, prior to the sale to CVS Corp.) and Kaneohe Ranch Management, Ltd., which manages real estate owned by the family of Harold K.L. Castle and Alice H. Castle, and their nonprofit charitable foundation, the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation. She also served on the boards of The Queen's Health Systems, Honolulu, HI, Hawaii Community Foundation, University of Hawaii, and PBS, Arlington, VA. Donna earned her B.A. from University of Hawaii and J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. For the past two years, Donna has been a Fellow with the Distinguished Careers Institute at Stanford University, where she studied emerging issues relating to technology and international relations, with a focus on the Indo-Pacific region.

Job Titles:

• Member of the Board
• Member of the Board / Deputy President

Ms. Tashiro began her career with the Daiwa Securities Group in 1986, following her graduation from Waseda University with a BA in Political Science. She received an MBA from Stanford University in 1991 and attended the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 2011. She has held various positions at Daiwa, including overseas assignments in Singapore, London and New York. In Japan, in addition to her role as Head of Investor Relations between 1999 and 2005, she spent six years in the retail division of the Group, expanding the non-branch channel (online and call center) and defining a business model for the Group's retail operations. She held the position of Senior Managing Director, Head of FICC for two years before serving as Executive Managing Director and Chairperson of Daiwa Capital Markets America from 2013-16. She was appointed Senior Executive Managing Director of Daiwa Securities Group, Head of Overseas Operations in 2016 and Deputy President in 2019. She took office as Deputy President, Head of Overseas Operations and Head of SDGs in 2020, and she has served as Deputy President, Executive Head of Overseas Operations, Head of Sustainability and Head of Think Tank from April 2022. She serves various roles in the development of our economy systems:

Job Titles:

• Member of the OFFICERS and STAFF
• Executive Director, US - Japan Leadership Program
• Foundation in 2010 As a Program Officer

Kelly Nixon joined the Foundation in 2010 as a Program Officer and has over 20 years of experience working in and with Japan. In her current role as Executive Director of the Foundation's marquee initiative, the US-Japan Leadership Program, she leads oversight and strategy, and administers operations for the Program's annual conferences, initiatives, recruiting, communications and network engagement. Kelly holds a B.S. in International Business from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and pioneered the university's first exchange program to Japan, studying Japanese at Nagoya University of Foreign Studies for her junior year abroad. After graduation, she was selected for the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme and spent three years as an assistant high school English teacher and curriculum developer in Kitakami, Iwate. Upon returning to the U.S., Kelly was selected by Japan Airlines to serve as their first non-Japanese hire in Administration, holding concurrent positions as Administrative Executive Assistant and PR Coordinator for the NY region. She has also served as an elected Executive Officer for the JET Alumni Association of New York, where she managed the annual finances and IRS filings of the 501(c)(3) organization, as well as large scale projects such as the JETAA National Conference and JETAA USA Japan Earthquake Relief Fund. Kelly holds professional certificates in nonprofit management from Duke University, and digital and graphic design from Parsons The New School for Design. At home in Richmond, Virginia, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two funny chihuahua terrier mixes and is always on the trail of new sights, places and tastes at home and abroad.

Wendy Cutler joined the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) as Vice President and Managing Director of the Washington D.C. Office in November 2015. In these roles, she focuses on building ASPI's presence in Washington - strengthening its outreach as a think/do tank - and on leading initiatives that address challenges related to trade and women's empowerment in Asia. She joins ASPI following an illustrious career of nearly three decades as a diplomat and negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). Most recently she served as Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, working on a range of U.S. trade negotiations and initiatives in the Asia- Pacific region. In that capacity she was responsible for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, including the bilateral negotiations with Japan. Ms. Cutler's other responsibilities with USTR included U.S.-China trade relations, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum, and the U.S.-India Trade Policy Forum. She was the Chief U.S. Negotiator for the U.S.-Korea (KORUS) Free Trade Agreement and negotiated a wide range of bilateral agreements with Japan on such issues as telecommunications, autos, and semiconductors. She has extensive multilateral trade experience as the U.S. negotiator for the WTO Financial Services Agreement and several Uruguay Round Agreements. Prior to joining USTR, Ms. Cutler worked on trade issues at the Commerce Department. Ms. Cutler received her master's degree from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and her bachelor's degree from the George Washington University. She is married and has one son.

Job Titles:

• Member of the OFFICERS and STAFF
• Program Manager, US - Japan Leadership Program