First arrived in Japan in 1979 and entered Sophia University and a Japanese language school (Nichibei Kaiwagakuin) in 1981. Completed advanced language study at Edo Cultural Center and received a dual degree in Business and Economics at Sophia in 1987. Recruited by the Meiji Mutual Life Insurance Company and entered this Mitsubishi Group company as its first foreign "lifetime employee". Served as a fund manager and analyst beginning with training in Meiji's Tokyo HQ on the equity markets in Canada and Australia (including a short training stint with Alliance Capital), followed by a 6 year run investing Meiji's Asian equity portfolios from the HK office. After successfully navigating the Asian currency crisis, transferred to Meiji Life's asset management subsidiary in New York. Managed team of 4 investing fixed income and equity portfolios in North America. Transferred back to Tokyo HQ of Meiji in 2002 as a fund manager in the Pension Investment Group. Invested primarily fixed income portfolios for Meiji Life's separate accounts as well as traded and analyzed performance for fixed income accounts invested by Meiji Dresdner Asset Management. Assisted in the creation of corporate governance related research effort, proxy voting guidelines and procedures for the separate accounts. Left Meiji in 2004 and returned to New York. Joined IR Japan, Inc. in early 2005. At IR Japan, the primary focus has been on creating and improving IR and Corporate governance related links between overseas investors and Japanese companies as well as continuing to research both overseas and domestic trends in corporate governance.Specialties: -Corporate governance in Japan-Cross Border Investor relations with Japan-Macro analysis of financial markets -Near native fluency in Japanese (reading, writing, spoken)-Japanese corporate etiquette