Setsuko Hashimoto, PhD, 52, is Director of Marketing at Biacore K.K., a global supplier of instruments for academic, pharmaceutical and biotechnology research. A top class scientist with keen business sense, she formed the Swedish company's Japanese subsidiary, and has been the driving force behind it's success ever since.
Sitting in the boardroom and standing at the ironing board aren't that different. Both entail long hours of work and lots of stroking: either men's egos or their shirts, and sometimes both. And just when things look smooth and uniform, one clumsy move and you are back to square one: wrinkles everywhere. Things slip, especially from an iron hand.
With old friends, I behave as I did when we first met. When I see high-school mates from Kyushu, we giggle and act silly like we were as teenagers. My university friends and I still have long discussions about biology. With different people, I return to the age when we met and forget my current frustrations.