The Big Questions

Name: Jean-Pierre Bernardino Title: President & Representative Director, Area General Manager for North-East Asia URL: https://www.puratos.co.jp/ja Hometown: Lisbon Years in Japan: Over 30 What was your first connection to Japan, and what led to the opportunity to come here? Jean-Pierre Bernardino | © HIROMICHI MATONO I was born and raised in ...

Name: Ben Ferguson Title: Head of Goldman Sachs Asia Pacific Equities and co-head of Japan Securities Sales URL: www.goldmansachs.com/japan/ Hometown: Cleveland, Ohio Years in Japan: 23 What was your first encounter with Japan? I grew up in the 1980s in the Midwest. Japan was pretty scary back then. Lots of ...

Name: Bob Van den Broecke Title: Managing Director of Evernex Japan URL: https://www.evernex.com/ Hometown: Belgium Years in Japan: 4 What was your first encounter with Japan? My first exposure to Japan came through my father, who started working for Ajinomoto in Paris shortly after I was born. We lived there ...

Name: Jenifer Rogers Title: President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) URL: www.accj.or.jp Title 2: General Counsel Asia at Asurion URL 2: www.asurion.com Hometown: Midland, Michigan Years in Japan: 16 What was your first encounter with Japan? I first came to Japan in 1981 when my father was transferred ...

Name: David Malone Title: Rector, United Nations University, Undersecretary-General of the United Nations URL: https://unu.edu/ Hometown: Ottawa, Canada Years in Japan: 8 What led to your current position in Japan? Actually, it was through reading an advertisement for the job in the Economist magazine! A lot of people think those ...

Name: Laurence Bates Title: Managing Executive Officer, Panasonic URL: www.panasonic.com/global Hometown: Mystic, Connecticut Years in Japan: 30 What was your first encounter with Japan? My dad was a career Coast Guard officer, and he spent time in Hokkaido around the time I was born. I used to hear stories from ...

Name: Jan Adams Title: Ambassador of Australia URL: www.japan.embassy.gov.au/ Hometown: Wodonga, Australia Years in Japan: less than a year Jan Adams | © Hiromichi Matono What was your first encounter with Japan? I have two answers. One is from a personal point of view. When I was in primary school, my ...

Name: Mark Choon Title: General Manager, The Peninsula Tokyo URL: https://www.peninsula.com/en/tokyo/5-star-luxury-hotel-ginza Hometown: Seattle, U.S. Years in Japan: 2.5 What was your first encounter with Japan? My first trip through Tokyo was a bit of delayed honeymoon in 2007. I did a small trip that went through Hong Kong, Japan and ...

Name: Ina Lepel Title: Ambassador of Germany URL: https://japan.diplo.de/ja-ja Hometown: Cuxhaven, Germany Years in Japan: 1.5 What was your first encounter with Japan? Japan was a very important subject of my studies as an economics student. In the business administration class I took in the '80s, we learned about fashionable ...