As an Olympian and member of Japan’s national women’s soccer team, Yumi Tomei is no stranger to commitment, hard work and discipline. In her 12-year career as a football player, the defender twice lifted the Nadeshiko League trophy with professional women’s team Prima Ham FC Kunoichi (now Iga FC Kunoichi) and represented her country 43 times, scoring six goals.
Yet despite rising to the top of her game, Tomei retired from the sport unsure of how to transfer her hard-earned skills and valuable personal traits into marketable assets. She tried her hand at public relations, but found it wasn’t for her and returned to graduate school.
While completing a Ph.D. in sports science and health, she encountered the EY Women Athletes Business Network (WABN), a mentoring program that supports professional sportswomen as they look to move into the corporate world. Before long, she found her true calling and started to use her experiences on the field to build better teams in Japanese organizations.