Board Members

Member

Representative Director & President

Ko Ishiyama

Visiting Professor, Shizuoka University, Visiting Associate Professor, Tokyo University. Former Director at Recruit Institute of Technology and Executive Manager of R&D at Recruit Holdings. Founded a big data startup that creates aggregation services in support of marketing professionals and sold it to Recruit Holdings, the parent company of indeed.com. Outside of work, he is an improvisational pianist and enjoys spending time with his wife.
Director & Chairman

Makoto Haruta

LL.B. from Kyoto University. Former Managing Director and Chairman at DeNA Co., Ltd, one of the largest mobile and e-commerce companies in Japan. Led it during IPO and M&A of multiple companies including Yokohama DeNA Bay Stars, a baseball team. Founded ExaIntelligence Inc. (now known as Exa Wizards Inc.) in February 2016. Current position since November 2018.
Director

Takuma Oue

He joined Boston Consulting Group in 2013. After working on a number of projects including business growth strategy, corporate transformation, DX promotion, and new business launch, he joined ExaWizards in 2018. Since April 2019, as an executive officer of AI business, he has been in charge of several hundred DX/AI implementation projects (open innovation for large companies and startups) and service development. Graduated from the Faculty of Engineering, Kyoto University. Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University (Research in AI and Data Science).
Executive Officer

Yutaka Sakane

Mr. Sakane has served as the CTO since Oct 2017 when Digital Sensation, the company he founded in 2004, merged with ExaIntelligence to form ExaWizards. At Digital Sensation, he served as CEO and Representative Director. Previously, he worked as an assistant at Shizuoka University’s School of Information Systems. Influenced by his father Mr. Sakane started programming at the age of three, and is a Humanitude instructor. He holds a master’s degree in information systems from Osaka University.
Outside Director

Yuuki Kuwabara

After graduating from the University of Tokyo with a Master’s degree in physics, Mr. Kuwabara joined The Japan Research Institute, Ltd. in April 2012. He engaged in business strategy, research and development strategy, and new business development in the telecommunications, media, and high-tech industries, and also involved in the operation of a national research and development venture company support projects.He joined INCJ, Ltd. in August 2018 and has been involved in venture and growth investments and value enhancement of portfolio companies, including investments in startups and co-investments with large corporations to establish new companies.
Outside Director

Yasushi Shingai

Mr. Shingai started his career by joining Japan Tobacco Inc. (“JT”, Former Japan Tobacco and Salt Public Corporation) in 1980. He became an acting project manager at New York office in 1989 and President of JT America Inc. in 1990. During six years as President, he undertook a number of joint research and development projects with pharmaceutical and bio-ventures in the U.S., and concurrently served as External Board Director at Cell Genesys,Inc., U.S. NASDAQ-listed biotechnology company. He got appointed as CFO of JT in 2005, Vice President of JT International in 2006 and Executive Vice President of JT in 2011. He currently serves as External Board Director at Asahi Group Holdings, Ltd., Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc., Dai-ichi Life Holdings, Inc. and Open8 Inc.
Outside Director

Toshihiko Hiura

Graduated from College of Arts and Science, The University of Tokyo, and completed the Harvard Business School MBA Program. In April 1983, he joined the Industrial Bank of Japan, Ltd. (currently Mizuho Bank, Ltd.). After leaving his job at the bank, he joined Bain & Company in February 1986. Since then, he has been engaging in management consulting for Japanese, American, and European companies in various fields for over 30 years. He was appointed as the Head Partner of Bain & Company’s Tokyo office in January 2008 and as the Chairman in April 2014. He also serves as the Outside Director for ARUHI Corporation and the Outside Director for Machino Research Institute,Inc.
Executive Officer

Satoshi Ishino

Graduated from the Faculty of Economics, Keio University, where he belonged to the Water Polo Team. He joined P&G Japan in April 2008, and worked on marketing electric toothbrushes in the Japanese market. He was relocated to P&G Singapore in April 2009, where he led multiple hair care brands and engaged in portfolio management in the Asian market. In July 2012, he led customer marketing with a major Japanese retail company at P&G Japan. He then joined McKinsey & Company in April 2014, and was appointed as an associate partner in 2018. He worked on growth strategies, new business development, organizational reform, and cost reduction of a Japanese consumer goods manufacturer; overseas strategies and asset management of a major trading company; and redevelopment of the industrial value chain with a Japanese financial institution. Such experiences gave him the desire to contribute to Japan’s new growth, which led him to join Exawizards in January 2019. He was appointed as an executive officer (executive secretary, corporate general manager) in April 2019.
Executive Officer

Sachiyo Yasuda

Ms.Yasuda joined Recruit Co., Ltd. in 1992. Starting as a media salesperson for the employment information magazine “B-ing” a medium for people wanting to change jobs, she engaged in various sales activities and projects related to hiring new graduates, mid-career recruitment, and organizational revitalization for companies. In 2014, she was appointed as an executive officer at Recruit Career Co., Ltd., becoming the only female executive for sales at the company. She was engaged in two projects of the new graduate recruiting service and the “Work in Japan” project to introduce highly skilled university students from around the world, mainly from top universities in Asia, to Japanese companies. In May 2019, she joined ExaWizards Inc. and took the current position. She was a board member of the Japan Executive Search and Recruitment Association and engaged in diversity management support activities at the nonprofit organization J-Win.