PROFILE:
Professor, Chair, Department of Innovation Science, Graduate School of Environment and Society, Tokyo Institute of Technology.
Ph.D. from University of Tokyo,
Major in Innovation Study, Innovation Policy and IPR Strategy and Policy.
Government Expert for 33 years on the international trade and industry policy with experience of industry and technology policy in the field of IPR, innovation, University-Industry Cooperation policy and Industry policies on service, bio-science, chemicals, materials, energy and others.
Professor of Waseda University since 2014, then appointed Professor of Tokyo Institute of Technology since 2016. Chair of the department since 2020.
Married, having two sons

EDUCATION:
2008 Ph. D., Department of Maritime and Environment Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, University of Tokyo
1982 Master of Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology
1980 Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology

SOCIAL ACTIVITIES:
Board member and Vice President, Intellectual Property Association Japan (IPAJ)
Board member and the chairman of HRD committee, Engineering Academy of Japan (EAJ)
Board member and the Executive Producer, Marin Open innovation Institute (MaOI Institute)
Chairman, Association for Promotion of Protection of Trade Secrets (APPTraS) Etc.

Jacquelyn Morie's 30 years of researching & creating meaningful VR experiences includes multi-sensory techniques for VR that can predictably elicit emotional responses from participants. Her company All These Worlds, LLC is active in social VR, Mindfulness, storytelling & stress relief applications. In 2016 she concluded a project for NASA called ANSIBLE, a full virtual world ecosystem designed to provide psychological benefits for future astronauts who will undertake extremely long isolated missions to Mars. It was tested in the HISEAS analog facility in Hawaii, with a team of 6 scientists sequestered for a year to simulate the conditions of isolation on Mars, including long communications delays. She also investigates the use of personal avatars for how they affect our human selves. She invented a novel scent release device RemniScent, to aid in the evocative power of VR experiences.

Dr. Morie has advanced degrees in both Fine Art and Computer Science. Her career also spans exceptional accomplishments in education, developing digital media programs at the Ringling College of Art and Design, the University of Central Florida, the Walt Disney Animation Studios, VIFX, Blue Sky and Rhythm and Hues, and Otis College of Art and Design. She was instrumental in the creation of the University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT), where she served as a Senior Researcher for 14 years.

She is currently on the board of directors of several future-oriented immersive media companies, and is also a senior technical advisor to the XPRIZE's ANA Avatar Prize, which challenges teams to create a robotic avatar people can inhabit from a distance. Her new 22-chapter book, co-edited with Kate McCallum, The Handbook of Research on the Global Impacts and Roles of Immersive Media, was published by IGI Global in early 2020.

Paul Dietz is a prolific inventor of technologies for interactive experiences. He is best known for his seminal work on multitouch that helped drive the adoption of this now ubiquitous interface. He has held senior research positions at Walt Disney Imagineering, Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs and Microsoft. Paul co-founded and led Misapplied Sciences which was formed to commercialize his breakthrough display technology that can simultaneous show different images to each viewer without the needed for glasses. For the last year, he has been a Technical Fellow at Tactual Labs where he has been leading efforts to commercialize his latest invention which is all about understanding and manipulating shape. Paul holds an SB from MIT, and MS and PhD degrees from Carnegie Mellon, all in Electrical Engineering. He is currently serving as Chair for SIGGRAPH 2021 Emerging Technologies.

Phil Keys is a Senior Manager Marketing Communications for Intertrust Technologies. He is a veteran technology industry observer, marketer, connector, and writer based in Silicon Valley. In addition to 13 years of experience as a Silicon Valley Correspondent for Nikkei Business Publications, Phil has worked for technology companies in both the US and Japan. He is a columnist for the Nikkei Industrial Journal and a member of the Innovation Advisory Council of the Japan - U.S. Innovation Awards Program jointly run by Stanford University and the Japan Society of Northern California. Phil has spoken publicly in events in Tokyo and Silicon Valley as well as moderated panels in Silicon Valley. He holds a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley and attended International Christian University in Tokyo.

Mr Chan is currently the Executive Director of a direct investment holding and consultancy company, Toyonaka Investment and Consultancy Pte Ltd based in Singapore that provides fund raising, corporate financing, M&A and investment consultation, cross-border partnerships and inter-industry integration for companies in Asia. In addition, he also consults, trains and coaches government officials around the world, in policies relating to investment and trade promotions, engagements in developing domestic SMEs and private sector, formulating of public private partnerships and venture capital industry development. Mr Chan has been also a management partner-cum-investor and adviser to several IT and mobile companies in Asia, and venture partner and an adviser to private equity funds in Asia and Silicon Valley Venture Partners in USA. He had been actively in coaching start-ups and was invited annually as the judge for SITF, the technology platform founded to identify new technology development from start-up to large corporations in Singapore. Besides technology, he was a principal consultant to Stamford Land of Singapore, one of the largest property developers in Australia and Singapore.

He was formerly running an operational company as the Senior Deputy General Manager/COO of Overland Transport Logistics, a Pan-Asia cross border logistics company that was acquired by Yamato Group of Japan, based in Shenzhen. He was seconded to be responsible for the Post-Merger Integration for this M&A and represented the interest of Yamato Group to oversee the daily operations of the company. Before this appointment, he was acting as an advisor to Yamato Asia.

On his earlier professional life, Mr Chan was the Chief Representative for Greater China based in Beijing for SATS, a listed company in the gateway services and food solution businesses where he was instrumental in the restructuring of its joint-ventures in China as well as developing new joint venture partnerships with major Chinese conglomerates and state-owned enterprises. Before taking up this appointment, he spent several years in the real estate industry, spanning across China, Japan and Singapore. As the Head of Business Development and Investments cum Marketing for Ascendas China based in Shanghai, he oversaw and negotiated for all the acquisition of commercial buildings and land parcels in China. He also worked at Guocoland, a listed real estate developer owned by one of the largest Asia conglomerate, for all its investment deals in Japan.

Prior to joining the private sector, he spent nine years of executive and managerial experiences in government and government-linked corporations. He had engaged strategically with high net worth individuals from China and Japan by providing consultancy to manage their businesses and assets through Singapore in Asia Pacific, and assisted several Chinese companies to formulate plans to be listed in the Singapore stock exchange when he was heading the Asia Pacific Division at the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB). Mr Chan was also based in Tokyo, Japan, representing EDB and Singapore Embassy for Industry Development. He was also one of the pioneers in the development of the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park at CSSD, the joint venture company based in Suzhou, China when he was seconded to from the Singapore Government. His first appointment was then an information officer with the Ministry of Information and Arts, Government of Singapore.

Having graduated from Japan with a degree in Information Science and Engineering from Osaka University, Japan. Mr Chan also completed a SMBA course at Shanghai Jiatong University, China. He received a Monbushou scholarship from the Public Service Commission of the Singapore Government and the Japanese Education Ministry. He is fluent in 4 languages, English, Mandarin, Cantonese and Japanese. He currently resides in Singapore.

Yuhei Iwamoto is the Editor-in-Chief of DIAMOND SIGNAL, since the launch of the website in July, 2020. DIAMOND SIGNAL is a fresh new technology media ran by DIAMOND, publisher of the established Weekly DIAMOND magazine with more than a century of history. Before DIAMOND SIGNAL, Yuhei worked for AOL Online Japan (Now Verizon Media Japan) where he was a Deputy Editor-in-Chief of TechCrunch Japan. He started his journalistic career at CNET Japan. Based in Tokyo, he covers the business of tech and startups.

Manager of Sendai branch and team leader of private equity investment at Japan Asia Investment Co., Ltd. (JAIC). Participated in the establishing TSI as core member and assumed CEO. Major IPO that he participated are; Nihon Eslead Corporation, Takasho Corporation, JSS, Shoei and etc., Made decision to take over Ion Engineering Research Institute Corporation, established by NEDO, Japan government organization, and succeeded in its corporate restructuring and commercialization of the business. Currently, Chairman and director of Ion Technology Center Co., Ltd., corporate auditor at AXIOHELIX Co. Ltd.

Co-founder of VISIONGRAPH Inc., a futuristic design firm based on "hopes".
Graduated from the Faculty of Environmental Information, Musashi Institute of Technology. Attending SXSW since 2013, he has worked as an evangelist to promote the event in Japan and contributed to increase the number of Japanese participants. And He has been named as an official SXSW Japan representative in 2019.
After founded VISIONGRAPH Inc. in 2016, he engages in conceptual product design, marketing research and branding for many companies from major enterprises to startups. His first co-writing book "Jobs in 10 years after" where 50 possible jobs in the future pictured was release in 2017 and became best-selling in Amazon information and computer genre.

Having experienced planning new services and developing IT systems at a major home appliance maker, Nobuyuki Tsuji joined ChuoAoyama PricewaterhouseCoopers Financial and Risk Management Co., Ltd . in 2003 and then moved to PricewaterhouseCoopers Aarata in 2006.
His previous role was to give advice on IT governance, information security and organization management for companies engaged in technology-based business.
In recent years, he has been at the forefront of business addressing social issues such as regional revitalization and helping companies in DX and cloud transformation.
He has been providing support for startups and social entrepreneurs, and has served as a business contest judge and an organizer of a coaching accelerator program.

Graduated from International Christian University in Tokyo JAPAN, Mariko Nishimura started her career as an IT engineer at IBM Japan.
After her career at Adobe Systems as a field marketing manager and Bascule Inc. as a producer, she founded HEART CATCH Inc. in 2014. As a producer who connects business, creative and technologies beyond borders, she starts not only projects of her own company but various projects ranging from start-up, other companies, and government projects. In 2020, she founded HEART CATCH LA in Los Angeles, USA. She is also working on projects in the US.
J-Startup supporters, Art Thinking Improbable Workshop Executive Producer, a committee for METI Study Group for Creativity for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, an Adjunct Professor at Musashino Art University.

Dropped out of the Waseda Graduate School doctoral course. After working for a major IT group, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and an organization for industrial promotion, he engaged in the operation of various public support projects for R&D-type startups at NEDO.

He has provided a wide range of support for startup and growth business, with a focus on research and development and technology seeds (DeepTech) commercialization, as well as management support and restructuring of small and medium-sized companies that are responsible for regional revitalization. At NEDO, he was in charge of the VC approval program, the Open Innovation Council, and the launch of the J-Startup program in the R&D-based venture support program. In the meantime, he was seconded to Riken, where he was involved in supporting bio-based ventures, and later returned to NEDO, where he continues to work today.

In 1996, Matsuno joined Embassy of Luxembourg in Japan as Manger for Economic Affairs and Public Relations. Since 2005, she works for Ministry of Economy of Luxembourg as Executive Director for Luxembourg Trade and Investment Office – Tokyo. In this role she promotes economic exchanges between Luxembourg and Japan. Since 2012, she actively promoted Luxembourg as a springboard for Japanese startups interested in the EU market. Over the last 8 years, more than 50 Japanese entrepreneurs participated to ICT SPRING, a leading tech event in Luxembourg.