Makiko Ono is the President and CEO of Suntory Beverage & Food, a listed unit of the Suntory Group, one of the giant beverage conglomerates in Japan. Since joining Suntory in 1982, Makiko has spent her 40-year career in a variety of roles spanning mergers & acquisition, marketing, human resources, and sustainability inside and outside Japan.

Makiko has been a trailblazer in many respects. In 1991, she was assigned to manage the business in France, making her the very first female expat in the company. Last year, she became the first female CEO within the Suntory Group, which also made her the first female CEO of a listed Japanese company with a market cap of more than 1 trillion Yen. Makiko’s appointment has created an impact in all industries. Global media such as TIME, Fortune, Forbes, Financial
Times and CNBC, has named Makiko as one of the most powerful female leaders.

Through her international career with diversified people, Makiko believes building trust with colleagues and stakeholders is fundamental in business. She also commits herself to being aspirational, resilient, and agile.

Graduated from Waseda University’s Faculty of Law and completed her studies at the Graduate School of Law.
Began her career at Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu in 2008. After working at Daisawa Law Office and Waseda Legal Commons Law Office, and serving as a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, she joined Credit Saison in 2017 as a Legal Manager. In 2019, she joined Unilever Japan as a Legal Manager. After serving as a Senior Legal Manager, she was appointed as General Counsel, RepresentativeExecutive Officer in March 2024. She also serves as a board member of four Unilever Japan Group companies.

Suzanne Price is the Founder and Representative Director of Price Global, pioneers in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in this region since 2004.

As one of the top-ranked experts in her field, Suzanne’s clients include numerous Fortune 100 multinational companies across industries. Some have won DEI awards for her initiatives. Suzanne herself has also been recognised as one of the top 10 Global Diversity Consultants (once sponsored by The Economist).

Price Global provide DEI strategy consulting and design and facilitate groundbreaking DEI programmes, that transcend traditional training. Leveraging creative practices that combine multiple forms of media and theatrical techniques, they engage people in relevant, resonant experiences.

Suzanne’s was previously one of the first in-house Heads of DEI for large multinational companies in APAC. This experience fueled her mission to develop DEI programmes that truly drive mindset and behavioural change for positive impact on equity, inclusion and belonging. Suzanne believes in working systemically with senior leaders, people managers and with targeted groups, including women leaders, allies, and more.

Szilvia is a business and marketing strategist with 20 years experience developing and building brands for a variety of B2C products, services and platforms, from tech to consumer goods, e-commerce to retail. Her expertise has been built through working at industry behemoths including Netflix, Dentsu, Ernst & Young and J Walter Thompson, across 5 continents.

Currently directing and leading overall business strategy, including all consumer business units as well as Marketing, Customer experience and PR activities for Paidy, a one time-unicorn BNPL business in Japan, acquired by PayPal in 2021 - highest valued Japanese venture M&A transaction ever. She also serves as an Outside Board Director at Macromill, a leading marketing solutions provider and a mentor at Tokyo Women in VC, an association that provides a place for women working at venture capital firms (VC) to further grow.

Szilvia is Hungarian and fluent in 4 languages, based in Tokyo. Her first book was published by Diamond in 2021 called “Start Up Nippon (スタートアップ・ニッポン)”, focused on how to create a more innovative and brighter future for businesses as well as individuals.

Szilvia believes that if you’re not continually learning you’re not growing.