Christian is the HR leader for IBM Japan and all its subsidiaries in Japan, the largest foreign-capital company in Japan. Prior to IBM, Christian was the HR Head for Cisco India & South Asia where – based in Bangalore - he led the largest global site for Cisco outside the United States. Before that he was HR Head for Japan and Asia Pacific Service Provider BU of Cisco based in Tokyo. Christian also held a variety of senior HR Japan country and Asia Pacific regional roles at Dell. He is a native of Chile and has been in Japan for over 25 years.

Ryosuke is a Partner of Management Consulting People & Organization practice in Japan and ‘New World, New Skills’ upskilling initiative’s territory leader in Japan, with over 20 years of experience in organizational and transformational consulting.
Ryosuke has extensive experience working with Japanese multinationals’ headquarters in Japan and overseas subsidiaries, involving Japanese top management and non-Japanese executives for change management.
Ryosuke has led a large number of assignments internationally that include organizational design, change management, performance management, leadership assessment/ development, HR development strategy, HR due diligence, cultural assessment/integration, back-office transformation and sales force transformation.
He has worked with multinationals primarily in consumer, chemical, pharmaceutical, automotive, technology, and financial industries. His projects typically relate to post-M&A integration, reorganizational transformation and culture change in multinational organizations.

Suzanne Price, founder and representative director of Price Global, is a Consultant, Facilitator and Coach, with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, psychological wellness, global leadership, development of women and other diverse leaders and how to improve emotional intelligence.

She serves as an external advisor on state-of-the-art Inclusion and Diversity solutions, and has proven business acumen, providing tangible results, such as increase in representation of women and cultural diversity in the leadership pipeline.

Suzanne is known for developing effective, creative content working with theatre professionals to advance the conversation on inclusion and diversity through engaging videos, toolkits, E-Learning and in-person interactive drama.

In 2015 and 2016, Suzanne was recognised by The Economist as one of the 'Top 10 Diversity Consultants’ in the ‘Global Diversity List’. In 2012 Suzanne’s initiatives honoured her with the ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ British Business Award.

Suzanne’s clients include numerous Fortune 500 multinational companies across a broad range of industries, globally and particularly throughout Asia Pacific. Some have won awards for her initiatives.

Suzanne is unique in her field because she is a qualified applied psychology professional with both extensive in-house experience, as well as external partner to her clients. She previously held a 5-year tenure as Head of Inclusion and Diversity for UBS Securities in Asia Pacific, served as a retained consultant for Global Leadership and Diversity at Goldman Sachs, and was a Facilitator and Consultant for Korn/Ferry’s D&I Leadership and Talent Consulting services. She is also a sought after speaker at global and Asia Pacific conferences, a published author and a frequent source for research and articles.

She communicates effectively in English and Japanese

Takuji Okubo is the North Asia Director of The Economist Corporate Network, managing the Networks in Japan and in South Korea.

Prior to joining The Economist Group, Takuji was the Managing Director and Chief Economist at Japan Macro Advisors, serving global fortune 500 companies and financial institutions in Japan and abroad. In his past career, Takuji was a Chief Economist at Societe Generale, in charge of Japan and of South Korea, and a senior economist at Merrill Lynch and at Goldman Sachs. Outside his role at ECN, Takuji also serves as a non-executive director at Japan Risk Forum, an association of Chief Risk Officers among Japanese financial institutions.

Takuji holds B.A in Economics from Tokyo University and while at the university he was a recipient of prestigious INOUE scholarship. He holds MBA from INSEAD and Msc. In Economics from UPF in Barcelona. Apart from work, he enjoys motor-cycling, scuba-diving, cooking as well as worrying about the future of the Japanese economy.