California-Japan Governors’ Symposium

Ambassador Eleni Kounalakis was sworn in as the 50th Lieutenant Governor of California by Governor Gavin Newsom on January, 2019. She is the first woman elected Lt. Governor of California. A native Californian, she visited each of the state’s 58 counties during her historic campaign. From 2010 to 2013, Ambassador Kounalakis served as President Barack Obama’s Ambassador to the Republic of Hungary. Ambassador Kounalakis was the first Greek-American woman – and one of America’s youngest – to serve as U.S. Ambassador. Her highly acclaimed memoir, “Madam Ambassador, Three Years of Diplomacy, Dinner Parties and Democracy in Budapest” (The New Press, 2015), chronicles the onset of Hungary’s democratic backsliding. Ambassador Kounalakis graduated from Dartmouth College in 1989 and earned her Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from U.C. Berkeley’s Haas School of Business in 1992. She holds an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the American College of Greece.

Dr. Mukai is the director of the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE) at Stanford University. His academic interests include curriculum and instruction, educational equity, and teacher professional development. His curricular writings for U.S. schools include extensive work on U.S.-Japan relations and the Japanese American experience. In 2003, under his leadership, SPICE established the Reischauer Scholars Program, a distance-learning course on Japan and U.S.–Japan relations for high school students in the United States, and in 2015, SPICE launched Stanford e-Japan, a distance-learning course on the United States and U.S.–Japan relations for high school students in Japan. In 2017, he was the recipient of the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays from the Japanese government for his contributions to the promotion of friendship and mutual understanding between Japan and the United States. He received a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from U.C. Berkeley; a multiple subject teaching credential from U.C. Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education; a Master of Arts from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education; and a Doctor of Education from U.C. Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education.

Dr. Okimoto is Co-Chairman of the Silicon Valley Japan Platform (SVJP) and Professor Emeritus at Stanford University. He co-founded the Shorenstein Asia/Pacific Research Center at Stanford, serving as its Director for more than ten years. He has been Vice-Chairman of the Japan Committee of the National Research Council at the National Academy of Sciences. He has been awarded the Order of the Rising Sun with Goldray Neck Ribbon by the Government of Japan and The Lifetime Achievement Award by the Keizai Society. Following President Barack Obama’s nomination and confirmation by the U.S. Senate, Dr. Okimoto was appointed to the National Council of the Humanities and served from 2013 to 2016. He graduated from Princeton University, received his master’s degree from Harvard University, and earned his doctoral degree in Political Science from the University of Michigan.

Mr. Ota was born in Nagano in 1956. In 1979, he graduated from the Kyoto University’s Faculty of Law, and entered the Nagano Prefectural Government. He has served in various posts including representative of Nagano Prefecture in Los Angeles; Director of Public Relations of the Nagano Olympic Committee; Director General of the Commerce, Industry and Labor Department; and Director General of the General Affairs Department. In February 2015, he was appointed Vice Governor of Nagano Prefecture, and was reappointed in 2019.

Ambassador Roos served as U.S. Ambassador to Japan from 2009 to 2013. He is currently Founding Partner at Geodesic Capital, a later stage venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. Ambassador Roos also serves as Senior Advisor to Centerview Partners, a mergers and acquisitions advisory firm, on the Board of Directors of Salesforce.com, Sony Corporation, and The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation, on the advisory boards of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Toyota Research Institute. From 1985 to 2009, Ambassador Roos practiced corporate and securities law at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he served as Chief Executive Officer from 2004 to 2009. Ambassador Roos is a graduate of Stanford University and Stanford Law School.

Dr. Thakor is the founder and president of Anioplex, LLC, a global strategic, business, and technical advisory firm in Silicon Valley. For more than a decade, he has worked closely with startups, multinational corporations, venture capital firms, and universities to enable their development and deployment of groundbreaking “deep” technologies. Dr. Thakor previously developed gene therapy, stem cell, and biomaterial technologies and their applications to spinal cord injury and chronic pain at Harvard Medical School, Kyoto University, and UCLA. His research has been featured in over 20 publications (15 as first or co-first author) in leading journals such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, Biomaterials, and Molecular Therapy. He has a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering, with neuroengineering emphasis, from UCLA and is currently studying law at Santa Clara University, where he expects to receive his J.D. in 2020 and is a recipient of the Emery Merit Scholarship and CALI Excellence for the Future award.

Dr. Yang is an Associate Professor of Medicine (Cardiovascular Medicine) at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He directs the Cardiovascular Stem Cell Laboratory (Yang Lab) and Stanford Cardiovascular MRI Program. Dr. Yang received degrees from Stanford University and Yale University School of Medicine. He is a physician-scientist whose research focuses on cardiovascular regeneration. His laboratory combines stem cell biology with novel imaging technology to advance clinical implementation of induced pluripotent stem cells and their derivatives. Regenerative medicine will trigger a paradigm shift and his research provides a requisite validation for clinical translation. Dr. Yang is a Principal Investigator of the National Institute of Health (NIH) funded Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network designed to conduct multi-center clinical trial on novel stem cell therapy. In addition, he leads multiple NIH, foundation, and pharmaceutical research grants along with five clinical trials. He has received several prestigious awards, including the NIH Career Development Award, NIH Career Enhancement Award in Stem Cell Biology, NIH Mid-career Award, and multiple awards from both the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology. He is a frequent guest speaker and session chair at national and international meetings.

Dr. Yoshihara Yang has taught graduate courses at Ritsumeikan University, the Tokyo Institute of Technology and Hosei University Business School of Innovation Management as an affiliate professor and a lecturer. Her research focuses on the people and process behind technological innovation. Dr. Yoshihara Yang’s scholarly publications have appeared in volumes by MIT Press and Tokyo University Press. In 2016, she co-organized the conference on women in the workplace, contributing to the final report published by the Shorenstein Asia Pacific Research Center (APARC) at Stanford University. Dr. Yoshihara Yang holds an M.A and Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford University. She received her B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Irvine with magna cum laude and B.A. in Literature from the University of the Sacred Heart in Tokyo. She is married to Dr. Phillip Yang, physician scientist at Stanford, with whom she is raising (and being raised by) their three children.

Mr. Yuzaki graduated from The University of Tokyo and received an MBA from Stanford University. At the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (now known as the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry), he worked on issues involving automobiles, U.S. trade, energy and venture businesses, then was seconded to a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. After resigning from METI, he founded ACCA Networks as Founder and Representative Director, engaging in the diffusion of low and fixed cost broadband access aimed at individuals and corporate enterprises and contributing to the infrastructure of Japan’s internet industry. The company was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2005. He won his first election in 2009 as Governor of Hiroshima Prefecture and is currently developing a policy campaign with the slogan “GOOD WORK ????HAPPY LIFE – Enjoy a lifestyle of seeking the best at work and at home in Hiroshima.”