Management Team

CEO

Kenichi Nagai

Mr. Nagai has been in his current position with us since 2011. He was appointed as the CFO of our company in 2009. His previous position was as CFO of Perseus Proteomics Inc. , which is a venture company for antibody pharmaceutical product seed development, since 2005. Including the years of service with our company, Mr. Nagai has had more than 15 years of experience as a manager of drug-developing ventures. Prior to that, he was involved in domestic and international M&A projects as a member of an advisory group at the Investment Banking Department of Merrill Lynch Japan Securities Co., Ltd.

CSO

Norihiro Nakamura,Ph.D.

Dr. Nakamura began his career in academia, spending five years on the faculty at Osaka University as an assistant professor. After studying immunology and cell biology with Dr. Ira Mellman, an expert in cancer immunology at Yale University, School of Medicine, he moved to Genentech, where he began his industry career and advanced his research at the Division of Cancer Immunology, Genentech Inc. He joined this company in 2016 as a deputy manager of R&D division, was promoted to a head of Research and Early Development division in 2017, and has held his current position with us since 2018.

CFO

Yoichi Takeshita

Mr. Takeshita, starting his career as tax accountant in ITOCHU Corporation, one of Japanese major trading companies, has experienced business management functions mainly including finance and accounting in companies such as Johnson & Johnson, GSK and Amazon. He joined us as Head of Business Administration in 2022 and has been the incumbent CFO since 2023.

Director

Akira Yamada,Ph.D. Director and Professor, Kurume University Research Center for Innovative Cancer Therapy

After teaching immunology courses at the Kurume University School of Medicine, as well as working at the University of Kansas and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard University, Dr. Yamada was appointed as a Professor at the Research Center for Innovative Cancer Therapy, Kurume University in 2003. He also served as the head of the Cancer Vaccine Development Division of the same Research Center. In the same year, he established this company with members of the immunology courses at the School of Medicine, Kurume University, and was appointed as the first Representative Director. He has held his current position with us since 2004.

External Director

Hirotaka Takeuchi,Doctor of Business Administration, Honorary Professor at the Hitotsubashi University

Professor Takeuchi's areas of specialization include competitive strategy, knowledge management, marketing (development of new products), and international business. He also has experience working for McCann Erickson and for McKinsey & Company, and won the "Best Book of the Year Award (Finance Field)" for his book "The Knowledge-Creating Company" from the Association of American Publishers in 1995. In 2015, he was appointed as the External Director of our company.

Internal Auditor

Tsutomu Kishino

After serving as Office Manager and Branch Manager at the Development Bank of Japan Inc., Mr. Kishino also served as Senior Managing Executive Officer at Ikebukuro District Heating and Cooling Co., Ltd. He has held his current position with us since 2019.

External Auditor

Taketoshi Abe

Mr. Abe served as the Head of the Legal Department for the Sankyo Company Ltd., (currently Daiichi Sankyo Company, Ltd.) and Auditor for the Post Genome Laboratory. He has held his current position with us since 2009.

External Auditor

Yoshiyasu Yamaguchi,Lawyer, TMI Associates

After leaving Yamaichi Securities Co., Ltd., Mr. Yamaguchi registered with the Tokyo Bar Association in 1991 and later joined TMI Associates. He later acquired the qualifications and license to practice law in the state of New York, USA, and after working for Simmons & Simmons Law Office in the UK, he has been serving as a partner at TMI Associates since 1999. Mr. Yamaguchi was appointed as an External Auditor of our company in 2015.