Advisors

Special Advisor

Eiichi Seki

Special Advisor

Mr. Seki joined Polaris as Special Advisor in May 2011. Since then, he served as Chairman of Kanto Unyu , Clean Surface Technology and Yodogawa Transformer, all invested and exited by Polaris with success. Concurrently, he is Director of Sogo Medical and Statutory Auditor of Innova. Mr. Seki started his business career at The Industrial Bank of Japan in 1971 and, after various assignments in and outside of Japan, became Managing Executive Officer of Mizuho Bank in 2002. Then he moved to Kokunai Shinpan (renamed as Rakuten KC in October 2005) in 2003 to turn it around and became CEO in June 2005 and Chairman in June 2008. He was also Statutory Auditor of Rakuten Bank since June 2009 and has been Executive Officer of Rakuten, Inc. He has been appointed Auditor of Innova, inc. Mr. Seki received a BA in Commerce from Hitotsubashi University.

Senior Advisors

Kiyohiro Sugashita

Director and CEO,
Sugashita Partners, Ltd.

Mr. Sugashita joined Polaris as Advisor in May 2011. He is Director and CEO of Sugashita Partners, Ltd since 1998 and provides consulting services to financial institutions and ventures in and outside of Japan. Prior to that position, he was CEO of Lazard Japan Asset Management from 1991 to 1998. His business career also includes positions at Daiwa Securities and Merrill Lynch Securities, Tokyo Branch. On the academic front, Mr. Sugashita received a BA in Economics from Ritsumeikan University and since 2009 is Special Advisor for the Dean of Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University.

Yoichiro Yatsurugi

Mr. Yatsurugi joined IBM in 1978 as a Sales Trainee and had experienced various positions such as, International Business Consultant at IBM HQ in 1991, IBM Asia Pacific President administrative assistant in 1994, General Manager of IBM Network Services in Japan. Along with the Business Unit separation, he became the first President of AT&T Global Network Services Japan LLC in 1999. His steps continued and became the first President of Willcom, PHS mobile carrier in Japan and the CEO of SAP Japan in 2007, Board Member of Alfresa Holdings from 2017. He also has the many Governmental positions such as, NISC (National center of Incident readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurty) Information Security Advisor, METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industries) DX Member in 2018 and 2020, Regulatory Reform Promotion Council expert advisor at Cabinet Office from 2019 etc. He established Igreque.com to coordinate seminars, lectures mainly for CIO’s. He received a Bachelor of Science from Tokyo Institute of Technology.

Zenji Miura

Mr. Miura joined Ricoh Co., Ltd. in 1976, after engaging in the Corporate Management and Planning, and Finance department, he moved to Ricoh Europe (Netherlands) and led the financial management team in the EMEA offices as an accounting and finance director. And then he moved to Ricoh France as a president and promoted M&A for sales distributers. Subsequently, he served as Managing Director of the UK headquarters of Gestetner acquired by the Ricoh. And then, after serving as Senior Managing Executive Officer and CFO and Executive Vice President and Representative Director of Ricoh, he was appointed as Executive Director, President and CEO. As the CEO, he promoted "Selection and Concentration of Businesses" and "Realization of highly efficient management" and made a significant contribution to the growth and improvement of the company's structure. He was appointed Director of Polaris in 2019, and in the same year, he was appointed CEO of LignoMateria Co., Ltd.

Part Time Advisors

Shuichi Takahashi

Honorary Advisor

Mr. Takahashi joined Polaris as president in September 2004 upon founding the company , was appointed chairman in June 2006, and counselor and member of the board in July 2007, director in June 2015, and honorary advisor in July 2017. Prior to Polaris, he was president & CEO of Kansai Urban Bank, a regional bank in Japan, which he successfully turned around. Before that, he was managing director of NIDEC Corp. where he managed a number of M&A transactions as well as post-merger integrations. Prior to NIDEC, he was director of the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi. Mr. Takahashi holds a BA in Law from Kyoto University and an M. Phil from University of Edinburgh.

Kaori Yagi

Advisor (part time)

Ms. Yagi joined Polaris as Managing Director in March 2005, and became Advisor in April 2009. Prior to Polaris, she was General Manager of Global Alliances Office of Sony Corporation, mainly responsible for the alliance strategy with overseas IT and Media companies as well as the new business development. Prior to that, she was engaged in the International Marketing of the professional products, including three-year experience in Sony of Canada Ltd. as Operations Manager. Ms. Yagi received a BA in International Relations from The University of Tokyo and Master of Science in Counseling from the Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences at University of Tsukuba.

Yasuo Kitamura

Legal Advisor
(part-time)

Mr. Kitamura joined Polaris as legal advisor in March 2005. He is a partner of Kitamura & Hiraga, which was established in October 2007. Prior to that, he practiced at Ozawa & Akiyama from 1996 and became partner in 2002. During this period, he practiced at Shearman & Sterling in New York from 2000 to 2001. Prior to that, he worked for The Industrial Bank of Japan, Ltd. (IBJ). He was admitted to the bar of Japan in 1996, and to the bar of New York State in 2001. He received an LL.B. from Kyoto University and LL.M. at Duke University School of Law.

Yuka Katsuki

Legal Advisor
(part-time)

Ms. Katsuki joined Polaris as legal advisor in March 2023. She has started her private equity career at 3i Asia Pacific in 1999 and since has been involved in various aspects of the private equity business including investment and administrative legal and compliance activities at several PE funds, FOF and principal investment firm. Prior to that, she worked at global investment banks in the corporate financing. She was admitted to the bar of Japan in 2016 (Daini Tokyo Bar Association). She holds a BA degree in Economics from Waseda University and a MBA from London Business School.

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