role: Management Board

Tetsuzo Matsumoto

Tetsuzo (Ted) Matsumoto has nearly 62 years of business carrier mainly in Information, Communication and Media business in Japan, US, and some other countries, and is still active in Japanese business community. Presently, he is serving as Chairman and CEO of ORNIS Corp. (Ocean Radar Network Information Services), Chairman and CEO of SAUFAL Inc. (Swarming Autonomous Underwater Fleet Architectural Laboratory) and Representative Director of HIQA, a non-profit organization for the Certification and Support of High IQ people.

In October 2006, Matsumoto joined Softbank Mobile Corp., as a member of the Board, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, according to the strong request of Masayoshi Son, Founder and Chairman of SoftBank Group. He served for the company for nearly 6 years, mainly responsible for the engineering strategy, government relations and international business development. During that period, the company recorded a dramatic growth.

Number of the mobile subscribers, which was 15.22 million (market share 16.5%) in March 2006, grew to 42.18 million (market share 29.8%) in March 2013, and EBIT, which was JPY 76.3 billion, grew to JPY 517.1 billion (6.8 times). During this period, he was also instrumental for the global cooperation of the mobile communication industry. He served as a member of the Board of GSMA (London) and GTI (Beijing) to play leading roles in these organizations for the technological innovation. Prior to joining the Softbank group, Matsumoto worked for Qualcomm for more than 10 years, commencing as a consultant, and, subsequently, serving as President and Chairman of Qualcomm Japan, which he established in March 1998, as well as Senior Vice President of its HQ in San Diego. During the time he served for Qualcomm, he was successful to change the political climate of Japanese mobile communication industry and make the system Qualcomm proposed one of the Japanese 3G standards.

Before that, Matsumoto worked for a Japanese conglomerate, Itochu Corporation for 34 years, occupying the positions such as Senior VP of Electronics Division of Itochu America, and General Manager of Telecommunication and Multimedia Business of its Tokyo HQ. Among many achievements he made during the time he served for Itochu, one of the remarkable was his contribution to the merger of the two competing satellite communication companies, which saved the industry from the serious over supply of the capacity, and the creation of the concept of the world’s first “Platform-based” Direct Satellite Broadcasting Service. Matsumoto received a Bachelor of Law degree from Kyoto University in 1962. In 2013 and 2014, he served as a Special Visiting Professor for Graduate School of Global Business at Meiji University.

Through his carrier, he wrote many books. In late 2017, he published a book titled “The Day AI becomes God” in Japanese and Korean. English version of the same book was published in 14 countries in the end of 2018, and the Chinese version was published by the Publishing Department of Tsinghua University in early 2019.

Toshihisa Nabeta

Toshi is a Senior Advisor at Oliver Wyman based out of Tokyo, Japan and has more than 6 years’ industry and consulting experience within aerospace, defense, and national security related government projects.

His work has largely focused on growth and market strategy, capture support for Japanese clients interested in overseas business expansion, non-Japanese clients for entering and expanding business in Japanese market, and has participated in numerous open competitive tenders to serve government clients. Selected experiences include:

•Led The Avascent Group Ltd.’s Japan Operations for more than 5 years, after opening Avascent’s first Tokyo Office in April of 2017.

•More than 50 projects at Avascent, with a unique expertise in global strategy and management consulting mated with local insight into Japan’s ADG markets.

•Prior to joining Avascent, spent 33 years at Mitsubishi Corporation with a focus on strategic and programmatic business development in Japan’s defense and aerospace industrial sector and worked with Group CEO to transform organizational culture to develop new business frontiers for the Machinery Group.

•Outside Director at a Tokyo Stock Exchange listed (Standard) industrial energy focused wholesale company, Fuji Kosan Company Ltd. since 2021.

•Director (Non-Executive) at a general incorporated association, International Security Industry Council of Japan since 2021.

Toshi received a B.A. in Commerce at Hitotsubashi University of Japan, and a Master of Science in National Resource Strategy at the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington DC, known as The Eisenhower School.

Dr. Stephen Nagy

Dr. Stephen Nagy is originally from Calgary, Alberta. He received his PhD in International Relation/Studies from Waseda University in 2008. His main affiliation is professor at the International Christian University, Tokyo. He is also a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute (CGAI); a visiting fellow with the Japan Institute for International Affairs (JIIA); a senior fellow at the MacDonald Laurier Institute (MLI); a senior fellow with the Asia Pacific Foundation, Canada; and a senior fellow with the East Asia Security Centre (EASC). He also serves as the Director of Policy Studies for the Yokosuka Council of Asia Pacific Studies (YCAPS) spearheading their Indo-Pacific Policy Dialogue series. He was formerly a member of the Canadian National Disabled Ski Team, he loves cooking and has a nachos and spicy cuisine addiction.

He is currently working on middle power approaches to great power competition in the Indo-Pacific, Canadian foreign policy in the Indo-Pacific and Sino-Japanese relations. His latest publications include:

  • Nagy, S.R. and Indu Saxena. 2024. Southeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific Construct. Nova Science Publishers. DOI: https://doi.org/10.52305/ONAR0813
  • Nagy, S.R. 2024, “Taiwan’s Pivotal Role in Supply Chains in the Indo-Pacific: Protecting a Global Public Good,” in Policy Perspectives, Canadian Global Affairs Institute, February 27th, 2024, (https://www.cgai.ca/taiwans_pivotal_role_in_supply_chains_in_the_indo_pacific_protecting_a_global_public_good)
  • Nagy, S.R. 2024, “The Global South and the Liberal International Order: Conceptual Challenges and Structural Limitations,” IN DEFENSE OF THE LIBERAL INTERNATIONAL ORDER, Institute for Security and Development Policy (ISDP), Kajima Institute for International Peace and the Prospect Foundation, Jagannath Panda (ed), February 14, 2024 (https://isdp.eu/content/uploads/2024/02/In-Defense-of-the-Liberal-International-Order-OneFile-16-February.pdf)
  • Nagy, S. R. 2021. “Sino-Japanese Reactive Diplomacy as seen through the Interplay of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Free and Open Indo-Pacific Vision (FOIP).” China Report: 1–15.
  • Nagy, S. R. 2020. “Quad-Plus? Carving out Canada’s Middle Power Role.” Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs. Special Issue. Quad Plus: Form versus Substance, vol. 3, no. 5: 179–195.

Dr. Nanae Baldauff

Dr. Nanae Baldauff is an Associate Research Fellow at UNU-CRIS (Bruges, Belgium) and Senior Researcher at Keio Research Institute at SFC (Shonandai, Japan). She recently completed a Ph.D. in Political Science (Ghent University, Belgium), and holds a master’s degree in European Governance (University of Luxembourg). She has a certificate of International Law from the Beasley School of Law (Temple University, Japan Campus). Her Ph.D. focused on Japan’s defense cooperation with strategic partners from the perspective of Japan’s national security objectives. The research examined the purposes of Japan’s defense engagement in the areas of defense equipment and technology cooperation, military exercises and capacity building. She is a recipient of the Japan Foundation fellowship. She has been a guest lecturer at the University of Luxembourg, Trier University (Germany), and Ghent University.

In addition to her academic carrier, Nanae has extensive professional experience at the United Nations University headquarters in Tokyo as governing board and legal administrator. She has a wealth of experience in the area of institutional strategy development and partnerships linking government ministries, education/research industries, and commercial companies. She has managed large budgets, off-shore offices, and oversight of a range of portfolios including drafting and negotiating agreements, donor relations, planning and management of board meetings, administration and liaison support. Prior to that she worked for major US investment banks in the compliance and risk management administration.

Her area of interest is Japan’s foreign and defense policy, Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific regional vision and security community, geopolitics and geoeconomics in the Indo-Pacific, defense industry cooperation, cybersecurity and security of the space domain.

Geoff Newman

Geoff Newman has been active in Asia-Pacific since 1980, when he became Columbia
University’s first exchange student to Peking University. He established the Collins
Aerospace (Hamilton Standard) business office in Hong Kong in 1985, marketing
aerospace products in China and Asia Pacific. In 1991 he expanded to Japan, opening
their business office in Tokyo, and has been working in Japan and the region since.
Currently, he is an international business development leader for Silicon Sensing, which
is a Collins Aerospace (UK) joint venture with SPP (Sumitomo Precision Products) for
sensors and inertial measurement.

Geoff’s mission has been to develop and maintain relationships with key customers and
suppliers while pursuing new business relationships, primarily through partnership,
across the aerospace and industrial markets for Collins Aerospace. He has been with
Collins since 1985 and has built a broad background in the aerospace industry and
international marketing. He has held various positions in international marketing,
business development and program management for products ranging from propellers
and engine accessories to fuel cells and equipment for space.

A speaker of both Chinese and Japanese, he has experience working and living in
Japan, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, India, and the Middle East.

Geoff has a bachelor’s degree in international relations and a master’s in Chinese
sociology, both from Columbia University. He has attended several strategic leadership
and professional development programs at Oxford University and Wharton.
He currently resides in New England with his family.