Profiles

Robin Bryson

Robin received a B.A. (Hons.) in Commerce from Abertay University in Scotland before coming to Japan in 1999. He has over 10 years of corporate training experience in a wide range of areas including Discussion Skills, Effective E-mail Writing, Negotiations, Presentations and Human Resource Management/Organization Management et al. Prior to joining CICOM BRAINS he was a Human Resources Manager at a major English training firm in Japan where he was responsible for recruitment and training, performance appraisals, talent management and staff motivation and retention. He joined CICOM BRAINS in 2007 and is currently the Corporate Training Manager in our Global Human Resources Development group.

Tania Coke

Tania spent the first half of her career as a management consultant with UK-based Burlington Consultants (now part of Deloitte), where she carried out commercial due diligence as well as strategy and organizational consulting, working out of London, Paris and Cape Town. One of her responsibilities at Burlington was to set up a Joint Venture with Andrew Campbell and Michael Goold of the Ashridge Strategic Management School, focusing on organization design and effectiveness. During this time, she discovered a passion for the people side of business, and began to specialize in communication and leadership. She then spent seven years as a freelance mediator and communications trainer in the corporate and community sectors. She also helped to set up and facilitate The Bee School, a leadership training programme for aspiring change-makers, working alongside founder (and Nobel Peace Prize nominee) Dr Scilla Elworthy. Since moving to Tokyo in November 2010, she has been carrying out communications and leadership training with CICOM-BRAINS and for global organizations in the banking, telecoms and manufacturing sectors. Alongside her corporate work, Tania is a performer and teacher of Corporeal Mime, a stylised physical theatre-form. She holds a BA (Hons) in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University, and a Diploma and Post-Graduate Degree from the International School of Corporeal Mime (London).

Craig Dibble

Craig worked as a Risk Manager for Bankers Trust and Deutsche bank in London, New York, Singapore and Tokyo. He was one of the earliest developers and users of value at risk technology which has since become a standard in the industry. Prior to entering banking he worked for Deloitte, Haskins and Sells as a consultant. He started his own consulting firm in 2000. During this time he has advised on over a dozen business start ups and has completed consulting assignments at a similar number of established firms, generally in the areas of change and risk management. His particular interest is the monitoring of performance and the allocation of resources to trading businesses. Craig first arrived in Japan in 1994. He has a strong interest in Japanese and has co-written three textbooks on the language. He also co-writes a regular language column in the Daily Yomiuri. Craig holds an MBA from Columbia University, New York. He also holds an undergraduate degree in Physics and a postgraduate degree in Operations Research from Cambridge University, England. He was awarded scholarships at both universities."

Jusuke Ikegami

Jusuke Ikegami is a graduate of the Waseda University Faculty of Commerce. He has an M.B.A. (Management) from Cambridge University in England, an M.A. (International Relations) from the University of Kent in England, and an M.A. (International Studies) from the University of Sheffield in England. After working as an associate at the Boston Consulting Group, he served as Brand Manager at Master Foods Ltd. (M&M Mars Inc.) and Product Manager for GE Europe Ltd. He was also Director of New Business Development at Softbank EC Holdings Co., Ltd., which provided services to foreign-financed joint ventures, and General Manager of a Japanese joint venture, and chief venture capitalist at Nissei Capital Co., Ltd. He is currently an associate professor at the graduate school of Waseda University. His major publications include MBA Management Book and MBA Marketing (PHP), MBA Business Plan (Sougou Hourei Publishing), and Marketing Practice (JMA Management Center). He also translated The Delta Model: Toward a Unified Framework of Strategy by Arnold C. Hax and Dean L. Wilde II (First Press).

Hiroaki Kobayashi

Mr. Kobayashi holds a Bachelor of Law from the University of Tokyo and an M.B.A from the University of Chicago. He started his career at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation in 1982, marketing network services, including new product development, promotional planning, and other sales support activities. He then joined Boston Consulting Group Tokyo, where he was involved in business development, business process reengineering, and sales effectiveness projects. He later became Director of Strategy for BT Japan, where he focused on M&A strategy for e-commerce and multi-media in addition to equity tie-ups. From March 2000, he worked for HSBC Securities as a Senior Analyst covering the telecom, broadcasting and advertising sectors. He joined CICOM in April 2003 as Managing Director, before appointed to COO in February 2006.Mr. Kobayashi is also the co-author of the MOT Innovation Guide (Nikkei BP), and co-translator of Business of Software by Michael Cusumano (Diamond Publication), and Democratizing Innovation by Eric Von Hippel (First Press), both authors are faculty in the MIT Sloan School.

Yukiko Kuroda

Ms. Kuroda specializes in organizational and leadership development, teambuilding, and management training for corporations and academic institutions. Ms. Kuroda holds a B.A. in Economics from Keio University and an M.B.A. from Harvard University, where she attended as a Fulbright scholar. Ms. Kuroda is the founder and President of P.Y. International and co-founder and part-time Director of CICOM International, Inc. She is a skilled presenter and trainer and is often called upon to provide Japanese management with new skills and insights in areas such as strategy development, leadership, change management, and communications. She formerly worked as a Senior Consultant at Gemini Consulting and, prior to that, as a Marketing Representative at Sony Corporation. Ms. Kuroda is also the author of numerous publications, including Venture Keiei Kakumei (Management Revolution through Venture Business-Nikkei BP), Yuki no Keiei (Managing with Courage-Japan Management Association), and translation of What Leaders Really Do by Harvard Business School Professor John Kotter.

Yasunari Matsuura

Yasunari is a management consultant, professional corporate trainer and business coach. With nearly 15 years of consulting experiences working in London, Tokyo and Osaka, he has extensively worked on variety of projects in fields such as mergers and acquisitions, corporate turnaround, change management and human resources development. After a short career at the Sumitomo Bank in Osaka, Yasunari moved to London in 1990. After gaining an MBA Yasunari joined PricewaterhouseCoopers in London, where he was engaged in strategic investment and corporate turnaround advisory services both for Japanese clients operating in Europe as well as for European/American companies seeking to invest in Asia. Yasunari came back to Japan in 1999 and joined Globis Corporation where he led its practice in Osaka as its general manager, also acting as a member of the executive committee of Globis Group. In 2008 Yasunari left Globis to set up his own consulting practice specializing in strategic advisory and global leadership development. In 2005, he was also appointed non-executive internal auditor for Trusco Nakayama Corporation, a billion-dollar engineering tools manufacturer and distributor listed on the First Section of Tokyo Stock Exchange. Yasunari has a BA from Osaka University of Foreign Studies (major in Latin American economics), and an MBA from Warwick Business School in Great Britain. As a teacher and facilitator, Yasunari covers multidisciplinary areas including strategy, leadership, corporate finance and in-house management projects.

Yasuhiko Nakamura

After graduating from Aoyama Gakuin University, Yasuhiko Nakamura worked at a real estate company affiliated with a financial institution, where his primary duties were planning, development, operation, and management of inner-city office buildings. He was then posted to the US, managing a broad range of real estate investments. He returned to Japan in 1997, and worked in rental property management, real estate brokerage, and restaurant operations as the Real Estate Division Manager of Tomio Building Co., Ltd. In 2000, he joined the Tachikawa Junior Chamber Inc., comprised of local corporate managers, and served in a variety of official positions, including Director, Executive Director, and Managing Director. He started working as an adult learning trainer in 2001, with student enrollment eventually growing to more than 5,000. In 2005, he was selected as a "Superior Global Trainer"by the Junior Chamber International, an entrepreneurial-based associated group of the Tachikawa Junior Chamber Inc., with more than 160,000 members worldwide. In 2005, he also established YAS Corporation to achieve a personal philosophical goal. In addition to real estate, HR and other business related consulting, Mr. Nakamura also provides lectures and training at government and business-affiliated associations, including follow-up training, young management staff training, retirement home director training, coaching training, and management training. Publications include collaboration on the Stories of Heisei Company Presidents (Adsmith Japan).

Tadayasu Nishida

Mr. Nishida has a B.A from Waseda University and an M.B.A. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Nishida began his career at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation in 1985, working in corporate finance including global capital markets, investor relations, and project financing for overseas telecom projects. Mr. Nishida started CICOM International, Inc. with Ms. Yukiko Kuroda in 1996. Since then, he has led the company to become one of the leading providers of management training, in both English and Japanese. Mr. Nishida advises corporate clients on their training programs, and works as trainer in finance, corporate strategy, and business planning. He is also involved in promoting entrepreneurship as a steering member of The MIT Enterprise Forum in Japan, which mentors entrepreneurs and operates an annual business plan contest.

Sandy Saito

Ms. Saito graduated from Kansai University and has an M.B.A from the Entrepreneurship Institute Australia (EIA). Before coming to Singapore in 1994 as a lecturer, she worked at Surugadai Gakuen as a consultant for pre-university students. She has also worked in Human Resources and Administration for Fujitsu Asia Pte,, Ltd., and as the General Manager of Accounting, Finance, Human Resources and Administration in Zentek Technology Singapore Pte. Ltd. Group. She joined CICOM BRAINS (ASIA) Pte. Ltd.

Richard Sheehan

Richard came to CICOM BRAINS in 1998 and over the years has taught courses in Marketing, Strategy, Finance, Communications and Leadership. Currently, he serves as Program Director of CICOM-GLP, managing the open school as well as conducting in-house corporate training. He also lectures at Saitama National University on business-related topics. Richard has appeared as a guest lecturer on NHK TV’s “Eigo Business World” and co-authored "Learning MBA Basics in English” (over 60,000 copies sold) and “The Practical MBA: For Business and Classroom Use”, and is in the process of completing “MBA for Kids (of all ages)”, which is due out later this year. Prior to joining CICOM, Richard worked as the Business Development Manager for Multimedia Learning Systems, an educational software company based in Tokyo, where he developed sales channels and 3rd party licenses throughout Asia. He also worked for the US-based Texas Commerce Bank in credit analysis / loan restructuring as well as for the Texas Society of CPAs.　Richard received both his BBA and MBA from the University of Texas, majoring in finance and marketing.

Terry Symonds

Terry has 15 years of experience training business people. He is a specialist in designing and teaching presentation, negotiation, meeting, writing, and cross-cultural communication skills. Terry has co-authored two books: Strategic Business Writing (DHC, Amazon Books, 2006), and Strategic English Presentation (DHC, Amazon Books, 2004). He has also contributed various articles for NHK’s Business Leaders booklets. Formerly a Program Director for CICOM, Terry now focuses on writing and teaching business communication skills seminars. He also focuses on teaching Pre-GLP at CICOM BRAINS. Terry holds a Bachelor of Education from Exeter University, England, and a Cambridge RSA from Stanton School of English, London. Before coming to Japan, he worked at the Royal Bank of Scotland, where he was responsible for client accounts in the Stocks and Shares Division.

Caroline Tan

Caroline has assumed managerial positions in supply chain management, procurement and ERP deployment and management within European and US multinationals, including Agilent Technologies, a spin-off from Hewlett Packard, as Procurement Manager, as well as a managerial role within the ERP department. She led the successful set-up as well as managed Agilent Technology’s International Procurement Office (IPO) operations in Asia. She then joined Teleplan NV, where she managed both logistics and materials operations and partnerships for eight APAC offices including Australia, Vietnam, China and India. Caroline holds an MBA from the University of Portsmouth and completed her PhD in marketing at Keio University under the Monbukagakusho scholarship. She is now a full-time faculty member in the International Economics Department at a university in Tokyo. While pursuing her doctorate, she has taught Marketing at the GLP Open School Program at CICOM BRAINS.