Before Catalys

Before this I was a manager at a Big Four firm, working on projects including separations and AI strategy and implementation. Before that I worked on valuation at a specialist valuation firm, which gave me my grounding in finance. I have lived and worked in several countries, including the United States, where I am from, as well as Singapore, Indonesia and Japan. Having spent most of my working life in Japan, I want to contribute to Japan’s growth through cross-border work.

Why I joined

A large full-service firm has the strengths that come with scale, but internal competition and politics are unavoidable, and teams were reshuffled and work went back and forth through layers of review. As that began to sit badly with me, I was strongly drawn to Catalys’s strategy and its culture. A model that does its own M&A and combines raising the value of portfolio companies with strategy consulting felt able to bend with whatever AI does to the consulting industry. Seeing what the firm had done since founding, and what the people here want, convinced me that not taking a risk is itself the risk, and I decided to join.

Growth and results

The biggest change has been in mindset. At a large firm senior people mostly led the client relationship, and my own chances to talk to clients directly were limited. At Catalys I am at the front from proposal through delivery, exchanging views with clients frankly. There is pressure in that, but what drives me is a good kind of tension: what if we really could deliver this company’s transformation? I can also draw on a global network freely, and I am using that discretion to open up new opportunities.

Taking Catalys global

There is no reason for Catalys to wait before going global. We are already working with partner firms overseas, and what we have achieved in Japan, and how fast we have grown, shows there is demand abroad. The world’s attention is on Japan right now, with investment, tourism and cultural exchange all picking up. In that current, I want to help Japanese companies recognise their own value again and seize opportunities abroad. I also want to build the language and cultural support that lets overseas companies understand the Japanese market and work with it.

What I want to achieve at Catalys

I have lived in Japan since I graduated, and I have felt its problems close at hand: a falling population, ageing in the regions, the rising cost of living. The Great East Japan Earthquake in particular, seeing people in Tohoku help one another, deepened how I feel about this country. In the rest of my career I want to contribute something to Japan’s future, through supporting companies struggling with succession and companies trying to expand overseas. I want to keep doing work that gives something back.

* Roles and details are as they were at the time of the interview.