About us

Company Overview

Partners

Mari Yamauchi

Teruko Kagohashi

Chisato Straumann

Hideo Arase

Mari Yamauchi, Ph.D.

Mari is a researcher, author, professor/consultant in management specializing in comparative HRM (by country and sector) and cross-cultural management.

She has been engaged in a number of empirical studies in the fields of employment, education and training, and corporate governance, publishing widely. Her works have earned awards from major academic societies in Japan: A JACUE (Japan Association for College and University Education) Selection award for Education and Employment Systems, and Youth Career Development, in Europe: Guidelines for Cross-border Mobility and Internationalization (co-ed.) (2019), and Best Book awards for Japanese Employment Systems: Growing Divergence and Globalization (2013) from the Japan Society of Human Resource Management (JSHRM) and the Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training (JILPT)/Yomiuri Newspaper.

Mari also has extensive experience in the corporate sector, working for global financial institutions for over 20 years. Most recently she was a Managing Director at UBS Securities, Japan, responsible for products and services in WM (2006-2011).

Mari holds a PhD in Business and Commerce from Keio University and an MSc in International Employment Relations and Human Resource Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She has been a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley (2012-2013), Laboratoire d’Economie et de Sociologie du Travail (LEST-CNRS) in Aix en Provence (2014-2016), and the Deutsches Institut fur Japanstudien (2017-). She has taught at Aoyama Business School (2008-2010), Sophia University (2010-2014), Doshisha University (2014-2020), and Akita International University (2018-present).

Mari has worked for American, European and Japanese MNCs and lived in eight countries outside of her native Japan: The US, UK, Singapore, Mexico, Peru, Belgium, France and Italy.

Teruko Kagohashi

Partners with executives for organizational growth and development in their one-on-one coaching journey.

Teruko is an executive coach (ICF- International Coaching Federation, PCC-Professional Certified Coach), specializing in organizational culture and diversity management, remote leadership, cross-cultural leadership, and professional transitions (promotion, relocation, succession). She has delivered over 1,500 hours of one-on-one coaching since 2011.

She supports executives as well as young and senior leaders in Fortune 500 companies, fast growing start-ups, and small-to-medium global companies in a wide range of industries, including banking, finance, manufacture, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, IT, social media, telecommunication, health-care, hospitality, transportation, luxury, food and beverage, natural resources, energy, and consultancy.
Teruko delivers a service that is attuned to each executive’s specific competencies and organizational needs, rather than a standardized one-size-fits-all approach. She draws on an extensive, state-of-the-art professional toolbox which incorporates her own practices with the best methodology and theory available to date, such as Theory U, Emotional Intelligence, Positive Psychology, Transactional Analysis, Mindfulness, Systems Thinking, Organizational Constellations, and Cultural Orientations Framework.

She has 25+ years of international professional experience, competence in working with a diversity of people, and expertise and familiarity with Japanese work culture and business protocols, grounded in 13+ years of leadership and consultancy practice in Japan, USA, Bolivia and India, including delivering services in the fast-growing virtual space.

Teruko, International Coaching Federation accredited Professional Certified Coach, is certified in Cultural Orientations Framework (COF), Hogan Assessment, Systemic Constellations, Korn Ferry 360, DISC and Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Coaching among others. She was educated both in Japan and overseas (Germany, Australia, USA). She holds a B.A. in Economics from University of Wisconsin Madison and a dual Master’s degree from Teachers College and School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University.

She is fluent in Japanese and English and has conversational proficiency in Spanish.

Chisato Straumann

Help organizational leaders to develop, build multicultural & remote teams, promote inclusion & diversity, & coach for change

Chisato is an accomplished independent business intercultural trainer, consultant, and coach bringing 30+ years of international experience of living and working in major cities in Europe, North & South America, Japan & East Asia based in Switzerland.

She brings tremendous value to her intercultural and corporate training work for high potential leaders and senior executives at several Fortune Global 500 companies on multicultural & remote team-building, and change management. Also she promotes inclusion & diversity and helps manage the difficult situations for people with diverse backgrounds.

Previously, she managed language trainer training programs and development of training materials as the Learning & Development manager at one of the world’s leading language training organizations, inlingua International, in Switzerland. Also she supported aspects of staff development and business solutions at local language centers worldwide. Later, she single-handedly developed the concept and designed the training materials for Intercultural Communication and the Culture Specific materials for China, Japan, USA and Germany. Her publications include: Intercultural Communication: Culture General, Participant Workbook & Trainer’s Manuals, Intercultural Communication: Culture Specific – Working Effectively with the Chinese, US Americans, the Japanese, Germans (both Participant Workbook & Trainer’s Manuals.)

In the field of academia, she has taught at: Duale Hochschule Baden-Wurttemberg (Baden-Wurttemberg Cooperative State University), Lorrach, Germany (2015-2016); Hohere Fachschule fur Tourismus (College for Tourism), Samedan, Switzerland (2011-2016); Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts, (2018-2023); Ritsumeikan University (2018-); and Kwansei Gakuin University (2023-).

University of Zurich, Institute for Strategy and Business Economics, Executive Program completed; Ohio University, M.A. in Linguistics and TESL Certificate. Certified Professional Coach. GlobeSmart Certified consultant. Actee partner. Hofstede CWQ Certified Consultant.

She is fluent in English, Japanese, and German and currently based in Kyoto.

Hideo Arase

Hideo is an expert in the overseas business development of the medical industry and has led organizations across Europe, the Americas and Asia. He is proficient in business portfolio changes, corporate strategy planning and execution, M&A, organization transformation and HR development. His experiences in overseas markets have led him to believe “Never fear change, always give your best, and show grit.”

In 1977 Hideo Joined Terumo Corporation, a Japan-based global leader in medical technology with a 100-year history. For over 40 years he worked to advance Terumo’s overseas business development, spending roughly 20 years in overseas assignments in Asia, Europe, and the Americas (specifically: Hong Kong, Belgium, France, Brazil, the United States, and Singapore). From 1981-1993 he was engaged in marketing, and established and managed sales branches in Asia. In Europe, he started a new enterprise as Business Manager and guided a settling of the firm’s accumulated losses as President and Chairman of the Board at Terumo Europe. From 2011-2012, he was Chairman of Terumo Brazil where he led a V-shape recovery of the company. Then as President and CEO of Terumo Americas Holdings in the US (2012-2015), he oversaw 7 of the firm’s subsidiaries, successfully implementing M&A and accelerating its business portfolio transformation. From 2015-2018 he was Managing Director at Terumo Asia Holdings, where he strengthened compliance and corporate governance, and promoted business expansion. Hideo was Director and Senior Executive Officer of Terumo Corporation (head office) from 2009-2019.

From 2015-2018, he served on the Board of Directors of the Asia Pacific Medical Technology Association (APACMed), where he helped oversee medical device industry compliance, regulatory affairs, and government lobbying.

In 2019 he became an outside director of NH Foods Ltd., and currently assists in validating company decision-making, helps supervise the direction of business strategies and M&A, and works to strengthen corporate governance.

Hideo holds a BA in Economics from Yokohama National University and received his MBA (graduating magna cum laude) from United Business Institutes, Brussels. He has also completed: the Advanced Coaching Training Program at Leeds Metropolitan University; the Strategic Communications course at New York University’s Leonard N. Stern Business School; and the Biodesign Executive Education Management Innovation program at Stanford University. He is also Hospitality Coordinator of the Japan Hospitality Movement Association.

He published “Organization’s Danger Syndrome” (joint author) in 1998 and received the Alumni Award for Change Management from the Graduate School of Management, GLOBIS University, in 2010.

Since 2023, he is a specially appointed Professor of Open Innovation Center at Tokyo Medical and Dental University.