Message Image  

Leadership

CFA Society Japan Board of Directors 2023-2024

Officers

 
Masato Degawa Masato Degawa, CFA
President

Mr. Degawa is president of CFA Society Japan. Mr. Degawa was the President and Representative Director of BlackRock Japan from 2010 until 2015. Prior to this assignment, Mr. Degawa worked for Societe Generale Asset Management Japan (currently Amundi Japan) as CEO and CIO for 8 years from 2002. Mr. Degawa started his career as an equity analyst at Morgan Stanley Japan in 1985. He subsequently worked for JP Morgan Investment Management in London as a senior fund manager from 1993. Currently, Mr. Degawa acts as a country representative for Affiliated Managers Group (NYSE: AMG). Mr. Degawa also is a consultant for Yarra Capital Management based in Melbourne and Nordea Asset Management in Luxemburg. Mr. Degawa is a Non-Executive Board member for Yarra Capital Management and Gong-Cha Japan. Mr. Degawa is also a board member of the United World College Japan National Committee. Mr. Degawa received BA and MA in Engineering Science and Economics from University of Oxford.
Akimi Matsuda Akimi Matsuda, CFA
Vice President

Akimi Matsuda, Ph.D, CFA, leads CFA Society Japan along with President and Secretary. She assumed her role in November 2020 and has more than 15 years of investment professional experience. Before the current role, she was leading University Liaison Committee (Research Challenge) at the Society and served as a “CFA ambassador “ or liaison between PIMCO Japan Ltd (a corporate sponsor since 2018) and CFA Society Japan. Ms. Matsuda is a senior vice president and credit analyst at PIMCO Japan Ltd. Previously, she served as a strategist and account manager focused on Asia (particularly Japan) products and institutional client servicing. Prior to joining PIMCO in 2013, she was a vice president in the structured products department within the global capital markets group at Nomura Securities Co., where she worked in solution sales. Previously, she was a senior associate and quantitative strategist in fixed income research at Lehman Brothers. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from New York University. She received an undergraduate degree from Sophia University. She earned her CFA charter in 2017.
Fumihiko Imamura Fumihiko Imamura, CFA
Treasurer

Fumihiko Imamura, CFA joined CFA Japan Society's board of directors in November 2020. His contribution to the society began as a volunteer member for JIC 2020 working group, where he later joined the administrative team as a director and is a treasurer now. He has been engaged in financial market operation for the past 15 years with a highly successful track record in a wide range of IT project management and bilingual relationship management at Tokyo Stock Exchange and Osaka Exchange. Mr. Imamura holds an MBA from IESE Business School and an MA and BA in economics from Chiba University. He is an active rugby player in a local league.

Taku Arai Taku Arai, CFA
Secretary

Taku Arai, CFA is the Deputy Head of Japanese Equities at Schroders Investment Management, currently based in London, UK. He is currently responsible for business and product management for the Japanese equity team. Taku joined Schroders Japan in August 2011 as a Product Manager for Japanese equities. He became a Head of Equities Management, Japan in November 2015 and since then, he had been a member of Executive Management Committee of Schroders Japan until his secondment to London. He was appointed as a Deputy Head of Japanese Equities in October 2017 and since then, he has also been a member of Equities Executive Management Committee headed by Global Head of Equities. While retaining his role as a deputy head, Taku was seconded to London office in January 2023 for mid-term assignment, where he focuses on business development for Japanese equities as an Investment Director, covering primarily in UK and Europe. Taku is scheduled to come back to Tokyo in 1Q 2024. Prior to joining Schroders, he was a portfolio manager at BNY Mellon Asset Management from March 2010 to July 2011, covering various products for Japanese clients. Before that Taku held the roles of Director of Client Services and Equity Product Specialist at AllianceBernstein from July 2005 to February 2010. Taku started his investment career in April 2001 as a portfolio manager for private bank clients and global equity products at Citigroup Asset Management. He also worked at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi for three years upon graduation (1998-2001).


Directors


Scott Anderson Scott Anderson, CFA

Anderson, Scott, CFA Scott R. Anderson, CFA, Director, Portfolio Manager/Analyst Lazard Japan Asset Management K.K. (Tokyo). Scott manages Lazard’s KAGURA Japanese small cap equity strategy and covers the Japanese medical technology and specialty retail sectors. He began working in the investment field in 1998. Prior to joining Lazard in 2016, Scott was the head of Japanese equity research for Russell Investments. Prior to that, he was a senior manager with Nomura Asset Management and also worked in Nomura Fund Research and Technologies America as well as Nomura IBJ Global Investment Advisors. Previously, he worked as a consultant at AT Kearney and as a consultant to the Inter-American Development Bank. Scott holds a B.A. in Political Science and Spanish from University of Minnesota and an M.S.F.S, in International Finance from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. He is fluent in Japanese and Spanish.
Chunmei Huang Chunmei Huang, CFA

Chunmei Huang, CFA, CPA, is the Board Director of CFA Society of Japan from 2019 in charge of Advocacy Committee activities. Ms. Huang is Managing Director of Shinsei Corporate Investment Limited, Representative Director of Shinsei Impact Investment Limited in SBI Group. Since joined Shinsei Bank (currently SBI Shinsei Bank) in 2005, Ms. Huang has consistently engaged in principal investment and built private equity investment career. Ms. Huang has also performed as a member of multiple funds’ investment committee, board director and/or corporate supervisor for portfolio companies and funds’ general partner. Ms. Huang setup the impact team in 2017, currently managing 2 impact investment funds, “Childcare Support Fund” and “HATARAKU (WORK) Fund” as investment committee member. The “Childcare Support Fund” was the first impact investment fund for Japanese bank group. Ms. Huang is also Member of Japan National Advisory Board of GSG(the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment), Visiting researcher of Center for Social Investment, Tama University, Vice-Chairman of GSG NAB “Impact IPO Working Group” etc.. Ms. Huang received B.A. in Finance from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and MBA from Kobe University. She is also a CFA Charter holder and AICPA of Delaware, USA. Ms. Huang has been awarded as “Woman of the Year 2019” by Nikkei Woman.
Akira Okada Akira Okada, CFA

Akira Okada has been working for Manulife since 2004, most recently as a Chief Investment Officer for Manulife Japan General Account since 2013 after having taken various senior roles at Manulife Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan. Prior to joining Manulife, he was a head of fixed income at Fukoku Capital Management, with managing pension money between 1999 and 2004. He started his investment career at Long Term Credit Bank of Japan as a proprietary dealer of various products, like fx, money market and derivatives in Hong Kong, New York and London since 1988. He holds bachelor degree of Law and MBA from Hitotsubashi University in Japan. He has been mentor for Research Challenge since 2018 and a member of Advocacy committee of CFA Japan Society since 2018.
Yasuko Sato Yasuko Sato, CFA

Yasuko Sato is Director and Client Portfolio Manager specialised in Japanese equity at Invesco Asset Management Japan, with nearly 20-year experience in the asset management industry. Yasuko previously spent nine years in London in a similar role at Asset Management One and JPMorgan Asset Management. Before being seconded to London, she worked as a research analyst covering the transportation sector for six years at JPMorgan Asset Management in Tokyo. She holds a B.A. in Literature from Waseda University and an M.A. in International Management (Hons) from Thunderbird School of Global Management. She has the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.


Statutory Auditors

 
Makoto Hatta Makoto Hatta, CFA

Makoto Hatta serves as a statutory auditor of the CFA Society Japan. He is Managing Executive Officer of Sompo Asset Management Co., Ltd, supervising overall businesses related with investment trusts. He joined Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance Co., Ltd. (currently known as Sompo Japan Insurance Inc.) in 1987 and has been engaged in investment management business since then.
He earned a BA degree in Economics from Tokyo University. He is a CFA charter holder and a member of the CFA Society Japan.
Shuichi Seo Shuichi Seo, CFA

Shuichi Seo is CEO of Business Japan Inc. and has been engaged in research based advisory services on capital and operational tie-ups for Japanese and foreign companies since 2017. He started his career with Nomura Research Institute in 1984 and was engaged in research and consulting in Tokyo, Sydney and London for 16 years. Then he conducted fund research with Mitsubishi Asset Brains till 2004, helped forming marketing strategy for Nikko Asset Management till 2007, advised corporate clients on M&A and corporate finance with IBS Securities till 2011, led institutional business with T&D Asset Management till 2016 and served FRONTEO Inc. as CFO till 2017.

COMMITTEES

Membership Committee
Public Relationship Committee
Advocacy Committee
University Committee