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Ken Suzuki is co-founder and Chair of the Executive Board of SmartNews. Ken received a Ph.D from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at The University of Tokyo in 2009, and is currently a project researcher at the University of Tokyo. He has authored several published works such as “Namerakana Shakai to Sono Teki (The Smooth Society and Its Enemies)". Ken co-founded SmartNews, Inc. in 2012 with the mission of “delivering the world’s quality information to the people who need it.” In September 2014, he established SmartNews International Inc. and has been leading business growth in the U.S. market.
Kaisei Hamamoto is CEO and co-founder of SmartNews. Born in 1981 in Tochigi Prefecture, Kaisei has been deeply immersed in the world of programming from as young as middle school and has made his own shareware among other projects. In 2005, he graduated from Tokyo Institute of Technology’s School of Information Engineering. Kaisei's curiosity in organizing and visualizing information on the web led him to co-found SmartNews, Inc. in 2012 with the mission of "delivering the world's quality information to the people who need it." Among other works, he has co-translated “Version Control with Git” (O'Reilly, Japan) into Japanese.
Yi Ren is CSO of SmartNews. With more than ten years of business management experience, Yi is responsible for overseeing strategy and corporate planning. Yi joined SmartNews from DeNA China, where he served as CEO, growing the organization into a leading mobile game publisher. He built the business from scratch, managing strategy and business development, into a successful game business across Asia. He was also involved in the establishment of Dream Incubator China in late 2010.
Yi graduated from the University of Tokyo's Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology School of Engineering, and completed his Master's degree there as well.
Minoru Imano joined GLOBIS in July 2006. Prior to GLOBIS, he worked for Arthur Andersen for 5years, where he was in charge of sales force operation turnaround, post merger integration, and long-term business planning projects. He is the leader of IT sector investment team. Mr. Imano received a BA in Law from the University of Tokyo.