Leadership at SmartNews
Board of Directors
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Ken Suzuki
Co-Founder and Executive Chair of the Board
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Kaisei Hamamoto
Co-Founder and CEO
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Minoru Imano
Outside Board Director
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Dan Springer
Outside Board Director
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Etsuko Okajima
Outside Board Director
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Katsuya Uenoyama
Outside Board Director
Board of Auditors
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Shigeru Nishimura
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Shinsuke Matsumoto
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Seiko Kawasaki
Ken Suzuki
Co-Founder and Executive Chair of the Board
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."
Kaisei Hamamoto
Co-Founder and CEO
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.
Minoru Imano
Outside Board Director
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.
Dan Springer
Outside Board Director
Dan Springer serves as a Board Director at UiPath, SmartNews, and DocuSign, where he was CEO from 2017 to 2022, and in April 2025, he became the CEO of Ironclad.. With over 25 years of leadership experience, he has driven innovation and growth across tech, specializing in SaaS. Previously, he was Chairman and CEO at Responsys, scaling it into a global leader in marketing automation and a publicly traded company. He has held senior roles as Managing Director at Modem Media, CEO at Telleo, and CMO at NextCard, with early experience as a consultant at McKinsey. Springer holds an MBA from Harvard and an AB in Mathematics and Economics from Occidental College. He has also served on numerous boards, including iCIMS, Ansira, and The Boys and Girls Club.
Etsuko Okajima
Outside Board Director
Ms. Okajima has helped over 200 CEOs annually as a Human capitalist, a management team strengthening consultant, and a professional leader development specialist. After working at Mitsubishi Corporation, Harvard MBA, McKinsey, and the Globis Group, she founded ProNova, Inc. in 2007. She has also served as an outside director at Marui Group Co., Ltd. and KADOKAWA Corporation. After serving as an outside director, she was appointed Director and CHRO (part-time) of Euglena Co., Ltd. in December 2020, and currently serves as Director and Chairman of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee. She has served as an outside director at a total of nine listed companies. She was selected as a "Young Global Leaders 2007" by the World Economic Forum, and her books include "The Day a 40-Year-Old Becomes President" (Gentosha) .
Katsuya Uenoyama
Outside Board Director
Mr. Uenoyama has devoted his life to researching and developing future software, as well as its societal implementation and he has helped introduce AI agents to more than 4,330 companies. After working at Boston Consulting Group and GREE International, he earned a doctorate in machine learning at Matsuo Lab and founded PKSHA Technology in 2012. Uenoyama has served as a member of the Japanese Government's Cabinet Office's Digital Transformation Conference and an adviser to the Digital Agency, focused on the role of AI/software in society.