Show Menu
Ken Suzuki is CEO and co-founder of SmartNews, the global leader redefining information and news discovery. Ken co-founded SmartNews Inc. in 2012 with the mission of “delivering the world’s quality information to the people who need it.” He is responsible for the vision and strategy of SmartNews, which entered the U.S. market in 2014. Ken graduated from the Department of Physics at Keio University in 1998. He received a Ph.D in Complex Systems and Artificial Life from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at The University of Tokyo in 2009. He has also authored several published works such as “Namerakana Shakai to Sono Teki (The Smooth Society and Its Enemies)”.
Kaisei Hamamoto is COO, Chief Engineer and co-founder of SmartNews. Kaisei has been interested in aggregating massive amounts of information from the Internet and transforming them into effective visualizations that help people to better understand the world. This interest developed into a personal project in 2010, then evolved into SmartNews in 2012. His passion for engineering and technology fueled SmartNews to grow into the No.1 news app in Japan.
Kaisei graduated from Tokyo Institute of Technology’s School of Information Engineering.
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.