CEO, Venture Republic, Japan
Kei co-founded Venture Republic Inc., a public company <2177.OJ> in Japan that owns and runs Japan’s leading online travel search engine, “Travel.jp.”
Company also operates a user generated online hotel review service, “Hotel.jp” and a comparison shopping engine, “coneco.net.” Together with 3 other websites, company owns 6 online properties in Japan in total attracting 10 million monthly visitors. Company’s major shareholders include Mitsubishi Corporation and Nikkei Business Publications Inc. Venture Republic is the second largest shareholder of MyETone, Ltd. which runs one of the largest comparison shopping engines in China, “AskYaya.com.”
A seasoned executive with his extensive knowledge of e-commerce & Internet businesses and his strong entrepreneurship, Kei is responsible for driving the company by shaping its strategy, making commercialization efforts and building organization. As CEO, he led the company to its successful IPO in August, 2008 after 7 years since its foundation.
Previously, Kei worked at Mitsubishi Corporation for 11 years. During his time with the company, among other roles, he played the key role in company’s largest M&A deal in its history to acquire the Lawson Inc., one of the largest convenience store chains in Japan and led the company’s joint e-businesses with Lawson to pursue its post acquisition strategy.
Kei received a BA of Laws from Keio University in 1988 and an MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1998. He serves as President of Venture Mitakai, an official Keio University’s alumni association for CEOs of venture businesses and one of the Executive Committee Members of HBS Club of Japan (Harvard Business School’s alumni association in Japan). He is also a member of Japan Association of Corporate Executives.
