Team
C. Jeffrey Char, President and CEO
Mr. Char is a serial entrepreneur. He has many years of experience in dealing with market entry and has assisted numerous foreign companies to establish operations in Japan. He has also founded a number of his own ventures in Japan and the US, including: maneo, Japan's first social lending service site; Sozon, an online marketing company sold to ValueCommerce; Solis, a domain registrar sold to GMO Internet; SSK Technology, Inc., a printed circuit board company sold to Suzuki Manufacturing; and Pario Software, a network security software company sold to Lucent Technologies. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Mr. Char worked as a corporate attorney (licensed in the State of California) and as an investment banker.
Mr. Char studied economics at Sophia University in Tokyo and law at the University of California, Berkeley and Harvard Law School.
Tomoko Yoneyama, CFO
Ms. Yoneyama is a certified tax accountant. She is responsible for market entry consulting as well as managing back-office operations at J-Seed and several of the company's portfolio ventures. Prior to joining J-Seed, Ms. Yoneyama worked at Sasajima Tax Accounting Office.
Ms. Yoneyama is a graduate of Rikkyo University in Tokyo.
Nobuyoshi Senga, Director
Mr. Senga spent 36 years of his professional career at Sumitomo 3M. During his time at the company he held various positions in Sales and Marketing throughout different Divisions. In 1993 Mr. Senga was appointed General Manager of the DIY Divine & Commercial Care division. From 2000 on he worked as a Manger within the Customer Technical Center. In 2005 Mr. Senga became a Director at J-Seed and has been involved since then with various J-Seed portfolio companies.
Carl Kay, Director
Mr. Kay is a Tokyo-based entrepreneur and Japan services sector expert. He founded and ran for 15 years a pioneering firm which helped American software companies localize products for the Japanese market. The company prospered amidst the rapid growth of demand for software in Japan in the 1990’s. In 1998 Mr. Kay sold the company to a larger firm where he worked in senior management through the company’s US Nasdaq IPO the following year. Since then he has been consulting, researching, writing and lecturing, while managing a portfolio of angel investments in companies in Japan and North America, including several firms where he serves as a director. As a consultant, Mr. Kay helps service companies develop cross-border marketing, sales and partnerships. He co-authored “Saying Yes to Japan”, a book about Japan’s services sector that was published in English in 2005 and in Japanese by Nikkei in 2006.
Mr. Kay is a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) candidate at the Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, where he is studying innovation in Japan’s services sector. He teaches cross-cultural business strategy and practices as an adjunct faculty member at Meiji University. Mr. Kay is active on boards of non-profit organizations including the Harvard Club of Japan, where he serves as President. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard’s Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations in 1978.
Ryo Umezawa, Director
Mr. Umezawa possesses a multi-cultural background with strong industry experience in mobile and online marketing. He has been involved with J-Seed Ventures since 2005. He participated in several J-Seed Ventures’ partner companies including Sozon and Mobikyo. Mr. Umezawa was a director at Mobikyo and managed their highly successful Mobile Monday Tokyo event. Most recently, he was in charge of starting up an iPhone ad network in Japan. Mr. Umezawa studied economics at Sophia University in Tokyo and graduated in 2007. He also writes about venture companies for CNET Japan and is an organizer of NetTokyo, a major charity networking event held annually in Tokyo.
