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 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 39 years of his professional career at Sumitomo 3M where he held various Sales and Marketing positions. In 1993 he was appointed General Manager of the Home Consumer product, DIY& Commercial Care division and from 2000 on he worked as a Manager within the Customer Technical Center. Since 2005 Mr. Senga has been a Director at J-Seed where he has been involved with various J-Seed portfolio companies.
Carl Kay, Director
Carl Kay is a consultant who works with services sector companies in the US and Japan to develop new markets, new capabilities and new partnerships. After graduating from Harvard in 1978 Kay founded a company that grew to become a global leader in Japanese software localization services. Kay sold that firm in 1998 to a company that went public on US NASDAQ in 1999. Since 2000 Kay has been active as an angel investor and outside director at several firms including J-Seed. He was adjunct faculty member at Meiji University and is author of a book and numerous articles about services in Japan. Kay is a Doctor of Business candidate at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo and a Research Associate at the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard. He is volunteer president of the Harvard Club of Japan, the largest organization of Harvard alumni in Asia, and a Director of the Japan Society of Boston. Carl splits his time between residences in Tokyo, Japan and Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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 since 2005, participating in several of J-Seed’s 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. He also writes about venture companies for CNET Japan and helps organize NetTokyo, a major charity networking event held annually in Tokyo.
Mr. Umezawa studied economics at Sophia University in Tokyo and graduated in 2007.
