Officers

Kaori Sasaki

Profile

Ms. Sasaki was born in Yokohama. She graduated from the Department of Comparative Culture, Faculty of Foreign Languages at Sophia University and also studied abroad at Elmira College, New York, USA. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate degree by Elmira College in 2008.

Ms. Sasaki founded UNICUL International, Inc., an international communication consulting company in 1987, which became widely known for its use of technology to coordinate its network of interpreters and translators before the concept of networking took hold. Currently capable of handling 70 languages, Unicul offers services including interpretation, translation, conference planning and operation, casting, and spokesperson training for company executives. Unicul also undertakes dispatching and placement of bilingual staff. Ms. Sasaki has organized and chaired the International Conference for Women in Business every summer since 1996 with a satisfaction rate of 98% or higher among participants every year. In 2000, she founded ewoman Inc. and launched the ewoman website. With a unique business philosophy that precludes banner ads, the ewoman website has a community of smart consumers who "think, choose, and act for themselves" and conducts daily roundtable discussions of working people. The collective knowledge of these smart consumers is leveraged for corporate brand consulting, concept proposals, product development, and more. Among developed products, the antioxidant supplement Melon Repair has sold over 150,000 boxes, while the highly popular Action Planner created a day planner boom in Japan. Ms. Sasaki also opened Omotesando College from 2009, arranging many courses, training classes for companies, and lectures in the Omotesando district of Tokyo.

Current Official Posts

Ms. Sasaki serves as: expert member of Cabinet Office's "IT Strategic Headquarters"; Special Researcher for Cabinet Office's "Cabinet Affairs Office"; member of the Cabinet Office's Social Policy Council and Price Stabilization Policy Council; member of the Ministry of Justice's Legislative Council; member of the Financial Services Agency's Financial System Council; member of Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' Information and Communications Council; member of the Educational Courses Section of the Subdivision on Primary and Secondary Education of the Central Council for Education; member of the Japan Fair Trade Commission's Antitrust Law Forum; outside board member for Nissen Holdings; outside auditor of Tokyo Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance; member of the National Museum of Nature and Science (Tokyo) management advisory committee; trustee of the Sony Foundation for Education; and trustee of the Internet Association Japan.

Awards, Appearances, Publications, etc.

New Business Association's Entrepreneur Award in 1988; the American Stevie Awards' "Best Innovative Company of the year" in 2008; and the Best Mother Award in 2009 in the business category.

Ms. Sasaki has also worked as a reporter for TV Asahi's "News Station," anchor for TBS TV's "60 Minutes" in Japan, and Friday commentator for Fuji TV's "Tokudane!" and TBS TV's "Broadcaster." Currently she appears every Thursday on Fuji TV's "Tokudane!" as a commentator.

She is sought for her foresight and action in reading ahead of the times and constantly proposing innovative themes to society, such as founding the first network of professional women in Japan in 1989 and launching the first bilingual portal site targeting women in Japan in 1996. She also meets with many visiting dignitaries, such as being one of thirteen people to have a private luncheon with Hillary Clinton during her visit to Japan in 1996.

Ms. Sasaki has visited more than 30 countries. In addition to the OECD Conference on Women Entrepreneurs (Paris) in 1997, she has also written or spoken on many topics including diversity management, marketing, using the Internet, leveraging women, and time management, conducting more than 60 lectures a year. She is the mother of two children and also writes the blog "Kaori Sasaki's Thoughts for Today" and via Twitter.

Publications: "Kaori Sasaki's Guide to Using a Dayplanner" (JMA Management Center), "Fun Drill for Planning Abilities" (JMA Management Center), "Seven Concepts for a More Rewarding Life" (Kobunsha), "You Can Still Work When You're Pregnant" (Wave Shuppan), "The Give & Given Concept" (Just System Shuppan), and many more. She has also translated "Only the Paranoid Survive" (Shichiken Shuppan) by Andrew Grove, CEO of Intel Corporation, "Riding the Bull" (Nikkei BP) by Paul Stiles, formerly of Merrill Lynch, and other titles.

Related Links

• International Conference for Women in Business
• Kaori Sasaki's Thoughts for Today (blog)
• Twitter
• ewoman
• Omotesando College

Sachie Yamada

Profile

After graduating the College of Economics at Aoyama Gakuin University, Ms. Yamada worked at an advertising agency and was responsible for overseas PR for Japanese companies and Japanese domestic PR for foreign companies. Since joining Unicul in 1988, she has been responsible for communication consulting such as interpretation and translation-related projects and the planning and operation of events, as well as the International Conference for Women in Business and women entrepreneur seminars. She has served as Vice Chair of the International Conference for Women in Business since 1996. Ms. Yamada currently serves as Unicul's Vice President.

Darcie Anderson

Profile

Ms. Anderson received her bachelor's degree in Business Administration at the Western State College of Colorado in 1980. She has worked in marketing and corporate training at Procter and Gamble and Coca-Cola. She has traveled extensively throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia before moving to Japan in 1988. While working as a writer and narrator, she also conducted cross-cultural communication seminars with Unicul. Ms. Anderson worked as instructor from 1991 on NHK Radio's "Easy Business English" for five years and as director for 11 years. She has served as advisor to Unicul from 1989 and Vice President from 2000 and is involved with Unicul's management and various projects. Ms. Anderson currently resides in Greece where she focuses on our European-related projects.