Co-Founder & CEO

An engineer by trade and a maker at heart, Kani has maneuvered through the tech landscape over the years. As an executive at EMC/Dell, Greenplum, and Pivotal Labs, he has helped industry leaders transform the way they build software, drive customer success, innovate and disrupt businesses in multiple geographies. 

Through his multi-cultural background and experience graduating from and working at a renowned Silicon Valley bootcamp, he co-founded Code Chrysalis with a firm belief that programming and a Silicon Valley mindset can transcend cultures, languages, professions, and age. 

Investor

Masayasu holds degrees from UC Berkeley, Harvard University, and Cambridge University. Upon his return to Japan, he became founding board members of ALC PRESS INC., which he took public in 2006. That same year Masayasu founded Hitomedia, Inc., an incubator dedicated to the growth of people where he currently serves as CEO.

In addition, Masayasu serves as director in various other local and global companies and NPO’s. Masayasu is also an author and teaches at several universities.

Software Engineering Leader

Shu was most recently a technical lead at EdSurge, an edtech startup in Silicon Valley which connects edtech buyers/sellers to improve learning outcomes for K-20 learners. He also writes a popular Japanese blog covering education, innovation and silicon valley. Previously, he was a product designer at Quora and a software engineer at Palantir. He holds Masters in Human-Computer Interaction and B.S. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University.

Senior Director, Pivotal Labs

At Pivotal Labs, Danny is responsible for bringing the talent and experience of an amazing team of designers, product managers, and developers to transform the way that clients build software.  More than just building great products, Pivotal Labs builds high-functioning teams, helping great companies become great software companies.

Danny joined Pivotal Labs as a developer in April, 2010, then progressed through various roles including Engineering Manager, Associate Director, and Director of the San Francisco practice, one of the largest Pivotal Labs locations.  In August 2015, Danny relocated to Tokyo with his family to lead the founding team of Pivotal Labs Tokyo.  In March 2017, Danny took managing responsibility for all of the Pivotal Labs practices in the Asia Pacific and Japan region. 

Chief Partner Office, IGNITE National; Co-Founder, VisionVenture

Kristin is a social entrepreneur, public speaker, visionary and investor in youth. Kristin is currently the Chief Partnership Officer at IGNITE National, building a national movement to inspire young women to run for public office. She is also the Co-Founder of VisionVenture, that exists to inspire, equip, accelerate and invest in change-makers' Visions.

She is an Ashoka fellow and Impact HUB Ambassador and currently based in San Francisco.

Professor Emeritus, UC Berkeley

Professor Cole is Professor Emeritus of the Haas School of Business and Department of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley. He served first as Omron Prof. of Technology Management and more recently as as Visiting Researcher, Institute of Technology, Enterprise and Competitiveness at Doshisha University in Kyoto Japan from 2004 to the present.

Dr. Cole has researched and published extensively in the fields of organizational change, quality and knowledge management mostly related to the Japanese and U.S. auto industries. Since 1990, his research has focused on the hi-tech sector and has published a number of articles and books on the Japanese IT & software industry.

Co-founder, Present Agency Inc.

Yo Umeda is a founding partner of Present Agency Inc. and is a creative director, art director and designer with over twenty years of experience in the industry. He has led campaigns for numerous iconic brands such as Apple, Nike, Adidas, and Sony. Formerly the Creative Director at TBWA Media Arts Lab, Yo was entrusted with the the responsibility of overseeing various global campaigns for Apple, including the iPhone 5 global launch campaign. He also built the agency’s international creative department, later managing the entire APAC team of over 80 creatives in 5 offices across the globe.

He is the proud father of two young daughters.