Members

satoko kono

President: KONO, Satoko 

Satoko always had an aspiration to work and live together with the local people around the world.  As a teenager, she was inspired by stories of Japanese couples delivering medical support in Nepali villages, and a lady serving as missionary in the highland Ecuador.
After she was graduated from International Christian University (ICU), Tokyo, Satoko spent couple of years working in the private sector, and then, entered the field of international cooperation. In Asian Rural Institute, Tochigi, she was engaged in leadership training programs for grass-roots workers from Asia and Africa.  From 1995 to 2005 she lived in Cambodia, where she gained outstanding knowledge and personal network through her carrer in social development working with NGOs and international aid agencies such as JICA and World Bank.  This was when Satoko met a Cambodian social entrepreneur and became convinced of the need and potential role of social finance. This led her to establish ARUN in 2010. 
Through social investment –neither charity nor commercial investment - Satoko hopes to establish a new international cooperation scheme that contributes both to the empowerment of the people and the sustainable development of the globalized world. 

Satoko holds a MSc from London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

 

Director: KURATA, Aya 

After working for McKinsey & Co., Aya took part in a fund procurement project for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) at TechnoServe Kenya.  As she supported a local agribusiness association in their financing for facility investment, she came to realize the difficultly for such enterprises in receiving appropriate funding, as they were slightly too large for microfinance institutions to manage.
In ARUN, Aya hopes to create a mechanism that supports such SMEs in developing countries that have great potential for growth and social return, in terms of fund procurement, business development and management efficiency.
Aya holds a Master’s degree in Development studies from London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She currently works for a foreign consulting firm.

 

Director: TSUZAKI, Hiroyuki

Hiroyuki has extensive experience in finance sector, and has served for individuals, SMEs, and multinational corporate clients, both national and international.  His career includes microfinance  (monitoring the borrowers) at the Grameen Bank, and SME finance (consulting for credit unions, SMEs revitalization) at Shinkin Central Bank, a Japanese cooperative financial institution.  Currently he works as relationship manager for multinational corporations corporate at a foreign corporate bank in Japan.

Hiroyuki focuses on the role of financial infrastructure as a key to promote economic activities, which pulls people out of poverty.  The expansion of the Financial infrastructure can promote local SMEs that in turn facilitate participation of the poor in economic activities.  Through extending supports to social entrepreneurs in developing countries, he aims to contribute to growth in these countries.  In ARUN, he heads the business planning team.

Hiroyuki holds a Master's degree from Duke University.

 

Director: TSUCHIYA, Kazuyuki 

Kazuyuki is Executive Board member of A SEED JAPAN, an international youth environmental NPO.  While working for a Japanese private think-tank, he has also been actively involved in the NPO since 2004 on its “Eco Savings” project, that is, new type of financing where people choose financial institutions in the light of their attitude to peace and environmental agenda.  He writes, makes recommendations to financial institutions, and organizes a range of campaigns and events to promote social finance.  Kazuyuki is also a Board member of Kanawaga Information Center for Citizens Activities (also known as Alice Center), a Yokohama-based NPO, where he is conducting a study on how best to create social finance mechanisms in the prefecture.
Through working with ARUN, he hopes to promote the concept and the importance of social investment in Japanese society.  Kazuyuki holds a Master's degree from Tokyo University.