Dr. Imai is a biologist and entrepreneur in the area of sanitation and personal care products/services. Prior to launching Intron Space Inc., as an intrapreneur, he led many projects at LIXIL/INAX includingUNHABITATand;UNEP related ones. He often visited to developing/emerging countries such as Kenya, Indonesia, Philippine, etc., in order to understand what solutions are necessary to adapt the local infrastructures and people’s lifestyle.
He also made outstanding contribution to the international standardization of “antimicrobe”, and received METI Minister’s Prize. He was a chairman of “the Society of Industrial Technology for Antimicrobial Articles(SIAA)”.
As a visiting scholar of University Tokyo, he was involved in vital-sensor projects for smart toilet system.
He has deep insight into not only antimicrobe, sanitation and personal care products/services, but its infrastructures such as water and sewage, garbage incineration facility, moreover public health and Global environmental related issues.
Dr. Tanabe is a professor emeritus of Tokyo Institute of Technology, and adjunct professor at Waseda University. He is an authority of Management of Innovation. He serves a board member of Japan Asia Group Limited, board member of Business Model Association.
Until 2003, he held various positions at METI such as Chief(“Kyoku-cho”) of Chugoku Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry, Director(“Bu-cho”) of Research and Statistics Department, etc.
He wrote “Tokodai Tanabe Kenkyu-shitsu – Tanin jitsugen no hasso kara” and “Network jidai no Chikyu Shimin no Ikikata (Koji Tanabe, et al.)”, and translated several books including “Strategic Management (Clayton M. Christensen, et al.)” and “The Productive Edge (Richard K. Lester)”.
Dr. Kondo is a founder and CEO of I-Commission, which encourages entrepreneurs who are trying to solve the problems of aging and declining population. He is building an innovation ecosystem across startups, seniors’ organizations(NPOs), universities / research institutions and industries.
Prior to launching I-Commission, over a decade in Silicon Valley in California, he launched a few startups as a co-founder, led open innovation project for a big company, providing business consulting for startups and established companies.
He has a wide background including applied artificial intelligence, information security, etc., and his recent interest includes management of innovation and practical marketing. His recent works are published on his web site, FromBayArea.com (“Chikafuji, Ryu” is his pen name).
