Japan > Directors

vCardEiichi Ando

Eiichi Ando is a Director of GCA Advisory Corporation. He has been working as an M&A advisor for over 16 years. In the early 1990s, he focused on advising Japanese companies purchasing overseas assets and in the late 1990s his career focused on executing domestic (Japan) transactions. He has executed transactions for both public and private companies, asset sales and equity purchases as well as mergers and liquidations. 

Eiichi Ando began his career with Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank in 1987 and began working as an M&A advisor in 1991. During his employment with Dai-Ichi Kangyou Bank he was assigned to Lehman Brothers as a trainee, where he worked on LBO transactions. He continued his M&A advisory career with Mizuho Securities in 2001. He subsequently joined BearingPoint in 2003 and then moved to J-Power in 2004, where he focused on principal investing. 

Eiichi Ando graduated from Keio University, where he majored in Economics.

vCardHisako Takada

Hisako Takada is a Director of GCA Savvian Corporation. She has been engaged in wide range of corporate finance activities in Japan and the US for more than 10 years. She has in-depth experience in various types of M&A and financing transactions, including cross-border transactions, carve-outs, private placements, IPOs and structured bond offerings. She has been responsible for transactions from origination through execution. She has advised clients on transactions as well as acted as principal in connection with the management of business portfolio and group companies including the development and implementation of capital policy, corporate governance policy and incentive compensation plans.

Her major advisory roles in GCA include representing Ricoh in its acquisition of IBM’s Printing Systems Division and representing Nikko Cordial in its capital alliance with Citigroup. Prior to joining GCA, Hisako Takada worked for UBS Securities Japan, focusing on companies in technology, machinery and chemicals industries. She also worked in Sony’s corporate strategy and business development department. She began her career with Goldman Sachs Japan. 

Hisako Takada completed her Masters in Business Administration degree at London Business School, University of London. She is a graduate of the University of Tokyo where she majored in Mathematical Engineering and Information Physics.

vCardTaishi Yoshioka

Taishi Yoshioka is a Director of GCA Advisory Corporation. He has been involved in financial advisory and investment management for over 10 years. He has significant expertise with cross-border transactions between Japanese companies and other Asian companies. He has in-depth experience in providing M&A advisory services. He also has specialized expertise in valuation and has provided fairness opinions for significant transactions.

Prior to joining GCA, he worked in the M&A Advisory group at Deloitte. He also has experience with Prudential Life Insurance, where he worked in fund management of domestic/foreign bonds and equities. While at Prudential, he was stationed in Manila and played a key role in the establishment of local operations. He began his career with JP Morgan Securities.

His major M&A advisory experience covers a wide range of industries of both public and private, healthy and distressed companies. He has advised on transactions such as the merger of two Japanese domestic regional banks, the acquisition of a Japanese transportation firm by its competitor, the sale of a transportation business owned by a foreign company to a domestic pier, the sale of three separate non-core subsidiaries owned by a Japanese manufacturing company under Civil Rehabilitation Law and a joint venture between a Japanese foreign semiconductor manufacturer. In Asia he has advised on the sale of an Indonesian subsidiary of Japanese manufacturer, the sale of a five star hotel in Manila and the acquisition of a Southeast Asian firm by a Japanese competitor.

His transaction related valuation advisory services has included the equity valuation of Nippon Broadcasting System on behalf of Fuji Television, the equity valuation of World Co. on behalf of company management, and the calculation of the merger ratio for several high-profile transactions. Most recently with GCA, he provided advisory services for Shinko Securities related to the merger with Mizuho Securities and Nikko Cordial Group related to the tender offer by CitiGroup.

Taishi Yoshioka graduated from Hitotsubashi University, where he specialized in law. He holds the following certifications: Certified Member of Analyst (CMA) and Certified International Investment Analyst (CIIA).

vCardIsao Okubo

Isao Okubois a Director of GCA Savvian Corporation. He has been engaged in the M&A advisory business since 1996. He has significant experience in cross-border M&A transactions for manufacturing companies.

Before joining GCA, he was a senior vice president in the Strategic Advisory Department of Daiwa SMBC, which he joined in 2002. Prior to joining Daiwa, he worked in the M&A Group at Sakura Bank (currently Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation). At Sakura Bank he worked in several departments, including Aircraft Financing, foreign exchange and lending.

Advisory deals include the business transfer of Crown Leasing (the largest bankruptcy deal in Japan at the time), the sale of the Grand Hyatt in Seoul, the sale of a US magnetic iron oxide manufacturer, the acquisition of a shipbuilding business of Niigata Engineering, the sale of a Japanese automotive parts manufacturer, the acquisition of a LCD manufacturing machine maker, the sale of a Japan business owned by a major US PE fund, the acquisition of a ticketing machine business of a telecom equipment company, the sale of Thai subsidiary of a Japanese electric maker, and the sale of a financial consulting company. 

Isao Okubo received his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Tokyo where he studied law.

vCardMikihiko Yoshinaga

Mikihiko Yoshinaga is a Director of Mezzanine Corporation. Before joining in July 2007, he was a manager with Mizuho Financial Group, where he accumulated over 10 years of finance experience, including leveraged financing and corporate credit analysis. He also was seconded to Orient Corporation as a turnaround manager, where he led several transactions including the acquisition of an installment credit business from a major competitor, and raising approximately US$2.5billion in capital from leading private equity funds, a US investment banks and other investors. 
He received B.S. in Engineering from The University of Tokyo and MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
 

vCardRo Umeda

Ro Umeda is a Director of GCA Advisory Corporation. He has been involved in financial advisory and corporate finance for over 10 years. He has significant expertise in cross-border M&A transactions between Japanese corporate and Asian corporate. He has firm knowledge and experiences about the industry and regulation in Asian countries.

Prior to joining GCA, he worked in the cross-border M&A Advisory department at Daiwa Securities SMBC. He also has experience with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), where he worked in corporate financing for various size of client. While at SMBC, he was stationed in Bangkok for supporting newly investment and expansion of Japanese corporate.

Advisory deals include the TOB in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand by Japanese corporate, equity participation to family business in Thailand by several Japanese corporate, the sale of Embassy Suites in LA, the TOB by Korean PE to Japanese listed firm, the sale of Thai subsidiary of a Japanese electric manufacturer. 

Ro Umeda received a BA in Business and Commerce from Keio University.

vCardMasanori Kobayashi

Masanori Kobayashi is a Director of GCA Advisory Corporation. His experiences include due diligence of debtor corporations in association with disposals of nonperforming loans of financial institutions and credit valuations. They also include multiple advisory experiences in corporate revitalization due diligence and organizational restructuring from an accounting and tax perspective. He began his career at Mitsubishi Bank (currentｌｙ Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ) in 1994. He joined Chuo Coopers & Lybrand International Tax Office (currently Price Waterhouse Coopers) in 1997 and then joined Value Management Institute Inc. in 2000. Prior to joining Due Diligence Corporation, he co-established Brain Link Corporation LLC and assumed Representative Director in 2001. The company was reorganized as Brain Link Corporation (active position) in 2002. He joined GCA group in April 2008. Japanese CPA
He received B.A. in Economics from Kwansei Gakuin University.

vCardHiroaki Ota

Hiroaki Ota is a Director of GCA Advisory Corporation. He has been engaged in M&A advisory services in Tokyo and New York since 1993. Prior to joining GCA Savvian, he headed the Strategic Advisory Department covering the general manufacturing and technology sectors at Daiwa Securities SMBC. He has extensive experience in both Japanese domestic and cross-border transactions for both public and private companies covering a broad range of industries. In Japan, he advised acquisitions for public and private companies, business integration, corporate restructuring and others. In cross-border deals he was involved in a Japanese company’s acquisitions of a listed US/Asian company, a Japanese company’s acquisitions of an unlisted company in Europe/US/Asia, sale of a US subsidiary, sale of a hotel in Europe/US/Asia, among others. His recent advisory experiences include Kanebo’s sale of its cosmetics business to IRCJ, Yamazaki Baking’s acquisition of Fujiya shares, U-SHIN’s third party allotment to a private equity fund and the sale of Hotel Nikko Saipan. He started his career at Mistui Bank (present Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation) where he worked in the Tokyo and New York offices of the M&A division. He joined GCA in February 2009.

Hiroaki Ota received a BS in Economics from Hitotsubashi University and an MBA from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.

vCardYuji Sakakura

Yuji Sakakura is  the Chief Development Officer of GCA Savvian Corporation. He joined GCA in 2005 as the CFO and was responsible for overseeing the development of the corporate infrastructure including core financial functions of GCA. He also had the responsibility of heading GCA’s Initial Public Offering.

He brings to GCA over 25 years of experience in a wide range of corporate finance fields, which he was exposed to during the globalization, reorganization and advancement of the Japanese economy. In 1974, he joined Nissho Iwai, a large Japanese trading company (currently known as Sojitsu) where he held a variety of leadership positions in areas such as capital markets and international finance.

At Nissho Iwai, he began his career in domestic finance and foreign exchange. In 1982, as a member of the capital markets team, he was responsible for the overseas issuances and domestic offerings, such as Swiss-franc denominated convertible bonds (CBs), Euro straight bonds (SBs), and Euro warrants. Through these products he was able to provide a wider range of finance procurement opportunities. In 1985, he was seconded to London, where he focused on Middle-Eastern and South American related project finance activities. He actively introduced low interest rate financing alternatives such as Euro commercial paper (CP), bankers acceptances (BA Finance) and Islamic funds. With the backdrop of the financial big bang in the London markets, he was able to contribute to his organization by financial investment transactions.

In 1990, Yuji Sakakura returned to Tokyo, taking a management position in the foreign currency department. He introduced currency swap transactions for hedging long term fluctuating positions. In 1992, with the collapse of the bubble economy, through the use of financial derivative products, he was able to offer a mechanism for managing financial profitability. In 1995, the Financial Products Division was established as a profit center and he provided strong leadership for the newly established Division.

Following his experience with the trading company, in 1998 he was given the role of supervising manager of an affiliated Security company, Nissho Iwai Securities. In June of the following year, he took the role of the President of the securities firm. He held his position as a president for six years and grew the business by offering alternative investment products such as securitization products and fund of funds to his clients (corporate investors and regional financial institutions) as well as underwriting business.

Yuji Sakakura graduated from Wadayama University (B.A. in Economics) in 1974. In 1999 he received an AMP at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

vCardTakeshi Nagashima

Takeshi Nagashima is a Director of GCA Savvian Corporation. He has been providing M&A advisory services and principal investment services since 2000.

Prior to joining GCA Savvian, Takeshi Nagashima worked in principal investing at GE Real Estate and Lehman Brothers Real Estate Ltd. during which time he closed the acquisition of a real estate company group, a real estate business transfer transaction and co-investment with a Japanese company in real estate portfolio. Takeshi Nagashima worked for 4 years as an M&A advisor at Daiwa Securities SMBC and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. He focused on and closed both domestic and cross-border transactions in industries such as real estate, retail and transportation. His major advisory experience includes the sale of a hotel portfolio and the hotel, sport stadium and retail business owned by a large-sized GMS, the arrangement of DIP financing to a large retail company under Japan’s Civil Rehabilitation Law, the sale of hotels in Asia and Europe owned by a Japanese construction company and the sale of a golf course managed by Japanese conglomerates. 

Takeshi Nagashima also worked at Singapore Branch of Sakura Bank (currently known as Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation) where he spent several years leading the restructuring the bank’s non-performing loans to non-Japanese corporations which were related to the 1997 Southeast Asian region economic crisis. 

Takeshi Nagashima graduated from Waseda Univesity where he majored in Political Science and Economics (1987) and received MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University (1996).

vCardHiroaki Tamura

Hiroaki Tamura is a Director of GCA Savvian Corporation. He has been engaged in the M&A advisory business since 1997. He has significant experience in executing M&A transactions in manufacturing industries such as heavy industry, automotive parts, general machinery, electric machinery, semiconductor, precision instrument machinery and others.

Before joining GCA Savvian, Hiroaki Tamura worked in the Strategic Advisory Department of Daiwa Securities SMBC. Prior to joining to Daiwa, he worked in the M&A Group at Sakura Bank (currently Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation).

His advisory deals include the merger of Minolta and Konica, the 100% consolidation of JIDECO by Mitsuba, the sale of the car electronics business of NEC to HONDA, the MBO of an automotive parts maker, the sale of Kiriu to Sumitomo Corporation, the 100% consolidation transactions by Sumitomo Heavy Industries and Fuji Heavy Industries, the sale of Sanyo Electric Credit, the acquisition of a shipbuilding business of Niigata Engineering, the business transfer of Okura Shoji and the consolidation through TOB of People (currently Konami Sports) by KONAMI.

Hiroaki Tamura received a B.A in Commerce from WASEDA University.

vCardKeisuke Saito

Keisuke Saito is a Director of GCA Advisory Corporation. He is an M&A advisor and focuses on sourcing and executing deals for companies in a broad range of industries. He provides lead advisory M&A investment advisory services as well as additional transaction related valuation related services such as business enterprise valuation, intangible asset valuation and the calculation of share exchange ratios.  He also has his experience in executing cross-border transactions between Japanese companies and companies located around the world. Prior to joining GCA Savvian, he worked for BearingPoint, formerly Asahi Arthur Andersen.  While at BearingPoint, he was responsible for various types of transactions including private and listed company deals, simple share or asset deals and liquidation.  He is a Chartered Member of the Security Analysts Association of Japan. Key advisory deals include the acquisition of the polyvinyl alcohol resin (PVA resin) business of Celanese Corporation by Sekisui Chemical Co., Ltd., acquisition of American Diagnostica Inc. by Sekisui Chemical Co., Ltd., the acquisition of XenoTech L.L.C. by Sekisui Chemical Co., Ltd., the acquisition of Hauzer Techno Coating B.V. by IHI Corporation, the business tie-up and capital participation (TOB) to Mercian Corporation by Kirin Brewery Co., Ltd., the corporate restructuring of Kyoshin Corporation to be made a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nitto Denko Corporation, the acquisition of Tropian’s intellectual property and technologies by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., the acquisition of Shionogi Qualicaps Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Shionogi & Co., Ltd. by The Carlyle Group, the capital participation in Paul Smith Group Holdings by ITOCHU Corp. and acquisition of sales agencies in the Oceania area by FUJIFILM.
Keisuke Saito received his BA in Policy Management from the Keio University.

vCardJunichi Komada

Junichi Komada is a Director of GCA Savvian Corporation. A graduate of Kyoto University, he majored in Law. Prior to joining GCA in February 2005, he spent 14 years at Sanwa Bank (currently Mitsubishi Tokyo UFJ Bank) where he focused on large scale corporate deals. From 1998 to 2002, he worked in the Singapore branch and was responsible for serving the needs of Japanese clients, including financing, management of funds, cash management, and overseas start-up activities. He joined GCA in February 2005.

vCardMasakazu Dobashi

Masakazu Dobashi is a Director of GCA Advisory Corporation. He graduated from Saitama University, where he majored in Economics. He joined KPMG Century Corporation (currently Ernst & Young ShinNihon LLC.) in October 1997 and joined GCA in October 2004. He is a Japanese CPA.

vCardKou Sakai

Kou Sakai is a Director of GCA Advisory Corporation. He graduated from Keio University where he majored in Law. After graduating, he joined Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu(currently Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu LLC.) and PwC Advisory. Subsequently, he joined a European Investment Bank where his role was to assist the bank in establishing an M&A division in Japan. His experience includes engagements such as advising large companies on investments in new businesses as well as assisting with the restructuring of distressed companies. He joined GCA in November 2006 and is a Japanese CPA.