Focus on Japan

Following the legislative elections of 14 October 2018, Pierre Gramegna was re-appointed Minister of Finance in the coalition government formed by the Democratic Party (DP), the Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party (LSAP) and the Green Party (déi gréng). Pierre Gramegna first joined the government as Minister of Finance in 2013.

As Minister of Finance, Pierre Gramegna has initiated major reforms to balance the budget and to align Luxembourg’s tax rules with international transparency standards. Thanks to these efforts, Luxembourg’s AAA rating has been consistently confirmed by all major rating agencies and, in 2015, the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes upgraded Luxembourg to “largely compliant”. Pierre Gramegna is also a promoter of the diversification of Luxembourg’s financial centre, in particular with regard to FinTech and sustainable finance. He is the initiator and president of the LHoFT Foundation, which runs the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology. He has also further developed bilateral relations with China in the financial sector.

Pierre Gramegna puts particular emphasis on Luxembourg’s role in multilateral development banks. In 2014, Luxembourg became a member of the African Development Bank and, in 2015, Luxembourg was the first non-Asian country to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Currently, he is the chairman of the board of Governors of the AIIB. In May 2016, Pierre Gramegna was elected chair of the Board of Governors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for a one-year mandate. He currently serves on the Board of Governors of the European Investment Bank and on that of the European Stability Mechanism. He is also Luxembourg’s governor to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

Pierre Gramegna studied law and economics at the Université Panthéon-Assas (Paris II), where he was awarded a master’s degree in civil law in 1981 and a degree in economic sciences in 1982. He completed his post-university education with a DEA (postgraduate diploma of advanced studies) in European Union law.

As a career diplomat, Pierre Gramegna joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1983. From 1996 to 2002, Pierre Gramegna was Luxembourg’s ambassador to Japan and South Korea. From 2003 to 2013, Pierre Gramegna held the position of Director General of the Chamber of Commerce.

Pierre Ferring is a career diplomat who is the current Ambassador of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to Japan since presenting his credentials in May 2019. He is also the non-resident Ambassador to the Republic of Korea and the Republic of the Philippines.

Ambassador Ferring was consecutively posted at Luxembourg’s Embassy and to the Permanent Representation of Luxembourg to the International Organisations in Vienna (1996-2001), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2001-2006), as Consul General in Shanghai (2006-2011), as Ambassador to the Russian Federation and as non-resident Ambassador to the Republic of Belarus and to the Republic of Kazakhstan (2011-2016) and as Ambassador and Diplomatic Advisor to the Prime Minister of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Sherpa for European Affairs.

Prior to his diplomatic career he held management positions at Société Générale S.A. Luxembourg (1990-1992) and at Credit Suisse Luxembourg (1992-1996).

Pierre Ferring obtained a master’s degree in International Economics from the Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg, France.

Keiichi Aritomo is Co-founder and Executive Director of FinCity.Tokyo which is to continuously promote Tokyo as a leading global financial city. Keiichi is also a co-founder and Board Director of JIAM (the Consortium for Japan International Asset Management Center).  He is also a board member of World Alliance of International Financial Centers (WAIFC) headquartered in Brussel.  He was Asia Head of Kensho Technologies, LLC, a leading financial AI solution provider eventually acquired by S&P for $550 million in 2018.  Keiichi used to be a Partner at McKinsey & Company, Deloitte and PwC, where he specialized in financial services industry and technology strategies across North America, Europe, Southeast Asia and Japan.

He has co-authored several books including “Single View of Customer for Financial Institutions” published from Kinzai and Shanghai Communication University Press both in Japanese and Mandarin.

He is also chairman of “Jazz EMP @ Tokyo Financial Center” to promote young and talented jazz musicians at Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Keiichi obtained his MBA from the University of Warwick and MEng of Nagoya Institute of Technology majored in urban and transportation planning.  He is also a certified public accountant in the US.

Jean-François Fortemps has more than 30 years of experience in finance. Since 2013, he is Managing Director of MUFG Lux Management Company S.A. the UCITS and AIFMD Management Company of Mitsubishi UFG Financial Group in Luxembourg. Jean-François is Chairman or Member of the Board of Directors for numerous Funds in Luxembourg and Ireland. He has created and acted as Chief Executive Officer for more than 7 years of Fortis Investments Luxembourg, a UCITS Management Company. He has also been a Member of the Board of Directors of Fortis Investments Luxembourg and Okoworld Lux S.A.. He has been Chief Investment Officer of Banque Générale du Luxembourg.

Jean-François Fortemps has a B.A. in Economic Science from the University of Liège. He is regularly intervening for the Université de Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne (France), for the Université de Sherbrooke (Quebec, Canada) and he is lecturer at the House of Training, the bank training association of Luxembourg and at ATTF, the Luxembourg Government agency for the transfer of Financial Technology.

Chris Hollifield is head of business development at Luxembourg for Finance, where his work involves advising FinTech and financial companies looking to develop cross-border activity through Luxembourg-based platforms. He also advises on the development of the ecosystem in Luxembourg and on synergy creation with other key financial centres, with a focus on East Asia.

Prior to working at Luxembourg for Finance, Chris worked in the strategy department of Clearstream Banking SA, an International Central Securities Depository that facilitates the settlement of interbank transactions in over 50 markets worldwide. Here, his work focused particularly on strategic projects concerning distributed ledger technology and other FinTech topics.

Christian Kanu is CEO of Tokio Marine Europe S.A; an insurance company set-up in Luxembourg in 2018 to serve Tokio Marine clients in the European Economic Area.

Before moving to Luxembourg, and for nine years, Christian was Underwriting Director for Tokio Marine HCC’s Financial Lines division in Barcelona, overseeing Continental Europe, Asia and Latin America for this international business. Christian joined Tokio Marine HCC as an underwriter in 2003 and prior to that he had been a business consultant and an officer in the Italian army for eight years.

Christian has Italian and African origins and is fluent in English, Italian, French and Spanish. He holds an MBA from the Cranfield School of Management and an Engineering degree from the University of Rome – La Sapienza. He also attended the Italian Military Academy in Modena.

Takeshi is Vice-chair and Head of Global Partnerships of the Fintech Association of Japan, and leads the Capital Markets Committee and RegTech & SupTech Committee.

He is also the founder & CEO of Crowd Realty, since 2014. Prior to establishing Crowd Realty, he worked for Merrill Lynch as an investment banker and has 5 years experience in capital markets. Before joining Merrill Lynch, he worked at Boston Consulting Group.

Takeshi holds bachelor and master degrees in architecture from the University of Tokyo.

Takeshi serves as an advisory committee member of the Government of Japan’s Regulatory Sandbox appointed by the Prime Minister of Japan. He is a member of the Governance Innovation Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and working on designing and implementing Agile Governance.

Rikiya Masuda is the Head of bitFlyer EUROPE S.A., the European branch of one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan.

Rikiya joined bitFlyer in Japan in 2015 as a head of the global expansion team, and then was sent to Luxembourg to set up its European entity in 2017. bitFlyer EUROPE S.A. obtained a Payment Institution license from the Ministry of Finance in Luxembourg in 2018. Since then, Rikiya has been supervising the whole activities of it including Product, Marketing, PR, Operation, Compliance, HR, Finance and General Administration as an authorised management approved by the CSSF.

Prior to joining bitFlyer, Rikiya worked for Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), Japan’s second largest bank in terms of assets and one of the country’s oldest financial institutions, and its local subsidiary in China for a total of 7 years as a relationship manager.
Rikiya holds an MBA from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and also a Bachelor’s degree from Waseda University School of Political Economics.

Katsunori Obata is Managing Director & CEO of Mizuho Trust & Banking (Luxembourg) S.A., since July 2018.

Katsunori has served Mizuho Financial Group, Inc. for thirty years, more than half of which has been dedicated to Mizuho’s business in Europe. He spent 13 years in total in London (1996-2006, 2015-18), mainly working in Mizuho’s European headquarters, commercial banking business (syndicated loans in emerging market, leveraged financing) and private equity investment. He served in Mizuho Financial Group’s Investor Relations from 2010 to 2015, and before that he had been seconded to Canon, Inc. from 2006 to 2010, to support Canon’s activities as Chairman Company of Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren).

Katsunori holds an MBA degree from London Business School and a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Tokyo.

Toshihiko (Toby) is an operating executive and internationally experienced banker, currently heading Rakuten Group, Inc.’s EMEA business as CEO and General Manager. Hailing from Japan, he brings together more than 30 years of in-depth industry knowledge and leadership experience in governance, strategy, ALM, project management, product, finance, accounting, legal, and compliance.

He has filled various leading positions in the banking business and financial departments, including Head of Accounting at Rakuten Group, Inc., CFO for Viber and Senior Director at Rakuten Bank in Japan – and has successfully started up two new online banks in Japan and Europe, respectively.

Toby is fluent in English and Japanese, studied in Japan and the U.S., worked/ing in Tokyo, Hong Kong (covering SEA), Tel Aviv, and Luxembourg (covering EMEA).

He holds an MBA of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a BA of the University of Tokyo.

Nasir Zubairi is CEO of The LHoFT – The Luxembourg House of Financial Technology, a public/private sector initiative to drive fintech innovation in Luxembourg.

He sits on the IMF’s High Level Advisory Group on Finance and Technology and the OECD’s Blockchain Expert Policy Advisory Board. He has been a Non-Executive Board director at a “traditional” bank, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB) S.A. Nasir has worked in Financial Services for 22 years. He spent 13 years working within Capital Markets at RBS, ICAP, HSBC and EBS.  He has been immersed in the Fintech and startup sector since 2011.

As an entrepreneur, Nasir has built multiple Fintech businesses across verticals. He has advised the boards of leading financial institutions, central banks and governments. Nasir is included in the “Top 40 innovators shaping the future of financial services -2014” by The Wall Street Journal/Financial News.

Nasir has a BSc from the London School of Economics and is a Sloan Fellow from London Business School.