Blueshift Global Partners

Chika Watanabe: Principal

Cross-border technology alliance specialist: Chika has extensive experience in cross-border technology business development. Her experience includes bringing US businesses to Japan, managing international multi-company initiatives, and supporting alliance formation between US and Japanese companies.
First class training and experience: Chika graduated from Stanford University with an MBA and University of Tokyo with a B.S. in Engineering. After graduating from University of Tokyo, she joined Mitsubishi Corporation, then the largest company in the world, as the first female professional in its front line of business. Following her MBA, she was a management consultant at McKinsey and Co. where she focused on technology-driven strategy development.
IT, healthcare, and convergence: Chika has been immersed in a broad spectrum of technology fields from software, hardware, to biotech and healthcare. In particular, she has been supporting various clients to forge alliances between IT and healthcare industries since 2000.
Well connected to current Japan: Chika serves on the board of directors for the Japan Stanford Association. She is also a frequent contributor to Japan's prime media, and currently appearing regularly on Nikkei Sangyo Newspaper. She was also chosen as one of the top "11 Alpha Bloggers of Japan" in 2005 for her blog "On Off and Beyond" which she started in 2002. Chika is also one of the founding members and co-president of the non-profit Japanese Technology Professionals Association, providing networking and career growth opportunities to Japanese professionals in Silicon Valley
Advisors:
Mochio Umeda
MUSE Associates, President
Pacifica Fund, Co-founder and General Partner
Mr. Umeda's visionary insights combined with his firsthand knowledge and experience in Silicon Valley are highly regarded among CEOs of large Japanese IT companies. As an opinion leader in the industry, he plays a key role in introducing the "Silicon Valley high growth mechanism" into the management thinking of those companies in Japan. Mr. Umeda serves on the Management Advisory Committee of NEC Corporation and the external advisory boards of NTT DoCoMo and Omron.

Mr. Umeda is the founder and president of MUSE Associates and co-founder of the Pacifica Fund, an early-stage venture capital fund also located in Palo Alto. Before starting MUSE, he was one of the founding directors of Arthur D. Little's Silicon Valley office. Mr. Umeda is also a leading commentator on IT industry in the Japanese press, with countless published articles in Japan's primary business publications, including Chuo Koron, Nikkei Business, Nikkei Personal Computing and Foresight. He is the author of the book "How Silicon Valley Changed Me" (Shincho-sha, 2001) and a contributing author of, "A Strategic Planning Roadmap" (Diamond Business Press, 1991) and "The Computer Industry's High Return Revolution" (Diamond Business Press, 1993).

Mr. Umeda holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from Keio University and a Master of Information Science from the University of Tokyo.

Hideto Kaneshima M.D., Ph.D.
Director, Silicon Valley Office for University of Tokyo
Managing Director, Silicon Valley Office for Bio-Xcelerator
Dr. Kaneshima is an independent life-sciences consultant based in Portola Valley and he is well respected by both industry and academia in Japan. Currently Dr. Kaneshima serves as the Director of the Silicon Valley Office for University of Tokyo as well as Managing Director of Silicon Valley Office for Bio-Xcelerator, a Japanese biotech incubator he co-founded. Dr. Kaneshima was one of the founding members of Systemix, a Stanford spin-out venture, where he led the company's scientific research focusing on cell and gene therapies. Dr. Kaneshima has published many papers in international technical journals and has been awarded various patents. He holds a Ph.D. in Pathology and Immunology from Nagoya University.