Based in Japan, Aina Fukuda, Head of Investment Stewardship Japan, drives LGIM’s global investment stewardship strategy and activities within the market. Aina’s thematic focuses in engagements with companies, regulators, and policymakers (including Ministers of State and other members of the National Diet) encompass climate, people, and corporate governance. Prior to joining LGIM in 2019, she spent nine years at PwC Japan, where she played a key role in establishing the firm’s corporate sustainability advisory practice and gained firsthand experience with companies embedding sustainability into their core strategies. Earlier in her career, she held research roles in the financial and legal sectors.

Aina is a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the United States.

Tomo Ikawa has more than 20 years of experience as an investment professional. Prior to joining Fidelity International in Japan in 2019, he worked in global equity investment at various financial institutions, serving in a range of investment roles. Throughout his career, he has engaged extensively with investee companies, focusing on medium- to long-term corporate value creation. As Head of Engagement at Fidelity International in Japan, he leads dialogue with listed companies on a wide range of themes, particularly sustainability-related issues, to enhance corporate value. In 2023, he established Fidelity’s first engagement fund, serving as its engagement lead and further advancing the firm’s stewardship and active ownership initiatives

Sachiko Kai is a former member of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB), serving from 2019 to 2024, and was nominated by the Japanese Institute of Certified Public Accountants (JICPA).

Sachiko previously served as an International Foundation for Ethic and Audit Staff Fellow with the IAASB from 2014 to 2015 and has recently rejoined the IAASB staff and Fellowship program on a part-time basis as IAASB Senior Advisor.

Sachiko is Technical Director of the JICPA. Since 2007, she has been actively involved in IAASB activities and has supported JICPA committees on auditing and assurance standards. Prior to joining the JICPA, Sachiko worked at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

Sachiko is a Certified Public Accountant in Japan.

Since joining J-Eurus in 2005, she has engaged in shareholder identification surveys and institutional investors perception studies, and provided consulting to Japanese companies on IR activities centered on the perception gap between Japanese companies and institutional shareholders. She is also in charge of proxy solicitation projects related to large M&A and takeover defense, TOB support, anti-activist measures, research of proxy voting, board evaluation, and consulting related to corporate governance.

In 2014 she engaged in the first “Board Evaluation” process in Japanese company, and since then has been involved in overall Board Evaluation program by J-Eurus and its subsidiary Japan Board Review CO., Ltd.
She received a B.A. in Economics from the University of Tokyo.

President of Rising Sun Management Ltd., an affiliate of Dalton Investments, since February 2020. Conducting engagement activities with investee companies of Nippon Active Value Fund plc, a sister fund of Dalton Investments. Became an Executive Director of Helios Techno Holding Co., Ltd., one of the investee companies of Nippon Active Value Fund plc, in June 2025 and leads the M&A strategy of the company. Neary 30 year career as Japanese lawyer specialized in M&A.

水落一隆

2020年2月にDalton Investmentsの関連会社Rising Sun Management Ltd.のPresidentに就任。Dalton Investments姉妹ファンドのNippon Active Value Fund plcの投資先に対してエンゲージメント活動を行っている。2025年6月にNippon Active Value Fund plcの投資先であるヘリオステクノホールディング株式会社の取締役に就任し、同社のM&A戦略を担う。日本の弁護士として約30年のキャリアがあり、M&Aを専門とする

Peter Reali is Senior Vice President and General Manager of Institutional Governance at Broadridge Financial Solutions, where he leads the firm’s newly created business dedicated to advancing proxy voting, stewardship, and governance solutions for institutional investors. In this role, he is responsible for the strategic direction, growth, and overall leadership of the Institutional Governance business, bringing together Broadridge’s market-leading solutions to help asset managers, asset owners, and wealth managers modernize their stewardship programs with greater transparency, efficiency, and scale.

Peter has more than 20 years of experience in corporate governance and stewardship. He previously chaired the Corporate Governance Advisory Committee of the Council of Institutional Investors, as well as served on the board of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. Prior to joining Broadridge, Peter served as a Managing Director on Nuveen’s Responsible Investing team, where he led Stewardship & ESG Integration efforts. He also held senior governance roles at Lord, Abbett & Co., T. Rowe Price, and TIAA-CREF, building deep expertise across proxy voting, governance strategy, and investor stewardship.

Ali is a corporate governance and activism specialist with over 20 years’ experience. Ali started off as a research analyst at the Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC) in Washington DC. In 2009, Ali moved to London to work with Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) to cover the UK market as well as help set-up the contentious M&A/Activism team to cover the UK and continental Europe. In 2018, Ali co-founded SquareWell Partners. Ali has a dual undergraduate degree in Finance and Economics from the George Washington University and an Executive Masters in Business Administration from Bayes Business School.

Katie Schmitz leads the ISSB Investor Advisory Group, comprising over 60 leading global asset owners and managers – with >US$74 Trillion AUM – supporting a global baseline standard for the communication of corporate performance on sustainability-related risks and opportunities relevant to investors. This reprises similar roles Katie has played at the Value Reporting Foundation, prior to its merger with IFRS in August 2022 and at the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board.

Katie worked with investment bank Salomon Brothers for over a decade in the US, Japan, and Hong Kong. Her experience in project development and finance spans the energy sector (both fossil fuels and renewables), the protection of forested lands, and water disinfection in developing markets.

She holds a BA in Japanese from the University of California, Berkeley, an MBA from l’Institut Européen d’Administration des Affaires (INSEAD) in Fontainebleau, France, an executive certificate in sustainability from the Presidio Graduate School of San Francisco, and a Global Competent Boards Designation.

Jen is the CEO of the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN).

Led by investors with AUM of over $US 100 trillion, ICGN aims to strengthen markets and create long term value through effective corporate governance policy and practice. Jen represents ICGN on the Japanese Financial Services Agency’s Council of Experts and on the IFIAR stakeholder working group and the PCAOB IAG.

Jen joined ICGN from Goldman Sachs Asset Management, where she was EMEA Head of Stewardship, driving engagement, proxy voting and industry collaboration efforts. In that role, Jen was a member of the Investment Association Company Reporting and Auditing Group and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) Investor Advisory Committee. In 2022 Jen was also a member of the US Council of Institutional Investors Corporate Governance Advisory Council.

Previously, Jen was Deputy Director of Stakeholder Engagement and Corporate Affairs at the UK Financial Reporting Council, responsible for coordinating outreach with the global investment community, listed company leadership teams and board members across all areas of the regulator’s scope. Jen led policy outreach on ESG, audit and reporting matters including the creation of the 2020 UK Stewardship Code and the 2018 UK Corporate Governance Code.

Jen started her career at PwC.

Jen holds a BA in Business, Accounting and Finance from the University of Newcastle and a Masters in Sustainability Leadership from the University of Cambridge.

Cas has more than 25 years’ experience in international investor relations and shareholder identification and has been with Georgeson since 1998. As responsible for Georgeson’s Global activism and M&A practice, he has been involved in the highest profile M&A and activist situations. Cas has a longstanding knowledge of Global proxy voting mechanics and key governance matters affecting issuers and shareholders globally. Having worked for several activists and against many more he has in-depth experience in how activists run their campaigns and the different stakeholders they look to influence in sensitive activist campaigns. Prior to joining Georgeson he had five years’ experience in international investor relations and shareholder identification. While honing his skills in the US, Cas has been in the UK since 2002.

Hiroshi Watanabe is a portfolio manager for the Japan Equity Strategy and the Japan portion of the International Small-Cap Equity Strategy in the Global Equity Division. He is a vice president of T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. and T. Rowe Price Japan, Inc.
Hiroshi’s investment experience began at T. Rowe Price in 2006, beginning in the International Equity Division. Prior to this, Hiroshi was a deputy director of the Space Industry Office with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of the Japanese government.
Hiroshi earned a B.Sc. and an M.Sc. in aerospace engineering from Tokyo University and an M.B.A. from the University of California at
Los Angeles. Hiroshi also has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

CFA and Chartered Financial Analyst are registered trademarks owned by CFA Institute.

With more than 20 years of experience in capital markets and investor communications, Shizuka specializes in advising Japanese companies on engagement with global institutional investors. She has led numerous shareholder relations and investor perception initiatives, conducting extensive interviews with executives, independent directors, and investors worldwide. Her work helps companies gain valuable insights into investor expectations and enhance their shareholder engagement strategies.

She has developed extensive expertise in materiality assessment, corporate governance, integrated reporting, and sustainability disclosure. Earlier in her career, she was involved in equity research, valuation projects, and development finance assignments across emerging Asian markets.
 

She holds an MBA and is a Certified Member Analyst of the Securities Analysts Association of Japan..