Executive Vice President, Head of Global Business, Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories Ltd.
Mr. Ken Takanashi has served on TMS’s board of directors since 2020. Mr. Takanashi brings into TMS deep global business experience in biomedical field.
Mr. Takanashi currently serves as Executive Vice President, Head of Global Business at Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories, Ltd. (TSE SNBL), a contract research organization that provides preclinical and clinical services for drug development, where he has served in various executive management and director roles since 2004.
He has served on the board of directors of Wave Life Sciences (Nasdaq: WVE), a biotechnology company focused on unlocking the broad potential of RNA medicines. He also served on the board of directors of Satsuma Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company that was previously publicly traded in the US and became a privately held company and wholly owned subsidiary of SNBL in 2023.
Mr. Takanashi earned an MBA from the University of Warwick and received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Tokyo and is a Chartered Public Accountant.
Biomedical Strategic Consultant
Dr. Reiko Namikawa has served on TMS’s board of directors since 2021. She is an MD, PhD scientist with over 30 years of experience in the biotech/pharma industry in the US. She works as an independent consultant located in the Silicon Valley, providing strategic advises by utilizing her extensive experience and knowledge in biomedical science, drug development, clinical development and business development.
Her career in the US started as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Irving Weissman’s lab at Stanford University. She joined SyStemix as a founding scientist, and since then, she played senior management roles in multiple companies in the San Francisco Bay Area and Japan. She also served as a non-executive board of director for companies in Japan and Europe.
Dr. Namikawa earned her MD and PhD in pathology from Nagoya University in Japan.
Mr. Nobuaki Kobayashi has been a board member at TMS since 2021. Previously he has held various senior positions related to compliance and governance roles for AEON, the largest retail company in Japan, group companies. Prior to this, he worked nearly thirty years for Sanwa Bank (now MUFG Bank), experiencing various leading positions including SVP at Sanwa Bank L.A. Branch in Los Angeles, CA.
Mr. Kobayashi holds BS in Commerce from Waseda University.
Mr. Kenichi Nakamura has been serving TMS board since 2013. He is a Japan certified accountant and founded Nakamura Kenichi Accounting Office in 2009, advising both large and small companies. Prior to this, Mr. Nakamura worked at Ernst & Young Japan and Chuo Aoyama (Price Waterhouse Coopers), primarily auditing financial institutions. He is actively involved in pro bono assignments which include government and court mediation committee membership.
Mr. Nakamura holds BS in Economics from Meiji University.
Attorney at Law
Mr. Hiroyuki Hasegawa serves as a board member of TMS since 2019. He is a partner at Kataoka & Kobayashi LPC, a Tokyo-based law firm. He is specialized in corporate finance and corporate governance, including internal investigation. In addition to practicing laws, Hiroyuki has had several board positions, including Daimler Insurance Services Japan and SIOS Corporation (TSE-listed). He also has experience of working full-time for Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission as a public servant. Mr. Hasegawa is a frequent contributor to legal/financial journals covering from corporate finance to investigation against corporate misconduct.
Mr. Hasegawa holds LLM from University of Southern California and LLB from the University of Tokyo.
Professor Emeritus at School of Pharmacy, Showa University
Dr. Kazuo Honda brings in over 40 years of drug discovery/development experience to TMS. He served as a board of director for TMS since 2015. Previously, he served as a Professor at School of Pharmacy, Showa University, since 2004, and demonstrated the efficacy of TMS-007 in stroke in collaboration with TMS. Prior to this, Dr. Honda worked in Mitsubishi Chemical and then in Yamanouchi Pharmaceuticals (now Astellas Pharma), where he led research and development. He played key roles in developing and launching multiple global drugs including tamsulosin (Flomax) and solifenacin (Vesicare). He received Drug Discovery Science Award from the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan for his work in tamsulosin in 1995.
Dr. Honda graduated and received his Ph.D. from Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, the University of Tokyo.
