The Tea Leaves Podcast The Asia Group

Mitsuru Claire Chino is the Managing Executive Officer of ITOCHU Corporation, a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. She was previously president and CEO of ITOCHU International, the company’s New York-based North America-focused subsidiary. In 2013, she became the first female executive officer of any major trading company in Japan. Before joining ITOCHU, she practiced as a lawyer at an international law firm in the United States and in Hong Kong at Graham & James. Asia Legal Business recognized her as a "Top 25 In-House Counsel in Asia," and the Financial Times named her the "Asia Pacific's Innovative Lawyer" and included her on the "FT Global General Counsel 30" list of the world’s top in-house lawyers. She has also been a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum and a Yale University Maurice R. Greenberg World Fellow. She is a classically trained singer and has given solo performances at venues like the Weill Carnegie Hall and the Suntory Hall.

Anand Shah is a Partner at The Asia Group, which he joined in 2022 as part of the firm’s acquisition of Dhamiri, a venture that he founded to help corporations align their core businesses with public good in critical international markets. He previously led the development of strategic initiatives as Senior Vice President of Indian ride-hailing giant Ola and has also worked at the Albright Stonebridge Group, BMW AG, and Audi AG. He spent 15 years living in India, where he founded Sarvajal, a technology and market-based provider of clean water to rural villages and urban settlements, and helped establish Ahmedabad University. He was also the Founding CEO of the Piramal Foundation, a Co-Founder of Teach for India, and the Founder of Indicorps, a pioneering public service program.

Chatpong "Chat" Chuenrudeemol is the Principal and Founder of CHAT Architects, a Bangkok-based research and design practice, as well as CHAT Lab, a think tank that aims to discover new Thai vernacular typologies. In 2020, Chat received the Silpathorn award from Thailand’s Ministry of Culture – the country’s most prestigious award for contemporary artists. His architectural works have won Architectural Review’s AR House Awards, the Architecture Masterprize in 2021, and a Building of the Year Award in the Asia-Pacific region. He was previously a Partner at Bangkok Architectural Research and an Architect at the Boston-based NADAAA. Chat has taught architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the National University of Singapore, Taylor University, and Chulalongkorn University. He holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.

Kathy Matsui is a General Partner of MPower Partners, Japan’s first ESG-focused global venture capital fund. She is also an external board director at Fast Retailing, at adjunct professor at Kyoto University Graduate School of Management, and an advisory board member at the University of Tokyo. She was previously vice chair and chief Japan strategist at Goldman Sachs. She is the author of How to Nurture Female Employees, published in Japanese in 2020. Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe credited Matsui with coining the term “womenomics” – which she first wrote about in 1999 – and incorporated her research into his economic reforms. MPower’s blog can be found at https://www.mpower-partners.com/blog-en/

Anand Shah is a Partner at The Asia Group, which he joined in 2022 as part of the firm’s acquisition of Dhamiri, a venture that he founded to help corporations align their core businesses with public good in critical international markets. He previously led the development of strategic initiatives as Senior Vice President of Indian ride-hailing giant Ola. He has also worked at the Albright Stonebridge Group, BMW AG, and Audi AG. He spent 15 years living in India, where he founded Sarvajal, a technology and market-based provider of clean water to rural villages and urban settlements, and helped establish Ahmedabad University. He was also the Founding CEO of the Piramal Foundation, a Co-Founder of Teach for India, and the Founder of Indicorps, a pioneering public service program.

Chris Johnstone is a senior advisor at The Asia Group and Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Prior to joining CSIS, he served in government for 25 years in a variety of senior positions with a focus on U.S. policy toward Japan and the Indo-Pacific region. He served twice on the National Security Council, as director for East Asia under President Joe Biden and director for Japan and Oceanian affairs under President Barack Obama. In the Office of the Secretary of Defense, he led offices with responsibility for South and Southeast Asia and East Asia. He began his career as an intelligence officer in the Central Intelligence Agency.