Satoshi Kitahama Representative Director Kizuna Foundation Tokyo

Wharton Speaker >> Biography

Satoshi Kitahama is the Representative Director of Kizuna Foundation, the successor organization to All Hands Asia Association (AHA), the Japanese legal entity he established at the request of All Hands Volunteers, Inc., the US 501(C)3 humanitarian aid organization. Mr. Kitahama set up AHA in response to the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and ensuing events of March 11, 2011 and oversaw the management of the organization, including fundraising of over $1.25 million in donation that supported its volunteer activities over seven-months. At present, AHA has moved on from its volunteer roots to economic development and new business creation through needs-based financing and new business creation in the affected areas. Accordingly, the entity has evolved the name of the organization to Kizuna Foundation to distinguish this new direction and to give recognition to the connections or the kizuna it developed in the region. In January, 2013, Mr. Kitahama also accepted the role of Executive Director at Hands On Tokyo, the Japan affiliate of Points of Light Institute and Hands On Network, to further volunteerism and community service in Japan.

Prior to joining AHA, Mr. Kitahama spent over 15 years in finance. He began his career in New York with Schroder Wertheim in equity capital markets, and then to London with Merrill Lynch International, making the transition to credit and structured products. Eventually, Mr. Kitahama returned to his land of birth and finished his career with RBS International as Managing Director and Head of Leveraged Capital Markets—Asia.

Mr. Kitahama was born in Tokyo, but spent his childhood in New Orleans. He has a bachelor’s degree in East Asian Studies and Economic from Columbia College at Columbia University in the City of New York and currently resides in Tokyo.