TEAM
 
S. Gene Kawaratani
Before jointly founding Entrepia in 1999, Mr. Kawaratani worked for Nissho Iwai Corporation on business development, investment and management of start-up in IT Communications and Media industry for nearly 15 years. Mr. Kawaratani started with his career as a key member of a team that brought $160 million in sales of NEC's fiber optics communications facility to US Telecom (now Sprint) in 1985. During his tenure at Nissho Iwai, he also founded Atlux, one-to-one database marketing company in Japan in 1988 and served as President and CEO of Atlux for six years to help it record $18 million revenue. As Nissho Iwai's media investment manager in Japan, Mr. Kawaratani was responsible for private equity investment in newly developing media market between 1995 and 1997, when he was involved in investment in PerfecTV (now SkyPerfecTV!), Japan's first DTH satellite TV service provider, Japan Satellite Systems, Japan's largest satellite operation company, and some contents providers. After he became general manager of Media and Telecommunications in Nissho Iwai American Corporation in NY in 1997, he spearheaded the investment in wired and wireless communications in North and Central America with the carried value of more than $200 million. In addition to conceptualizing and implementing the Entrepia's cross-border value-added investment in North America, he also concluded to invest in six early stage technology companies in Japan including Chip One Stop, the Japan's first Internet-based semiconductor marketplace which went public in 2004. Mr. Kawaratani holds a bachelor's degree in law faculty from Tokyo University and an MBA from Columbia University in New York.


Amit Srivastava

Amit Srivastava serves as the Chief Investment Officer of Entrepia. Previously, he worked for seven years at JP Morgan Chase, including four years at JP Morgan Partners (formerly Chase Capital Partners) where his responsibility included leading venture capital investments in the electronics sector, oversight of private equity investments in India, and serving as the Portfolio Manager of a direct private equity portfolio of over 700 investments in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia, with a carried value exceeding $10 billion. Mr. Srivastava has served on the boards of several companies in the United States, Israel and India. Before he worked at JP Morgan Chase, Mr. Srivastava was a Principal at Mercer Management Consulting where, for five years, he advised major global information technology and communications companies on strategy, business development and operational effectiveness. Earlier, he held marketing and engineering management positions during five years at Texas Instruments. Mr. Srivastava holds a bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, a masters degree in Electrical Engineering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.



Ken Yasunaga

As one of the founding members of Entrepia Ventures, Mr. Yasunaga manages Entrepia's West coast office. He has considerable experience in investment and portfolio management for IT ventures, including telecom equipment manufacturers, software developers, application providers, semiconductor and wireless companies. He managed the investments of 13 portfolio companies in Fund I. Prior to co-founding Entrepia Ventures in 1999, he served as a senior analyst at Information Technology & Communications Division of a Japanese global trading company, Nissho Iwai. In Nissho's IT division, he managed the planning and execution of more than $500 million in investments to wireless and wireline communication related companies throughout the Americas. He also supported various US technology companies to sell its product to the Japanese market. Previously, he worked in Nissho Iwai's overseas affiliate management department and involved in the management consulting to various companies and finance projects. Mr. Yasunaga hold a bachelor's degree in Psychology from Waseda University and an MBA from Pace University in New York.



Naokazu Morita
Prior to Entrepia, Mr. Morita worked for almost 20 years for Mitsubishi Corporation including 4 year assignment to Mitsubishi International Corporation (MIC) in New York.  Mr. Morita has gained experience in diverse management, strategic planning and business development in the Information Technology field.  While in New York (2001-2005), Mr. Morita was a Department Manager of the Internet Business Dept. of MIC and managed MIC’s Internet businesses which included portfolio of more than $20MM in 15 companies.  He also served as a member of board of directors of two start-up companies in U.S. of which MIC was as a major shareholder.  Most recently at Mitsubishi Corporation before joining Entrepia in September 2007, Mr. Morita managed several new projects of e-commerce for consumers with major players in the media industry.  Mr. Morita received his bachelor’s degree in Law faculty from Keio University.


Yoshito Yamamoto

Prior to joining Entrepia, Mr. Yamamoto worked for Mitsumi Electronics Corp. as Treasurer, where he managed finance, taxes, legal and Information Systems for10 years.  During that time, he also served on several general unsecured creditors’ committees of major chapter 11 cases of many prominent companies, including Smith Corona and Rexon/Tecmar.  He also managed Mitsumi’s Transfer Pricing Taxation project team that became the first company in history to obtain a reversal of the infamous “donation” assessment by the Japanese National Tax Agency (NTA), for which he personally negotiated and argued before the IRS.  Mr. Yamamoto also handled contract negotiations for licensing, manufacturing, joint development and distribution, as well as litigation involving product liability claims, contract disputes, antitrust claims, employment disputes and credit/collections.  Prior to his time with Mitsumi, Mr. Yamamoto worked for Matsushita Electric Works, Co., Ltd., including its U.S. subsidiary, Aromat Corporation, for 12 years in the areas of cost accounting, material management, and Information Systems.  Mr. Yamamoto received his Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Shiga University and his Juris Doctor’s degree from Texas Wesleyan University.  He is a licensed attorney admitted to the State Bars of Texas and California.


Keiko (Kay) Iwaisako
Ms. Iwaisako has 10+ years of experience in venture investment, business development, operations and project management in industry sectors such as IT, Internet and communications. She holds a bachelor's degree in Social Sciences from Hosei University in Japan, and an MBA from the University of Southern California.


Eugeneah Kim
Ms. Kim has spent more than 7 years in technology based venture capital industry, with experiences ranging from deal sourcing, market/technology research, investment due diligence, and portfolio company management. She holds a bachelor's degree in Political Economy from Willamette University.
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