Global
Healthcare
Challenge
GHeC

At Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC), he has led the effort to develop CIC Tokyo, Japan's largest startup center. CIC Tokyo, opened in 2020, is a host for 350 companies and innovation clusters for life sciences and climate tech among others. CIC just launched CIC Fukuoka as the company’s second site in Japan/Asia.

Umezawa has also served leading corporations in Japan and the US for 25 years as Senior Partner and Japan Chairman of KEARNEY. Areas of his consulting expertise include strategy, innovation, urban development, and organization.

He sits on the Government of Japan committees on innovation, intellectual property strategy, and tourism. He holds a Bachelor of law from the University of Tokyo and an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management.

The research of Pankaj J. Pasricha, M.B.B.S., M.D., focuses on the nervous system within the gut and the connections between the gut and the brain. He is a gastroenterologist and has an active neuroscience laboratory.

Dr. Pasricha is engaged in both basic and clinical research, with both areas interacting with each other. His laboratory research investigates neural stem cells and how nerve cells are coded to function.

Dr. Pasricha examines the messages nerve cells send to each other. These messages can sometimes cause problems such as difficulty in swallowing, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and constipation. His research investigates how these signals can cause problems with the brain itself.

Mio Kawada is the Executive Vice President of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) and Institute of Developing Economies (IDE-JETRO). With over twenty years of experience at JETRO, she has worked in promoting trade and investment from both in and out of Japan. Before assigned to the current position, she held the position of Director-General of the Invest Japan Department at the JETRO, sole public organization designated to promote foreign direct investment (FDI) in Japan. She has also worked at JETRO New York Office as the Executive Director, and at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Japan, as the Director of Overseas Business Support Office, Service Affairs Policy Division, in the Commerce and Information Policy Bureau.

Dr. Gayathri Srinivasan became Executive Director of MIT Corporate Relations beginning February 15, 2024.

As Executive Director, Dr. Srinivasan leads the growth of the ILP and Startup Exchange, building on a roster of over 200+ member companies, and forging impactful connections between global business leaders and MIT faculty.

Dr. Srinivasan is a distinguished scientist, who received her PhD in Microbiology from The Ohio State University in 2004, where she contributed to the discovery of the 22nd amino acid, Pyrrolysine (2002). She first came to MIT as an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow in Prof. Tom Rajbhandary’s lab, where her research focused on understanding protein synthesis mechanism in Archaea.

Dr. Srinivasan subsequently moved into the business development and technology licensing space, serving in MIT’s Technology Licensing Office where she helped commercialize technologies in medical devices and alternative energies. She then moved to UMass Medical School’s Office of Technology Management in 2009 and to Emory University in Atlanta in 2014, as the Director of Public and Private Partnerships for the Woodruff Health Sciences Center. In 2019, Dr. Srinivasan joined Emory’s Office of Corporate Relations as Executive Director, and, in 2021, she led the Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations.

Career
2 July 2024
• Appointed Minister for Long-term and Social Care in the Schoof government
23 March 2017 – 2 July 2024
• Member of the House of Representatives for the PVV, party spokesperson on medical ethical issues, sport, and war victims; and previously on youth care, lifestyle and prevention, medicines and European affairs
1 July 2014 – 15 March 2017
• Member of the European Parliament for the PVV, involved in the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality
March 2011 – July 2014
• Member and leader of the PVV group in South Holland provincial council
August 2010 – July 2014
• Policy officer for the PVV parliamentary party

September 2009 – August 2010
• Policy officer for the PVV delegation in the European Parliament
July 2007 – August 2009
• Policy officer for the PVV parliamentary party
August 2006 – December 2006
• Intern for Group Wilders/PVV

Education
2004 – 2009
• LLB, Erasmus University Rotterdam
LLM, International and European Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam
1998 – 2004
• Secondary education, Krimpenerwaard College, Krimpen aan den IJssel

Dr. Sakoi, Masami graduated from the University of Tokyo Faculty of Medicine in 1989.
He has served as a surgical clinician at institutions including the University of Tokyo Hospital and Toranomon Hospital.

After joining the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 1992, he visited the U.S. to study at the Harvard School of Public Health and received the Master of Public Health in 1997.

Various roles he has held at the ministry since 2005 include Director, Health Risk Management Office, Minister’s Secretariat; Planning Director, Health Insurance Bureau; Director, Division of the Health for the Elderly; Director, Medical Care Planning Division; Director, Medical Economics Division; Deputy Director-General of the ministry, Minister’s Secretariat; and Director General of the Health Policy Bureau.

He also has an experience working at the Hiroshima Prefectural Government as Director General of Health and Welfare Department (2006-2009).

He was appointed Director General, Office for COVID-19 and Other Emerging Infectious Disease Control Cabinet Secretariat in October 2021 and the current position in July 2023.

At Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC), he has led the effort to develop CIC Tokyo, Japan's largest startup center. CIC Tokyo, opened in 2020, is a host for 350 companies and innovation clusters for life sciences and climate tech among others. CIC just launched CIC Fukuoka as the company’s second site in Japan/Asia.

Umezawa has also served leading corporations in Japan and the US for 25 years as Senior Partner and Japan Chairman of KEARNEY. Areas of his consulting expertise include strategy, innovation, urban development, and organization.

He sits on the Government of Japan committees on innovation, intellectual property strategy, and tourism. He holds a Bachelor of law from the University of Tokyo and an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management.

The research of Pankaj J. Pasricha, M.B.B.S., M.D., focuses on the nervous system within the gut and the connections between the gut and the brain. He is a gastroenterologist and has an active neuroscience laboratory.

Dr. Pasricha is engaged in both basic and clinical research, with both areas interacting with each other. His laboratory research investigates neural stem cells and how nerve cells are coded to function.

Dr. Pasricha examines the messages nerve cells send to each other. These messages can sometimes cause problems such as difficulty in swallowing, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and constipation. His research investigates how these signals can cause problems with the brain itself.

Mio Kawada is the Executive Vice President of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) and Institute of Developing Economies (IDE-JETRO). With over twenty years of experience at JETRO, she has worked in promoting trade and investment from both in and out of Japan. Before assigned to the current position, she held the position of Director-General of the Invest Japan Department at the JETRO, sole public organization designated to promote foreign direct investment (FDI) in Japan. She has also worked at JETRO New York Office as the Executive Director, and at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Japan, as the Director of Overseas Business Support Office, Service Affairs Policy Division, in the Commerce and Information Policy Bureau.

Dr. Gayathri Srinivasan became Executive Director of MIT Corporate Relations beginning February 15, 2024.

As Executive Director, Dr. Srinivasan leads the growth of the ILP and Startup Exchange, building on a roster of over 200+ member companies, and forging impactful connections between global business leaders and MIT faculty.

Dr. Srinivasan is a distinguished scientist, who received her PhD in Microbiology from The Ohio State University in 2004, where she contributed to the discovery of the 22nd amino acid, Pyrrolysine (2002). She first came to MIT as an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow in Prof. Tom Rajbhandary’s lab, where her research focused on understanding protein synthesis mechanism in Archaea.

Dr. Srinivasan subsequently moved into the business development and technology licensing space, serving in MIT’s Technology Licensing Office where she helped commercialize technologies in medical devices and alternative energies. She then moved to UMass Medical School’s Office of Technology Management in 2009 and to Emory University in Atlanta in 2014, as the Director of Public and Private Partnerships for the Woodruff Health Sciences Center. In 2019, Dr. Srinivasan joined Emory’s Office of Corporate Relations as Executive Director, and, in 2021, she led the Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations.

Career
2 July 2024
• Appointed Minister for Long-term and Social Care in the Schoof government
23 March 2017 – 2 July 2024
• Member of the House of Representatives for the PVV, party spokesperson on medical ethical issues, sport, and war victims; and previously on youth care, lifestyle and prevention, medicines and European affairs
1 July 2014 – 15 March 2017
• Member of the European Parliament for the PVV, involved in the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality
March 2011 – July 2014
• Member and leader of the PVV group in South Holland provincial council
August 2010 – July 2014
• Policy officer for the PVV parliamentary party

September 2009 – August 2010
• Policy officer for the PVV delegation in the European Parliament
July 2007 – August 2009
• Policy officer for the PVV parliamentary party
August 2006 – December 2006
• Intern for Group Wilders/PVV

Education
2004 – 2009
• LLB, Erasmus University Rotterdam
LLM, International and European Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam
1998 – 2004
• Secondary education, Krimpenerwaard College, Krimpen aan den IJssel

Dr. Sakoi, Masami graduated from the University of Tokyo Faculty of Medicine in 1989.
He has served as a surgical clinician at institutions including the University of Tokyo Hospital and Toranomon Hospital.

After joining the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 1992, he visited the U.S. to study at the Harvard School of Public Health and received the Master of Public Health in 1997.

Various roles he has held at the ministry since 2005 include Director, Health Risk Management Office, Minister’s Secretariat; Planning Director, Health Insurance Bureau; Director, Division of the Health for the Elderly; Director, Medical Care Planning Division; Director, Medical Economics Division; Deputy Director-General of the ministry, Minister’s Secretariat; and Director General of the Health Policy Bureau.

He also has an experience working at the Hiroshima Prefectural Government as Director General of Health and Welfare Department (2006-2009).

He was appointed Director General, Office for COVID-19 and Other Emerging Infectious Disease Control Cabinet Secretariat in October 2021 and the current position in July 2023.