Esteemed Guest of Honour 
Ichiro Fujisaki 

Former Ambassador to the United States Ichiro Fujisaki
President, The America-Japan Society
Chairman of Institute for International Relations, Sophia University
Visiting Professor, Keio University
Visiting Professor, Tsukuba University

Former Ambassador to the United States Ichiro Fujisaki is currently President of America-Japan Society in Japan. He is also Chairman of Institute for International Relations at Sophia University and Visiting Professor at Keio University and Tsukuba University. Fujisaki joined the Foreign Ministry of Japan in 1969 and served more than 40 years in the Japanese government. Fujisaki served as Ambassador of Japan to the United States (2008-2012) and was Ambassador of Japan to the UN and WTO in Geneva (2005-2008). Fujisaki was Deputy Foreign Minister (2002-2005); Director General for North American Affairs (1999-2002); Political Minister, Embassy of Japan, Washington DC (1995-1999); Deputy Director General for Asian Affairs (1994-1995).  Other than headquarter posts, he also served in the Ministry of Finance, Jakarta, Paris and London.

Chester Toh, Co-Head Myanmar Practice, Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP

Chester Toh oversees the Firm’s Yangon office. He regularly advises multinationals and Japanese corporates on investing in Myanmar and has been involved in numerous projects in the country. Clients routinely turn to Chester for regulatory risk assessment when investing in frontier economies. Having practised in London, Hong Kong, China and Singapore, Chester has a wealth of experience in merger control and foreign investment approvals. He has advised on numerous applications to the Myanmar Investment Commission for a wide range of clients in various industries, including some of the most high profile investments into Myanmar. At the same time, Chester heads up the Firm’s Integrated Regulatory Practice. He has an active practice advising governments on the drafting of regulations and running procurement exercises for large-scale infrastructure projects. 

Cyril S. Shroff, Managing Partner, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas

Cyril Shroff is Managing Partner of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (“The Firm”) and previously was Managing Partner of Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff & Co., India's largest and foremost law firm. The Firm has nearly 600 lawyers with offices in Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Ahmedabad. With over 33 years of experience in a range of areas, including corporate laws, securities markets, banking, infrastructure and others, Mr. Shroff is regarded and has been consistently rated as India's top corporate, banking and project finance lawyer by several international surveys, including those conducted by International Financial Law Review (IFLR), Euromoney, Chambers Global, Asia Legal 500, Asia Law and others. He has won numerous awards from Legal Publications. He has been recognized as a “legendary figure in the Indian legal community” and is consistently ranked as “star practitioner” in India by Chambers Global. Mr. Shroff is often regarded as the “M&A King of India”. He has authored several publications on legal topics. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for Study of the Legal Profession established by the Harvard Law School, a member of the Advisory Board of the National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) and on Board of IIM, Trichy. He is an advisory member of the Finance Planning Standard Board of India (FPSB India) and Macquarie. He is a member of the Media Legal Defence Initiative (MLDI) International Advisory Board. Mr. Shroff is also part of various committees of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) - the National Council on Corporate Governance, the National Committee on Capital Markets, Private Equity & Venture Capital, Commodities Markets, Financial Investors and Regulatory Affairs. Mr. Shroff was admitted to the Bar in 1982 after receiving his B.A., LLB degree from the Government Law College in Mumbai. He is a Solicitor, High Court of Bombay, since 1983. 

Eko Ahmad Ismail Basyuni, Equity Partner, Assegaf Hamzah & Partners

Eko Basyuni commenced his legal career in 1999 straight after graduating from University of Indonesia with a degree in law. He earned his LL.M. in banking and financial law from Boston University School of Law in 2004, and joined Assegaf Hamzah & Partners in early 2005. Prior to joining the firm, Eko served as legal counsel with the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) during a tumultuous period that saw the agency rebuild the country’s decimated financial services sector from the ruins of the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis. This provided him with invaluable first-hand experience of the banking industry that continues to serve him and his clients at AHP well to this day. As a member of the firm’s General Corporate Practice Group, Eko focuses on M&A, although he also regularly plays leading roles in capital markets, banking & finance, and FDI matters. He has in-depth experience and expertise across an array of sectors, including mining and energy, ICT, plantations, banking, oil and gas, retailing, broadcasting, telecommunications, and infrastructure. He is a member of the Indonesian Bar Association (Peradi). He is qualified in M & A, Capital Market and Corporate, Banking & Finance, FDI matters. Eko is recognised as a “Leading Lawyer” in Project Finance by the International Financial Law Review (IFLR), and by AsiaLaw Profiles as a “Recommended Lawyer.” 

Gilad Majerowicz concentrates his practice in technology, intellectual property and related commercial transactions across a broad range of industries, including information technology, media and entertainment, telecommunications, Internet and e-commerce, and financial services. Gilad represents global and local clients in transactions across the globe and in Israel in connection with content and technology licensing, e-commerce initiatives, payment processing projects, regulated online gaming ventures, and other commercial agreements. Gilad is chair of HFN’s Japan practice and also serves on the board of the Israel-Japan Chamber of Commerce. Prior to joining HFN, Gilad worked in the IP and Technology Transactions Group of Kirkland & Ellis LLP in New York, where he represented technology companies and financial institutions in transactions involving technology and content licensing, outsourcing, internet and e-commerce initiatives. Gilad also served as an in-house counsel at Intercom Online, Inc., a NY-base telecommunication company, where he counseled the company's business units in connection with its day- to-day operations and business development initiatives.

Harsh Kumar, Partner, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas

Harsh is a Partner at the Firm’s Delhi Office. He is a part of the Firm’s Corporate Practice Team and focuses on Mergers & Acquisitions.

Harsh has advised various Indian blue chip and foreign companies on inbound and outbound acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances, and corporate restructurings across a range of industries and jurisdictions. He has also worked on private equity investments and interacts closely with professionals from other disciplines including investment bankers and chartered accountants.

Harsh is the Co-Head of the Firm’s Japan Desk. He also frequently advises Japanese companies in relation to their investments into India. He has also travelled to Japan for India related work and has also authored several articles on India-Japan related matters.

Harsh has also worked in the London office of Herbert Smith LLP where he was involved ininternational corporate transactions.

Hiroko Miyazaki, General Counsel & Head of Legal and Compliance Division, Alcon Japan Ltd., a Novartis Company

Hiroko Miyazaki is General Counsel and Head of Legal and Compliance Division for Alcon Japan Ltd., the leading eye care solution provider company. She built and currently manages the legal and compliance department and is responsible for ensuring compliance with applicable laws and regulations and for supporting all business in Japan.  She won the 2015 Global Excellence Award in the “Growth: Delivering the Numbers”, a category which is normally given to commercial people.  She is a member of Executive Committee for the company. Previously, Hiroko had served a Japan Lead Legal Counsel for Dell Japan, Inc., for 6 years where she led Japan Legal team supporting all business in Japan.  Prior to joining Dell, she practiced a law at a couple of law firms both in Japan and the U.S for 10 years. Hiroko is admitted to practice law in Japan (bengoshi, 1996) and New York (2005).  Hiroko was born and raised in Japan and has legal education both in Japan and the United States (University of Washington, IP LL.M. and Keio University, Bachelor of Laws).  She is also a part time lecturer of Keio University.

John Vigman has been the general counsel of Veolia Environment's operations in Japan (Veolia is the world's largest water and environmental service company - VE is the stock listing) since 2011 and is currently working on various water and energy renewables projects, PPI and O&M projects throughout the Japanese archipelago and occasionally industrial waste water projects elsewhere in Asia for Japanese clients.  He works with a team of five, handling the Japanese related matters as well as reporting to the head office in Paris. Recently, he has been handling more renewable energy projects on the Japanese feed-in-tariff as well as industrial waste projects. This year, he and his team have successfully closed two biomass/solar power plants in connection with prefectural bids on a non-recourse project finance basis without use of external counsel. Prior to joining Veoila, John was with Shearman & Sterling in New York's Project Development & Finance team handling project finance transactions representing owner/developers, contractors and non-recourse lenders. The practice consisted of negotiations in turnkey EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contracts for owner/developers for power plants (gas, HFO, coal, combined and single cycle), upstream/midstream Oil & Gas projects, LNG regasification terminals, biomass, nuclear generation, industrial manufacturing, underwater power transmission cable, and five star hotels and included the representation of JBIC (the Japanese government bank guaranteeing project finance loans for Japanese entities) in Asia and Latin America, large Japanese trading houses,  and been on the opposite side of the table on IFC financed transactions in fossil fuel (Asia, Africa, Latin America), wind and geothermal. John began his career as a finance associate at White & Case in New York City.

Li-tzu Lin, Lee and Li Attorneys at Law
Li-tzu Lin graduated from National Taiwan University and has studied at Tokyo University.  She speaks fluent Japanese and is very experienced in Japanese legal matters.  Ms. Lin is active in mergers and acquisitions, corporate investments, labor law, personal data protection, consumer protection and competition law.  She has assisted international and domestic companies in diversified cross-border mergers and acquisitions and investments, represented clients in merger filing cases, handled dispute resolutions, and also been involved with company reorganizatons. She is also experienced in international companies' compliance issues, labor issues and Japanese contract review.

Education
Tokyo University Foreigner Special Program (2007~2008)
National Taiwan University (M.L., 2008)
National Taiwan University (LL.B., 2004)

Mohit Saraf, Senior Partner, Luthra & Luthra Law Offices

Mohit Saraf heads the corporate practice at Luthra & Luthra Law Offices. With over 20 years of experience he has advised major global and Indian companies. He is the recipient of various national and international awards and is listed as a Band 1 M&A lawyer in Who’s Who Business Lawyers, Chambers Asia Leading Lawyers and Asia Pacific Legal 500. IFLR1000 Financial and Corporate lists him as Leading Lawyer in Banking, Energy and Infrastructure, Project Development, M&A and Project Finance.

Certain major transactions handled by Mohit Saraf include: Advised Capgemini, on acquisition of Nasdaq listed IGATE in a USD4 billion deal; advised Mylan Inc. (one of the world’s leading generics and specialty pharmaceutical companies) on acquisition of part of Famy Care Ltd's business valued at USD750m and in the past advised on the USD1.6 billion acquisition of Agila Specialties Division by Mylan; advised Abbott Laboratories on its USD6.2 billion acquisition of Belgium-based Solvay Pharmaceutical; advised Citigroup on Vedanta Group merger & restructuring exercise where the total value of the merged entity was more than USD 10 billion; advised DLF in the sale of its luxury hospitality chain Aman Resorts to Aman Resorts Group Limited (transaction valued at USD358m); advised consortium of Capital Square and CX Partners in its acquisition of Aditya Birla Minacs Worldwide BPO (transaction valued at USD260m; advised Tata Global Beverages in its 50:50 joint venture with Starbucks Group for setting up and operating Starbucks cafes in India. Additionally, he has over 50 publications in various publications including Economic Times, Business Standard, Financial Express and India Business Law Journal. Professional Memberships include Member of Bar Council of Delhi and Member of International Bar Association. 

Dr. Nimrod Kozlovski joined HFN in 2013 as a senior advisor on Internet laws, Ad-tech, Monetization and e-Commerce. Dr. Kozlovski is an expert investor in Cyber Security and a teaching professor on Internet and Cyber Law, Information technology and innovation, with experience as a seasoned entrepreneur and strategic & legal consultant. Nimrod recently joined JVP Cyber Labs, a leading Israeli VC, as a Partner, focusing on Cyber Security and Big Data, co-leading an innovation incubator in Beer Shee'va. He formerly co-launched the Cyber Security studies at Tel Aviv University Management School. Formerly, Nimrod was the co-founder of innovative start-ups: PLYmedia and Altal Security and consulted to handful of other start-ups in the fields of Internet law, telecommunication regulation, information security and proactive security as well as to governmental and international security bodies. He received his doctor degree in law (J.S.D) from Yale Law School and conducted his Post-Doc research in computer science on proactive security at Yale School of Computer Sciences. In the Israel Defense Forces, Dr. Kozlovski served as Captain in the Electronic Warfare unit. Nimrod was an adjunct professor at New York Law School and wrote books and articles on Internet Law, Cyber Crime and Digital Law Enforcement and Copyright Law. He co-initiated the Yale-Harvard-MIT cyber scholars program, was a research fellow at Yale Information Society Project and was a summer adjunct lecturer in Oxford University for Internet studies. He clerked at the Israeli Supreme court for the vice president, Justice Dr. Mishael Chesin and prior to that an intern at Tel Aviv District Court, Chamber of vice president, Judge Dr. Gabriel Kling. 

Patrick Marros Chu, Lee and Li Attorneys at Law
Patrick Chu is a member of the Taiwan Bar Association.  He is an experienced litigation lawyer at Lee and Li, and his main practice areas include dispute resolution, corporate reorganization, bankruptcy, consumer protection, anti-trust law, media/sports law and distribution/franchise contract. Patrick represents many international financial institutions and international companies handling civil actions and advising on many potential disputes and compliance issues for them.  Patrick also assists international TV-content providers and media businesses with regulatory issues and contract reviews. Such extensive experience in handling disputes and litigation and insights from having advised multinational companies in various industries enable Patrick to offer his clients sophisticated legal solutions.  In addition to handling English matters, Patrick worked for Japan Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu Law Firm as a visiting lawyer and is very experienced in Japan related legal affairs and Japanese matters.

Education
Boston University (LL.M., 2005)
National Taipei University (M.L., 1998)
National Taiwan University Law School (LL.B., 1995)

Rishabh Cyril Shroff, Partner, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas

Rishabh joined the Firm in 2007, after completing his LL.B from the London School of Economics in London, England. He was admitted as an advocate in the Bar Council of Maharashtra & Goa in 2007, and is also a Solicitor, Supreme Court of England and Wales. He is based in the Mumbai office of the Firm, and also spends significant time in the Firm’s New Delhi office as well.

Rishabh is a member of the Firm’s Corporate team, and has been involved in a number of cross-border and domestic transactions. He is the Co-Head of the Firm’s Japan Desk, and works very frequently with Japanese clients. He has been part of the Japan Desk for over 7 years, and during this time has advised a number of leading Japanese and international companies on their investments into India. He specializes in foreign investments into India, private mergers & acquisitions, domestic and foreign joint ventures, and insurance. He has also worked in the Firm’s projects and projects finance team for 2 years (2007—2009). He regularly travels to Japan for India focused seminars and Japan — India transactions.

Rishabh is also Co-Head of the Firm’s Private Client Team, specialising in family settlements / constitutions, trusts, wills, philanthropy and succession planning. He works closely with India’s largest family businesses and promoter run companies.

Terufumi Yorita, General Counsel Asia Pacific, Lenovo

Terufumi Yorita is General Counsel of Lenovo's Asia Pacific business. Lenovo is No.1 market share PC manufacturer in the world, also offering servers, workstations, tablets and mobile phones (HKSE listed company). Terufumi joined Lenovo in 2008 as Japan Counsel and established the local legal function. He has built and led the Japan legal team through the acquisition of NEC's PC business in Japan (2011). He became AP General Counsel and a member of the AP Leadership Team this April, supporting Lenovo's business across AP. He manages the team with counsels based in Bangalore/Delhi, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo. Prior to Lenovo, he worked on Intellectual Property license/litigation at Sony for more than 12 years and later supported the medical devices business at Bausch & Lomb Japan. He is admitted to practice law in New York.

Vu Thi Que, Co-Founder, Rajah & Tann LCT Lawyers

Vu Thi Que is the co-founder of Rajah & Tann LCT Lawyers and heads the firm’s Corporate Regulatory, Mergers & Acquisitions, Projects & Infrastructure, and Real Estate & Construction practice groups. She brings with her more than 14 years of experience in legal practice and is highly evaluated by clients for “fast response, have good business acumen and industry knowledge”. Que regularly advises Japanese clients on a wide range of legal and compliance issues in connection with their inbound investment into Vietnam, including contract negotiation and drafting, foreign investment, general commercial matters, corporate regulations, mergers and acquisitions, construction, project infrastructure and energy, employment and environmental law. Prior to managing Rajah & Tann LCT Lawyers, Que was Head of Legal Affairs & Corporate Compliance for Bayer Vietnam. She also held key legal positions in a leading European law firm and a US law firm.

Zakir Merchant, Partner, Khaitan & Co 

Zakir Merchant is an M&A Partner of Khaitan & Co and specializes in advising large Japanese conglomerates. Zakir is also part of the Firm’s Japan desk. As part of his role, Zakir has been involved in some of the largest M&A transactions coming in from Japan into India. Some of the notable deals where Zakir has lead transactions are in the area of insurance and asset management where NISSAY invested in the Reliance group. Zakir has been involved in complex strategic buyouts of Indian joint venture partners by existing Japanese companies. Zakir regularly advises JETRO (as retained counsel in India), Hitachi, Toshiba, Recruit, Yazaki, Kayaba, Itochu, NTT Data, SG Holdings, NTT Communications, Kobe Steel, Krosaki Harima, Nissin Foods etc to name a few. Zakir’s uniqueness lies in having always advised the Japanese buy side in a transaction. His experience is varied in terms of resolving the practical difficulties faced by Japanese companies. Zakir is a regular speaker in Japan and has been invited to speak on several occasions to share his experience on pre and post deal related issues.