Japan > Chief Development Officer

vCardYuji Sakakura
03-6212-7124
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Mr. Sakakura is currently the Chief Development Officer of GCA. He joined GCA in 2005 as the CFO and was responsible for overseeing the development of the corporate infrastructure including core financial functions of GCA. He also had the responsibility of heading GCA’s Initial Public Offering.

Mr. Sakakura brings to GCA over 25 years of experience in a wide range of corporate finance fields, which he was exposed to during the globalization, reorganization and advancement of the Japanese economy. In 1974, he joined Nissho Iwai, a large Japanese trading company (currently known as Sojitsu) where he held a variety of leadership positions in areas such as capital markets and international finance.

At Nissho Iwai, he began his career in domestic finance and foreign exchange. In 1982, as a member of the capital markets team, he was responsible for the overseas issuances and domestic offerings, such as Swiss-franc denominated convertible bonds (CBs), Euro straight bonds (SBs), and Euro warrants. Through these products he was able to provide a wider range of finance procurement opportunities. In 1985, he was seconded to London, where he focused on Middle-Eastern and South American related project finance activities. He actively introduced low interest rate financing alternatives such as Euro commercial paper (CP), bankers acceptances (BA Finance) and Islamic funds. With the backdrop of the financial big bang in the London markets, he was able to contribute to his organization by financial investment transactions.

In 1990, Mr. Sakakura returned to Tokyo, taking a management position in the foreign currency department. He introduced currency swap transactions for hedging long term fluctuating positions. In 1992, with the collapse of the bubble economy, through the use of financial derivative products, he was able to offer a mechanism for managing financial profitability. In 1995, the Financial Products Division was established as a profit center and he provided strong leadership for the newly established Division.

Following his experience with the trading company, in 1998 he was given the role of supervising manager of an affiliated Security company, Nissho Iwai Securities. In June of the following year, he took the role of the President of the securities firm. He held his position as a president for six years and grew the business by offering alternative investment products such as securitization products and fund of funds to his clients (corporate investors and regional financial institutions) as well as underwriting business.

Mr. Sakakura graduated from Wadayama University (B.A. in Economics) in 1974. In 1999 he received an AMP at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.