Keiichi Fukuda, MD/PhD/FACC

• • 1987
  • PhD in Clinical Cardiology, Keio University Graduate School of Medicine
• • 1991
  • Growth Factor Division, National Cancer Center Research Institute
• • 1992
  • Dept of Mol. Medicine, Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School
• • 1994
  • Cardiovascular Research Center, University of Michigan
• • 1995
  • Lecturer, Department of Cardiology, Keio University School
• • 1999
  • Associate Professor, Institute for Advanced Cardiac Therapeutics, Keio University
• • 2005
  • Professor, Dept of Regenerative Medicine, Keio University
• • 2010
  • Professor, Department of Cardiology, Keio University
• • 2015
  • Founded Heartseed Inc.

Kikuo Yasui

Mr. Yasui joined Heartseed in 2019 as COO. Before joining Heartseed, he held various positions with increasing responsibilities at AbbVie /Abbott Japan, including Business Unit Manager, Immunology and Group Manager, Market Access. He also worked at Bain. He graduated from the Univ. of Tokyo, Pharmaceutical Sciences. (MSc)

Takehiko Kaneko, MD

Dr. Takehiko Kaneko has diverse experience in large pharma and small biotech companies, leading R&D organizations and teams. Dr. Kaneko joined Heartseed in 2020 as Chief Medical Officer. Prior to joining Heartseed, He served on the leadership team at SanBio Co. Ltd, where he was responsible for development and regulatory of cell therapy products. He was also engaged in medical affairs at Bristol-Myers Squibb, clinical development at Pfizer, and early development at Novartis. Dr. Kaneko received his medical degree from Keio University School of Medicine.

Mutsuki Takano

Mutsuki Takano has total 16years business experience, and joined Heartseed in 2020 as Chief Financial Officer. In his career record as being bio-tech management since 2018, he raised approx. USD50Mil mainly in Promethera Biosciences, Belgium cell therapy company. Before 2018, he had been in Mitsui & Co., where he engaged in VC investment in biotech industry, new company launches, setting-up of joint ventures, foreign company operations and restructuring projects in multiple regions such as US, UK, Belgium, China, and other Asian countries. Bachelor of Science in Politics and Economics from the Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan. Certified Member Analyst of SAAJ.

Tatsuyoshi Hirano

Prior to Joining Heartseed in 2021 as Chief Administration Officer, Mr Hirano was Chairman and Director of the Board of UMN Pharma Inc., currently a subsidiary of Shionogi Inc. in addition to 15-year top management experiences in a global retail company and a biotechnology venture company including 8 years as Chairman and CEO, Representative Director following 3 years as CFO at UMN Pharma Inc., and 4 years as EVP, Representative Director and/or CFO, at Toys”R”Us-Japan, Ltd.. During his career at UMN Pharma Inc. and Toys”R”Us-Japan, Ltd., he successfully led IPOs of both companies to TSE Mothers in 2012 and JASDAQ in 2000 by global offering respectively. He received BA degree in Social Studies from Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo Japan and MA degree in Economics from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore USA.

Yutaro Kasai

Mr. Kasai founded Heartseed in 2015. He is also the founder and head of Angel Bridge. Before founding Angel Bridge, he worked top-tier Private Equity firms including Unison Capital and Bain Capital. He started his career at Goldman Sachs IBD. He earned MBA at Chicago Univ. He graduated from the Univ of Tokyo, Agricultural Sciences. (MSc)

Toshiharu Furukawa, MD/PhD

Dr. Furukawa was appointed as Independent Board Director of Heartseed in 2017. He graduated Keio University, School of Medicine and earned PhD. He also graduated Keio Univ, School of Literature. He works as a lawyer at TMI Associates. He is also the member of the House of Councilors from LDP.

Kay Deguchi

Kay Deguchi is Owner/COO of Ochanomizu Orthooedic Clinic and was President at AbbVie Japan. Prior to this, she held senior roles at Bell System 24, Stryker Japan, Stryker Orthopaedics, Johnson & Johnson, GE Plastics and The Disney Store in addition to Bain and Company. Kay studied law at Tokyo University and received an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she gained a distinction.

Tomoyuki Kikugawa

Mr. Kikugawa was appointed as Auditor (full-time) of Heartseed in 2018. He worked at Anritsu (listed in 1st section of TSE) for over 35 years and held increasing responsibility such as CTO and Director, Full-time audits committee.

Akira Fujiyoshi

Mr. Fujiyoshi joined Heartseed in 2019 as External Auditor & Supervisor with his extensive experience in clinical development of new drugs and research management with Eisai. In his career, he spent 12 years in the US for the new drug development of Alzheimer’s disease. After returning to Japan, he was responsible for investor relations as Director. He was a Member of the Board of Eisai and Member of Audit Committee. He served as Board Member with Semba Corporation. He graduated from Kyoto University, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Taiji Edogawa, CPA

Mr. Edogawa joined Heartseed in 2021 as External Audit & Supervisory Board Member. After joining Showa Ota & Co. (now Ernst & Young ShinNihon LLC), he supported many IPOs of life science-related companies and IT-related companies. In 2020, he founded EDiX Professional Group and assumed the position of Representative Director. In addition to his current focus on supporting technology-related companies, he is involved as an external committee member in a number of innovation-related policies of central government ministries and agencies.

Hitoshi Kawamura, PhD

Dr. Kawamura joined Heartseed Inc. as Senior Manager of R&D in Aug. 2018 and now deputy Director of R&D Div. He spent about 25-years in pharmaceutical and biotechnology company , as mainly clinical development leader for several products including gene therapy, cardiovascular medicine and others. Just before joining Heartseed, he led global development product as Japan project leader and had track-record to enroll the patients for clinical trial. In addition, the biotechnology company where he contributed in early stage was successfully in IPO.

Nobuyuki Takahashi

Mr. Takahashi joined Heartseed in 2020. Before joining Heartseed, he had more than 25 years of experience in Japanese pharmaceutical company as mainly CMC development. He has extensive experience in GMP of biotechnology products and he led commercial manufacturing planning for developing products. He received his MBA (Management of Technology) from the Waseda Business School.

Masahiro Akimoto

Masahiro Akimoto joined in 2021 as Director of Quality Assurance Department. In his over 30 years of experience in a Japanese pharmaceutical industry, he was in charge of strategic quality planning for CMC development and CTM production, technical transfer to US and EU CDMOs, preparation of the quality sections of the marketing authorization dossier as well as QA operation for commercially launched products including external audits to maintain regulatory compliance and continuous improvement. He is a registered pharmacist in Japan and a certified quality engineer of the American Society for Quality.

Kazuyasu Nakamura, PhD

Dr. Nakamura joined Heartseed Inc. as Director of Basic Research Department in Feb. 2023. He spent about 30 years in Japanese pharmaceutical company, Kyowa Kirin Inc., as mainly basic research leader for many pipelines including anti-cancer and anti-allergic drugs. He has extensive experience in research of antibody therapeutics and contributed in the launch of several global products. In addition, he was in charge of technology development of antibody therapeutics, and succeeded in the discovery of novel technology. Just before joining Heartseed, he was engaged in new business development at H.U. Cells Inc. where he was responsible for R&D and QC/QA of regenerative medicine candidates. He received his Ph.D. in Agricultural Sciences from the University of Nagoya.