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Main Consultants

Jeff Blokker

Jeff Blokker completed all PHD course work in Electrical Engineering and was a research assistant under Nobel Laureate Herbert Kromer investigating GaAs device fabrication at UCSB. He left school with a Masters degree in 1984 to form a corporation, CableSoft Inc, that he ran as CEO for 18 years. He has a broad engineering background with expertise in material, software development, networks including advanced computing, AI (Machine Learning). In 2010 he completed a Masters degree in Financial Mathematics at Stanford University. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Engineering Entrepreneurship and Engineering Management, a member of the UCSB Engineering Advisory Committee, and Member Board of Directors of the Mericos Foundation at the Whittier Trust Company.

Roger Chen, Ph.D.   Vice President

Professor Roger Chen is a tenured full professor at University of San Francisco. He has a Ph.D. in Management from the University of Texas, a M.S from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and a B.S from Shanghai Engineering and Technology University. Professor Chen currently serves as a foreign expert advisor at the post-doctor research group of China Merchants Group. His expertise is in Strategy, Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation. His recent research focuses on the cutting edge innovation practices of global leading companies. He has been invited to speak to many companies and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, also invited by Shenzhen Government of China, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and ZheJiang University of China to talk about Silicon Valley Innovation and its impact on China. He has received many awards including Abramson Award for Outstanding Article from Business Economics Journal, and several research awards from the School of Management of the University of San Francisco. 

 

Yutaka Ujiie   President & CEO, Founder

Mr. Ujiie has over 30 years business experience in IT technologies areas. Originally he had worked at investment banking sector, where he mainly engaged in data utilization practices such as financial portfolio optimization, index-linked operation, financial mathematical transaction, startups growth modeling for IPO. After starting SBF, he became e.g. a writer on high-tech trends of US to the web-version of Nikkei Newspaper. He also served visiting lecturer at Tohoku University Graduate School of Engineering (technical community System Science), and co-authored “Driver of Industrial Innovation“(2009). He himself has long experiences in data analysis, Business Intelligence, medical image data management, data sensing in industries (IIoT), and "Product Advancement" strategies. Also he has been a writer of a university-launched ventures promotion site in Japan. He has authored books "Innovation Drivers -Core Strategies To lead IoT Trends-", also recently "DX Drivers -Proactive Linkages-". He is a graduate of Tohoku University, where he majored in macro and financial economics (Portfolio theory).

 

Mary Jean Koontz  Ph.D.

Dr. Koontz has so long years of international management consulting experience for global corporations and government agencies in the U.S., Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand. She has been involved in project management of high-profile projects; design of qualitative and quantitative client projects, preparation of IT and e-commerce industry. She also covers "human science", environmental, healthcare, partly biotechnologies, environmental auditor, and Asia business development manager. An experienced global businesswoman, her career includes lobbying in Washington DC, managing a global trade show in Japan, founding, funding, and managing an education-tech company, and currently managing her global real estate business. A licensed California State real estate agent, with a focus on CRM efficacy. she has a B.S., Georgetown Univ., MBA of USC, and Ph.D. from Golden Gate Univ. She also speaks Japanese.

Wilson So Ph.D.  Partner

Wilson has over 20 years of combined management and technical experience in the high-tech field.  Before he joined SBF Consulting, Wilson was the practice leader of Hitachi Consulting's XBRL and GRC practice which he grew to $3M revenue in 3 years with over $10M in sales pipeline. Wilson’s knowledge/experience with open data standards, accounting and risk reporting frameworks is most helpful to regulators and corporations in compliance and supervision. The solution business is in the financial services, healthcare, and Oil & Gas sectors. Wilson led marketing effort in the areas of intelligent networking, mobile communication, and utility computing. Wilson was also the system architect behind healthcare solution helping hospitals to identify clinical best practices. In his early days, Wilson accomplished the development of a landmine detection robot. Now, data science and machine learning is an area he would like to collaborate. Wilson received his MS and PhD degrees from Cornell University in Electrical Engineering.  He received his BS degree in Electrical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.  Wilson also attended the Stanford Executive Management Program.

 

Sheridan Tatsuno   Partner

Mr. Tatsuno has worked for tech-research and business strategy consulting firm and venture incubator. Mr. Tatsuno worked at Bechtel in civil infrastructure planning, international project financing, and environmental assessment. He co-founded Dataquest's Japan and Asian semiconductor groups and served as industry liaison manager at Stanford University's U.S.-Japan Technology Management Center. He is familiar with electronics and computer communication including the uniting field of these areas and smart city covering Virtual Reality(VR) and Augmented Reality(AR). Mr. Tatsuno also has long experience in venture support and consulting venture cluster. He is the author of two books produced for television : The Technopolis Strategy (Prentice-Hall, 1986) and Created in Japan (HarperCollins, 1990). He is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

 

Jeff Cuttali

He attended the University of Connecticut, graduated with a degree in chemical and materials engineering, and went to work for an environmental technology start-up in New Jersey. The start-up's mission was to resolve air/water pollution problems created by oil/coal power plants. He came to realize that semiconductors would be the key to clean energy (think solar), then came to Silicon Valley. Then he worked both with Fortune 200 (Varian Associates), medium (ATS Automation), small (Irvine Optical Company) to develop business and serve customers searching for complex process solutions. He managed Japan business operations and sales for several years with two companies. He also collaborated with the research teams of three Nobel Prize winners, two IBM Fellows, dozens of distinguished professors. He completed an MSE in Chemical & Bio-Engineering at SJSU in 2006.

 

Andre Serao

Mr. Serrao's technological background in the telecommunications industry. His experience includes designing cable networks / WAN networks, hosting services, and security solutions. Now in SBF, he covers mainly network communication, mobile and wireless, and security solutions. He also investigated technology trends through R&D activities and VC investment. He is also familiar with the communication market in middle and south America. He has a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil, and he is fluent in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Tai Hasegawa, Ph.D.   Senior Advisor

Dr. Hasegawa worked initially as researcher at Poland Academy Institute of Physical Science in Warsaw, then he came to Stanford, CA, where he obtained a permanent residency. Beside his scientific endeavors in the Chemistry Department, he was nominated as the president of the Henry Taube Institute, which was established to honor Nobel laureate Dr. Taube. In addition to his academic career, he is an active member of Palo Alto Philharmonic and began to study piano with his favorite Steinway, "Millennium". Dr. Hasegawa received his B.S., M.S., and Ph. D. from the University of Tokyo, Japan.

 

 


 

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