President & CEO

Nobuhiro Todokoro

He joined Nitto Denko Corporation in 1989. He had worked in the display industry, specializing in technologies such LCD and OLED for many years. He expanded the business globally and was appointed Executive Officer, General Manager of the Information Functional Materials division, which was the biggest business division in Nitto Denko in 2015. He was promoted to Director in 2017 and joined the global management team of the company. In 2022, he was appointed Representative Director and Senior Managing Executive Officer of the company. He joined Whiz Partners as a Managing Director in 2023 and assumed Representative Director, CEO of Axcelead Inc. in June 2024.

Co-CEO and CTO

Yoshinori Ikeura

After studying biochemistry and organic chemistry at Kyoto University, he joined Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, Limited. He was engaged in drug discovery research for about 30 years. He also experienced a postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In addition to serving as Head of Inflammation Drug Discovery Unit since 2011 and Site Head of the Shonan Research Center since 2014, he has served as Chairman of Research and Development Committee of Japan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, Director of Bioindustry Association, Med. Chem. Comm. editorial board member of the Royal Society of Chemistry. In 2017, he launched Axcelead Drug Discovery Partners, and since then, he has been working toward establishment of the innovation platform for drug discovery as CEO and CSO.

Chairperson

Tomoyuki Fujisawa

After graduating from graduate school, he joined Takeda Pharmaceutical Company as a researcher at Takeda’s drug discovery center. During his 20-year carreer at Takeda, he founded Takeda Venture, located in Palo Alto, CA, USA, which is Takeda’s corporate venture arm. He also served as the global head of Takeda’s product licensing and research alliance groups. In 2012, he joined Whiz Partners as Managing Director, where he organized and led the healthcare private equity fund team. In 2021, he was appointed as CIO and Co-COO of Whiz Partners. He also serves as President & CEO roles for ARCALIS and PassPort Technologies in Axcelead Group. He will lead Axcelead with his outstanding experience and phenomenal foresight in the healthcare field, aiming to build an unprecedented healthcare platform group company.

Board Director

Satoru Iino

He spent 11 years at Hitachi, Ltd., where he was involved in global technology sourcing and alliances in the computer, telecom and semiconductor fields. He then spent 10 years at CSK Venture Capital, where he led domestic and international investments in biotechnology and life sciences. In 2010, he participated in Whiz Partners when it was founded.
Member of the Board, Axelmark(TYO 3624), CRI Middleware(TYO 3698) and NanoCarrier (TYO 4571)

Board Director

Junichi Kajimoto

After his university graduation, he joined the currently named Toshiba Plant Systems & Services Corporation (Tokyo) and experienced accounting and general administration at construction sites. He went to graduate school in the United States and joined an Internet startup. In 2000, he joined Faith, Inc. (Kyoto) and experienced its IPO, M & A’s, incorporating of subsidiaries, consolidating accounts of its group companies, etc. In 2000, he joined Whiz Partners, Inc. as CFO, and was in charge of Finance, Accounting, Corporate Legal and HR. Also, he was in charge of accounting, documentation of various investment funds and their transactions from launch to liquidation, including investments and collections. He will support various experiences in management, administration, and securities related transactions.

Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

Hiroki Maekawa

Hiroki Maekawa joined Axcelead as chief financial officer in April 2021, and was appointed to the Axcelead Board of Directors in June 2021.
Prior to joining Axcelead, he served as Chief Financial Officer at several biotech and pharmaceutical companies such as Kubota Pharmaceutical Holding, Sosei Heptares, SymBio, and CEOLIA (private company) for over 16 years.
Originally, he started his career as a securities analyst covering the Japanese stock market at Nippon Life Insurance, however, he especially has extensive experience in fundraising, business management, IPO, and IR/PR for start-ups and growth stage companies.
As a member of the management team, he is responsible for the financial and business management of Axcelead Group.
He is a Certified Member Analyst of the Securities Analysts Association of Japan and a Registered Management Consultant.

Chief Strategic Officer (CSO)

Masamichi Sato

He spent 15 years at Hitachi, Ltd., where he was involved in HR. He spent three years at SAP Japan, where he was Vice President of Administration for Asia Pacific Development Division.

He spent 18 years at Santen Pharmaceutical, Ltd., where he was responsible for many fields, such as corporate development, business development global operation, ESG,　etc., as Senior Corporate Officer. Also, he spent three years in Europe as the CEO of Santen Europe. In 2022, he joined Axcelead as Chief Corporate Development Officer, and has been Chief Strategy Officer since June 2023.

Corporate Officer Group Impact Management Supervisor

Miho Fujisawa

After studying biochemistry in graduate school, she joined Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited as a researcher, and she made an exceptional promotion to HR. In 2017, she joined Axcelead Drug Discovery Partners as Head of HR, leading the transformation, such as various HR programs/activity designs, organizational development, and HR technology, etc.

Corporate Officer Group DX Supervisor

Yo Nakajima

Yo pioneered in the development of new businesses for over 30 years in Hitachi, Ltd. and has the following achievements. Yo launched one of the biggest Japan e-business services in 1997. He led the national IoT1 project, “HIBIKI”, with NEC, Fujitsu, and other major companies in 2004. He planned and coordinated a joint project with UK’s NHS2 in 2013, and led other projects. Since 2015, Yo has taken on the challenge of building a “Smart Factory as a Service” in Thailand at Hitachi High-Tech, Ltd. and built a cloud platform for the video visualizing service “CHIPS”. Axcelead established A-Digital, Inc. based on the acquired “CHIPS” business and technology, and Yo is appointed as A-Digital’s CTO and COO. He assumed Corporate Officer of Axcelead, Inc. in November 2022.

Corporate Officer CDMO Business Supervisor

Satoshi Takamatsu

Dr. Satoshi Takamatsu graduated from Tohoku University with a PhD. After graduating, he has been consistently involved in contract development and manufacturing of pharmaceuticals (CDMO), pharmaceutical business, and life sciences for over 30 years, working for companies such as Ajinomoto, Fujifilm, and AGC.

In May 2023, he assumed the position of CEO at ARCALIS, Inc. Leveraging his diverse and global experience in the life sciences and CDMO industry, he aims to lead ARCALIS in establishing a Japanese bio-CDMO company that challenges new modalities and contributes to global health and medical care.

Corporate Officer Drug Discovery Solutions Business Supervisor 

Kengo Okada

Kengo Okada is currently, and has been since April 2024, the President and CEO at both Axcelead Drug Discovery Partners, Inc. and Axcelead Tokyo West Partners, Inc. He joined Axcelead Drug Discovery Partners, Inc. in 2017, and had been taking on responsibilities for business plan development and overall business management. He previously worked at Takeda Pharmaceutical Company from 2004 as a Senior Research Scientist at the Pharmaceutical Research Division. He held various roles including a business assignment in San Diego, Global Project Leader, and eventually moved into management of the drug discovery platform division within the research organization. He worked as an assistant professor at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology after a position as a doctoral researcher in Sweden. He earned a PhD from the Graduate School of Science at Osaka City University in 1997.