Profile: Sumio Takeichi, ’95, Japan
October 2006
When Sumio Takeichi delivered his farewell speech to the Eisenhower Fellows and Trustees at the end of his fellowship in 1995, he spoke of what he and his fellow Fellows learned. “Not from the institutionalized message, but from our eyes and hearts, we have learned in practice the values and intelligence of EEF’s philosophy – people-to-people diplomacy – through our ten-week program.”
This “people-to-people diplomacy” is a mind-set he still embraces to this day, and one to which he credits much of his success.
Now, as director of Cangen Japan, a subsidiary of Johns Hopkins University, he is working to develop the world’s first unique technologies of cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. But at the time of his fellowship, Takeichi was in a much different line of work, employed as senior assistant to the president of Mitsubishi Corporation.
While on his fellowship, Takeichi’s main focus was to study U.S.-Japan strategic alliances in the private sector in Asia, as well as U.S. business and government views on free trade and environmental issues concerning global corporations. Since one of his roles at Mitsubishi was overseeing the chemical division, he met with a number of U.S. chemical companies, including ARCO Chemical and Air Products, Dow Chemical, Exxon, Shell, and Texaco.
U.S. government meetings were also a significant part of Takeichi’s program, as he discussed the trade deficit, deregulation in Japan, the U.S.-Japan security policy, and overall relations between the U.S. and Japan. He met with officials at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Department of State, Treasury Department, National Security Council, Department of Defense, and Department of Commerce. In addition, he met with representatives of the World Bank.
This time in DC proved to be quite influential to Takeichi, who said at the time, “The frank and positive approach of these key officials made a strong impression. The Japanese bureaucracy could learn a lot from them in the context of U.S.-Japan relations.”
Takeichi ended his fellowship satisfied with the experience and the network of contacts he had developed. It was then that his staunch belief in people-to-people diplomacy began to take shape. In his program summary, he wrote, “The 1980s were an era when leading international corporations and organizations engaged in economic development with a mindset tending toward independence and hierarchy, while in the 1990s the world is entering an era in which international corporations and organizations are characterized by the mindset of competition and community.”
After his fellowship ended, Takeichi played a number of leadership roles at Mitsubishi, including executive vice president of Mitsubishi International in New York and general manager of the Washington, DC office. He was also a director of the International Finance Corporation, and chairman of the International Advisory Board for Cosmos Alliance.
Throughout the years, his time with EF continued to be an influence. In fact, Takeichi says the path that led him to his current position with Cangen echoed the theme of his fellowship. He was approached by the former FDA Commissioner, Dr. Frank Young, and the FDA’s Deputy Commissioner, Dr. John Norris, who invited Takeichi to form an alliance among Japanese and U.S. high-tech industries. “In the initial months after my fellowship, I was thinking a lot about international strategic alliances to serve society and mankind,” he says. “Going forward with this mindset, I happened to become friends with Frank and John.”
Takeichi has remained active within the EF network as well. In 2003, he created the Japan Management Association Global Business Leaders Course, and in August 2005, he coordinated a visit between the group and EF in Philadelphia. The Global Business Leaders were interested in learning how EF functions and particularly in how the network encourages knowledge building and strengthens collaboration. Since that time, Takeichi has expanded the group’s network to relate to EF Fellows in Japan, Asia, and Europe. He also plays a key role in EF’s Japan Nominating Committee.
Takeichi continues to sing the praises of the EF global network and its overseas events. “It is quite important to keep mutual contacts,” he says. “I attended events in Singapore and Beijing, and both gave me a tremendous impact of my visionary thought of consolidating the EF network.”
He adds, “The EF program has opened the vision of my future plan to serve society and mankind through international strategic alliances. The creation of the Global Business Leader Program and also my undertaking of the directorship of Cangen are all byproducts of my fellowship.
“The Network of EF is like a dynamic drum,” he concludes. “If you hit it honestly and hard, the sound you get from other EF Fellows is often very dynamic. They want to do what’s best for society and mankind in many different ways without ego. The Network is the dynamic sound system of people-to-people diplomacy for a better society and mankind.”