Season 3

Guest Bios

Season 3

Shuichiro "Shu" Yabui (St. Marys 2004)
Educator / Wrestling Coach

After graduating St. Mary’s International School in Tokyo, Mr. Yabui earned his B.B.A. from Temple University; serving as the president of the student government and graduating top of his class. During his high school wrestling career, he accomplished to be a 3-time DoDDs (Department of Defense Dependent schools) Far East wrestling champion.

After graduating university, he developed a unique English learning curriculum and founded Yabui School of English, providing English teaching and translation services.

Later on, he assumed position as the head wrestling coach at his alma mater and led the team to win 4 consecutive DoDDs Far East tournament titles for the first time in school history. In 2014, he was certified as Asia’s first United World Wrestling (UWW) Educator. As an Educator, he supports in the development of national coaches mainly in the Asia and Oceania regions.

Currently, he teaches the International Baccalaureate Economics course and Business Ethics as the high school social studies department head at St. Mary’s. Using his bilingual ability, he also serves as the Chair of the International Relations Committee of the Japan Masters Wrestling Federation as well as assists in UWW’s coach education development projects and media translations.

Serena Tamura (ASIJ 2008)
Scientist

Serena Tamura graduated from ASIJ in 2008, after which she attended Stanford University where she majored in Human Biology with a concentration in Neurobiology and Behavior.

She is currently a PhD candidate at University of California San Francisco in the Dept. of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, and is developing CRISPR based gene therapies for rare genetic disorders.

She lives in San Francisco with her husband Andrew and two dogs.

Erika Brinley (ASIJ 2005)
Stay at home mom

Erika Brinley graduated ASIJ in 2005, and attended BYU, and during her time here, she spent two years on a mission trip between her sophomore and junior year at Hokkaido Japan. She would go on to graduate from BYU with a Bachelors of Science in Family Studies with a focus in Human Development. She has always been passionate about the cognitive, physical, mental and emotional development of human beings, and how relationships such as parent to child or husband to wife can affect these components.

Upon graduating from BYU, she worked for the BYU University extension, where she was in charge of training teachers and developing curriculum for the many missionaries who were traveling to fifty-plus countries.

She currently resides in New York with her husband Darin (ASIJ 2008) and her three children (with a fourth on the way). She is a full-time Mom, and also a music teacher from home, and coaching mothers around the world.

Angie Marsh (ASIJ 2016)
Second Lieutenant in the US Army (Aviation Officer)

Angie was born and raised in Tokyo, and attended the American School in Japan from Kindergarten to the end of high school, where she developed a profound appreciation for global perspectives, community service, and leadership.

Upon graduating ASIJ, she would attend the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Throughout her time at the Academy, she has been a proud company mate and company commander of the C-2 Flying Circus; and an active member of the West Point Flying Team, Ski Patrol, CrossFit Black and Gold, Olympic Weightlifting team, and MCLC team.

She branched into Aviation in her final year as a cadet, commissioned as an officer in May, and will be starting flight school in August to become an Army Aviator.

Philip Seiji Vincent (ASIJ 2007)
Managing Partner (Japan) - Plug and Play Japan

Phillip is the Managing Partner & CEO of Plug and Play Japan, a subsidiary of Plug and Play Tech Center located in Silicon Valley. He started working for Plug and Play in Silicon Valley in 2014 and headed both the IoT division and Mobility division before moving to Tokyo to start Plug and Play Japan in 2017. Plug and Play Japan is focused on creating the largest innovation platform in Japan connecting startups and larger corporations worldwide with hubs in Tokyo and Kyoto.

Prior to working for Plug and Play, Phillip was an Account Executive for Uniglobe Kisco, the U.S. subsidiary of KISCO, a large Japanese trading company focused on chemicals and materials.

Phillip graduated from San Diego State University. Phillip has spent half of his life in Japan and the other half in the U.S.

Ian Shimizu (St. Marys 2011)
Environmentalist

Ian is a bilingual environmentalist, educator and consultant based in Tokyo. Founder of weMORI, an ongoing nonprofit project to build an app that makes protection and restoration of forests around the world fun, easy and accessible for all.

He is a professional speaker with experience giving over +200 speeches and lectures about SDGs, climate change and other topics on sustainability across Japan.

He is a consultant and project manager for various environmental and education projects for clients including The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Currently consulting for an app-based education service launching in March of 2019 for CINRA.Inc.

He helped launch the Japan branch of 350.org, a global grassroots nonprofit while a student at International Christian University, Japan's top liberal arts University. Founder of Spiral Club, a community media platform with the aim of 'making environmental awareness mainstream' in Japan.

Ayaka "Faith" Suzuki (ASIJ 2006)
Age Group Triathlete

Born in Singapore and raised in Malaysia, Faith graduated from ASIJ in 2006. She obtained her BA from Southern Methodist University (Dallas, TX) in 2010 and M.Ed from Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN) in 2014. After ten international moves in 30 years, Faith has spent the past 3 years working in sports event marketing and management.

Actively involved in the world of triathlon and the local swim/bike/run communities, Faith is an age-group (amateur) triathlete based in Tokyo. She is part of the IRONMAN Foundation’s Women for Tri Ambassador team, supporting female participation initiatives and engaging female athletes across all race distances and athletic abilities. Despite being an indoor training enthusiast, you can usually find Faith working or competing at a race on the weekends - or on Instagram @mylittlesuzuki.

Anna Lorentz (ASIJ 2009) and Alissa Lorentz (ASIJ 2005)
Marketing & Communications (Alissa)
Account Management & Sales (Anna)

ALISSA BIO Upon graduating from Princeton Alissa moved to Munich to work at a German advertising agency as a creative despite speaking 0 German. With the exception of a work project in Abu Dhabi, she’s lived in Europe ever since.
After working at the agency she moved to Stockholm to study digital design at Hyper Island in Stockholm. During this time she created interactive music videos and telemedicine apps on the side during her free time. Once she graduated from Hyper Island, she joined Augify, a data visualization start-up, as VP of Creative, Marketing, and Design where she developed the branding and marketing strategy from scratch.
Several winters in Sweden prompted Alissa to leave. She then moved to Basel, Switzerland to work for Clariant, a specialty chemicals company, as their Global Social Media Lead. She remained at Clariant for several years and held positions as Global Marketing Communications Business Partner and Global Customer Experience Lead for their personal care and cosmetics unit. She also led the marketing and branding work for one of Clariant’s startups, Chemberry, a personal care ingredient search engine.

ANNA BIO At Princeton, Anna was interested in language and cultures, and focused her studies around Mandarin and Brazilian Portuguese. She wrote her thesis on China-Brazil trade relations and immigration. After graduating in 2013, she started her career in advertising as an Account Manager at Ogilvy & Mather in New York, working on brands like SAP and Comcast. After 2.5 fun-filled years, and lots of socializing with fellow ASIJ-ers in the city, she made the bittersweet decision to move to Bangkok, her hometown, out of a desire to work on global brands outside of the U.S. market. In Thailand, she worked at TBWA\Thailand as Account Supervisor, leading their Myanmar accounts.
In late 2017, this opportunity led her to work in Singapore, as Associate Account Director at a different agency called BBH, on the Nike account. Anna flew around the region with her team and activated digital and experiential campaigns in Bangkok and Manila.
In 2019, in a bit of a plot twist, she decided to pivot to the tech industry and move to Europe. She now works in Sales at Unbabel, an AI translation startup, based in Lisbon, Portugal.

Episode 29
Megan Gates (ASIJ 1987) (Former ISSH & YIS)
Lawyer

Megan is a partner at a law firm based in Boston, Massachusetts called Mintz (short for Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.) She has been a practicing corporate and securities lawyer for 26 years, 20 of which have been at Mintz. She primarily represents publicly traded companies on equity financings, strategic mergers and acquisitions, and compliance and corporate governance obligations. Most of her clients are in the biotechnology or life sciences industry.

When she’s not practicing law, she’s passionate about travel and serving on non-profit boards. She’s currently on the boards of directors of the Japan Society of Boston, Greater Boston Legal Services, Lawyers for Civil Rights, and the Pine Street Inn, which is Boston’s largest homeless services organization.

Megan graduated from ASIJ in 1987, where she spent the last three years of high school. She also attended Yokohama International School from 1974-1977 and ISSH in Tokyo from 1977 – 1980. In between her years in Japan she lived in Houston, Texas. She received her undergraduate degree in Japanese Studies from Wellesley College and her law degree from Boston College Law School.

Megan lives in the South End of Boston with her husband, Bill Whelan, and their Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Angus. Whenever she’s able to do so, she also spends time at their condo in Azabudai, Tokyo.

Professional Profile: https://www.mintz.com/our-people/megan-n-gates

Episode 30
Mobi Fehr (former Santa Maria and CAJ)
Soccer Player

Mobi was born in New York, USA. He attended Santa Maria elementary school, and the Christian Academy Japan (CAJ) from 7th to 9th grade.

He has been playing soccer competitively from a young age, and played for Tokyo Verdy Youth and represented the USA national team at the U-17 World Cup, in 2011 as a teenager. At the U-17 World Cup he was one of the main players to lead the USA to the final 16 of the tournament.

He has played for numerous professional teams, including H.A. Gia Lai FC, SC Sagamihara, Portland Timbers, and currently for the Las Vegas Lights.

He primarily plays a defensive midfield role, but is also capable of playing central and right midfield positions.

He is a global citizen with three passports, Japan, USA, and Swiss passports, while being bilingual in Japanese and English.