Leadership

Leadership Team

Leadership Team is responsible for the design and development of business and investment strategies and, upon Board approval, the execution of strategies, administrative operations, and organizational growth of GHIT.
Osamu Kunii, MD, MPH, PhD
CEO

Dr. Osamu Kunii is CEO and Executive Director at the GHIT Fund. He served as a Management Executive Committee member of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund), as Head of the Strategy, Investment and Impact Division. He was responsible for leading one of the largest divisions of the Global Fund, consisting of five departments (Health Finance; Strategy Information; Technical Advice and Partnerships; Access to Funding; and Community, Rights and Gender). He started his career as an internal medicine physician in Japan and made a shift to work for both governmental and non-governmental organizations, as he finds his passion in global health and feels it is his life’s work to contribute to this field. With his strong international experience working for multiple international organizations such as UNICEF and the Global Fund, coupled with his extensive interactions with other global organizations, he is interested in leveraging what he has learned and experienced to give back to Japan and Japanese organizations and lead innovation in global health.

Kei Katsuno, MD, MPH
Senior Director, Investment Strategy, Business Development

Kei Katsuno is Senior Director of Investment Strategy & Business Development at the GHIT Fund. Previously, he worked as a Health Specialist at the World Bank, following his completion of a fellowship at the Asia Pacific Leadership Program at the East West Center. Dr. Katsuno graduated from the University of Tokyo with a medical degree and worked as a medical doctor in the Emergency Medicine Department of the National Center for Global Health and Medicine (formerly International Medical Center of Japan). He possesses both Japanese and U.S. medical licenses (ECFMG) and completed the MPH program at the Johns Hopkins University as a Fulbright Scholar. He is a lecturer at the Department of Biomedical Chemistry, Graduate School of Medicine at the University of Tokyo, and a fellow of the U.S.-Japan Leadership Program.

Eriko Mugitani
Associate Director, Brand Communications

Eriko Mugitani is Associate Director of Brand Communications at the GHIT Fund. Previously she worked as Head of External Communications for a foreign life insurance company and was involved in a wide range of communications activities. She also worked for a PR consulting firm for several years, providing public relations to services for healthcare, chemical companies, universities, and local governments. She also worked in Corporate Affairs at BASF Japan where she was responsible for external communications and marketing. She completed a BA in Journalism from Sophia University. She is a Public Relations Planner accredited by PRSJ and Business Career Mentor accredited by BCMA.

Shin Sakai
Associate Vice President,Corporate Operations

Shin Sakai is Associate Vice President, Corporate Operations at the GHIT Fund.
He is responsible for accounting, legal, personnel, general affairs, risk management. He worked for Mitsubishi Corporation for about 35 years during which period he was engaged in legal, compliance and internal audit activities. He has experienced secondments to the New York subsidiary and the financial business operating subsidiary in Japan and the full-time union officer of Mitsubishi Corporation. With respect to the legal and compliance activities, he was engaged in such a wide range of activities as general corporate matters including liquidations of companies and alleged compliance violations and communications and negotiations with relevant government authorities. With respect to the internal audit activities, he was engaged in the business risk analyses in order to conduct the internal audits based upon risk-based approach,
He graduated from the Faculty of Law, the University of Tokyo and completed the LL.M. of the Columbia University.
A member of New York Bar, R.CPA(IL), Certified Internal Auditor.

Kazue Seki
Director, External Affairs & Corporate Development

Kazue Seki currently serves as Director of External Affairs & Corporate Development at the GHIT Fund. Previously, she worked for IBM Watson Health as Business Development, Senior account executive and Japan sales lead. She also gained an experience in the pharmaceutical industry as medical representative at GlaxoSmithKline and Alcon, in addition to that, she was a TV reporter in Nippon Broadcasting Corporation.
She completed her BA of Art and Art history from Keio University and Master of Health Management from Keio Graduate School as well as received a certification of Health Technology Assessment program from Keio Graduate School.

Miho Takazawa, MBA
Senior Director, Finance & Operations

Miho Takazawa is Director of Finance & Operations at the GHIT Fund. Previously, she was Finance Manager in charge of Corporate/Special Purpose Company (SPC) Accounting and Treasury at Mapletree Investments Japan K.K., a Singaporean Real Estate Investment/Asset Management Company based in Japan. Prior to that she served in the Accounting Department at Fuji Bank/Mizuho Corporate Bank (now Mizuho Bank) in New York City. She holds an MBA and a BS in International Business from Southern New Hampshire University in the United States and a BA in the History of Chinese Thought from Atomi University in Japan.

Hayato Urabe, PhD, MPIA
Associate Vice President, Investment Strategy, Portfolio Development & Innovations

Hayato Urabe is Associate Vice President of Investment Strategy, Portfolio Development and Innovations at the GHIT Fund. He oversees the team responsible for all investment activities and access strategy as well as explorative activities to look for technology seeds to apply to Global Health and their innovative financing models. Previously, Dr. Urabe worked in the technology/finance sector (energy, life sciences, telemedicine, water treatment, etc), focusing on strategic planning, start-up due diligence, and project management in Silicon Valley. He was also a consultant at Synthetic Genomics for technologies ranging from nutrigenomics to biofuels. Dr. Urabe completed his Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology, Master of Science in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship Engineering, and Doctor of Philosophy in Biomedical Engineering from Brown University. Dr. Urabe earned an additional Master’s degree from the School of Global Policy and Strategy at University of California, San Diego.