Leadership Team

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.

Kio Yamabe is Chief Operating Officer at the GHIT Fund, where he leads operations, human resources, legal and compliance, and also oversees finance and investment. Mr. Yamabe has more than 25 years of management experience in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry, including as President and Country Manager of Carestream Health and CSL Behring. He has lived and worked in Australia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, including as Head of International Business at Fast Retailing Co., Ltd., where he led the launch of UNIQLO stores in London. He received his MBA from IMD in Switzerland and a BS from Seinan Gakuin University in Japan.

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.

Makoto Kubota is Vice President, Corporate Operations at the GHIT Fund, where he is responsible for overseeing corporate operations including accounting, human resources, legal and general affairs. He has 25 years of work experience in treasury, investment, strategy and policy, budget, human resources, and information technology at an international organization, and over the past decade, he worked at the corporate management level.  Prior to that, Makoto spent 15 years at a Japanese commercial bank, where he specialized in treasury operations, capital market product design and trading, risk management, and IT systems development. He holds a Master of Science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

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.

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 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 is Senior Director of Investment Strategy, Portfolio Development and Innovations at the GHIT Fund, where he oversees all portfolio activities including development, management and execution of investments as well as explorative activities to look for technology seeds to apply to Global Health. Previously, Dr.Urabe worked in the technology 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.