ACP2011

Waseda University, Japan

Ken K. Soetanto is a full professor in the School of International Liberal Studies (SILS) and a former Dean of the International Affairs Division of Waseda University, where he is also Director of the Clinical Education and Science Research Institute (CLEDSI). Since 2005 he has also been a professor at Venice International University, Italy. He has previously held faculty positions in the USA at both Drexel University and in the School of Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University.

Professor Soetanto is a noted polymath who holds four doctorates in separate disciplines (Engineering, Medicine, Pharmaceutical Science and Education), and whose research draws on this interdisciplinary background to unique complementary effect. He is published widely in a number of fields, most particularly educational psychology, pedagogy, motivational mechanisms, medicine, as well as biomedical engineering. His unique and highly motivational style of lecturing has been widely documented in Japan and further afield as the ‘Soetanto method’.

Professor Soetanto is a fellow of the Acoustic Society of America, The American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine, and the Japan Society of Ultrasonic Medicine, as well as a senior member of the IEEE, and has served as a government adviser to the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and as a member of the Japanese Government’s “Vision of 21st Century” initiative.

The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan

Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, author of a dozen books and over 130 articles and papers, Professor Picken is considered one of the foremost scholars on Japan, China, and Globalization in East Asia.

As an academic, Professor Picken has devoted more than 30 years to scholarship in Japan, notably as a professor at the International Christian University in Tokyo, where he specialized in ethics and Japanese thought, and as International Adviser to the High Priest of Tsubaki Grand Shrine (Mie prefecture).

He has also served as a consultant to various businesses, including Jun Ashida Ltd., Mitsui Mining & Smelting Corp., Kobe Steel, and Japan Air Lines.

In November 2008, the Government of Japan awarded Professor Picken the Order of the Sacred Treasure for his pioneering research, and outstanding contribution to the promotion of friendship and mutual understanding between Japan and the UK. The honour is normally reserved for Japanese citizens and is a mark of the utmost respect in which Professor Picken is held by the Japanese Government.

Although now resident in Scotland, Professor Picken maintains his interests in Japan, as Chair of the Japan Society of Scotland, and through the IAFOR IAB, of which he is the founding chair. He lives near Glasgow with his wife and two children.

HOPE International Development Agency, Japan

Lowell Sheppard is Asia Pacific Director of the HOPE International Development Agency, an organization focused on working with the world’s extreme poor in their quest to climb out of poverty. Aside from his 25-year involvement with Hope, Lowell has dedicated much of his life to social and environmental improvement projects throughout the world. He was the chairman of the Whose Earth initiative in the United Kingdom, and was the founding chairman of Novimost, a non-government organization responding to the needs caused by war in the Balkans. He was also CEO of one of the United Kingdom’s largest youth charities and an executive member of Spring Harvest, an annual Christian festival which attracts more than 60,000 people each Easter, and raises more than one million dollars for charities every year. A fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, Mr Sheppard is the author of six books, which reflect his diverse intellectual interests, and life experience. His latest book, Boys Becoming Men, examines the importance of rites of passage, for children becoming adults. Lowell is a noted public speaker, and has given lectures at both undergraduate and postgraduate level on Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability, and he is a former vice-chairman of the CSR Committee for the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan.

The International Academic Forum (IAFOR)

Stuart D. B. Picken is the founding chairman of the IAFOR International Advisory Board. The author of a dozen books and over 130 articles and papers, he is considered one of the foremost scholars on Japan, China, and Globalization in East Asia. As an academic, Professor Picken has devoted more than 30 years to scholarship in Japan, notably as a professor at the International Christian University in Tokyo, where he specialized in ethics and Japanese thought, and as International Adviser to the High Priest of Tsubaki Grand Shrine (Mie prefecture). He has also served as a consultant to various businesses, including Jun Ashida Ltd., Mitsui Mining & Smelting Corp., Kobe Steel, and Japan Air Lines. In November 2008, the Government of Japan awarded Professor Picken the Order of the Sacred Treasure for his pioneering research, and outstanding contribution to the promotion of friendship and mutual understanding between Japan and the UK. The honour is normally reserved for Japanese citizens and is a mark of the utmost respect in which Professor Picken is held by the Japanese Government. Although now resident in Scotland, Professor Picken maintains his interests in Japan, as Chair of the Japan Society of Scotland, and through his work with IAFOR. A fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, he lives near Glasgow with his wife and two children.

The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan

Joseph Haldane is the Chairman and CEO of IAFOR. He is responsible for devising strategy, setting policies, forging institutional partnerships, implementing projects, and overseeing the organisation’s business and academic operations, including research, publications and events.

Dr Haldane holds a PhD from the University of London in 19th-century French Studies, and has had full-time faculty positions at the University of Paris XII Paris-Est Créteil (France), Sciences Po Paris (France), and Nagoya University of Commerce and Business (Japan), as well as visiting positions at the French Press Institute in the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas (France), The School of Journalism at Sciences Po Paris (France), and the School of Journalism at Moscow State University (Russia).

Dr Haldane’s current research concentrates on post-war and contemporary politics and international affairs, and since 2015 he has been a Guest Professor at The Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University, where he teaches on the postgraduate Global Governance Course, and a Co-Director of the OSIPP-IAFOR Research Centre, an interdisciplinary think tank situated within the university.

He is also a Member of the International Advisory Council of the Department of Educational Foundations at the College of Education of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

From 2012 to 2014, Dr Haldane served as Treasurer of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (Chubu Region) and he is currently a Trustee of the HOPE International Development Agency (Japan). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society in 2012, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2015.

A black belt in judo, he is married with two children, and lives in Japan.