Around the Schools: Harvard Business School

Harvard Business School (HBS) has named a new executive director for its Japan Research Center in Tokyo.

Nobuo Sato, a graduate of Keio University and Harvard Business School (MBA ‘82), is a former banker and executive recruiter.

“We are pleased that Nobuo has taken on this important leadership role,” said Krishna Palepu, the School’s Ross Graham Walker Professor of Business Administration and senior associate dean for international development. “Forming strong ties with business and academic organizations around the world is central to the HBS Global Initiative.”

Most recently, Sato was a global partner at Egon Zehnder International, a worldwide executive search and assessment firm. During his more-than-15-year tenure there, he launched the firm’s Tokyo-based financial service practice group and oversaw executive searches in the financial sector. He also managed a corporate governance practice group and oversaw the firm’s Japan-based industry-sector research team. Prior to Egon Zehnder, Sato worked for 15 years in the Tokyo and London offices of the Industrial Bank of Japan.

HBS established the Research Center in 2002 to provide formal support for faculty research and case-writing activities in Japan. Since then, HBS faculty and researchers have developed case studies on more than 60 Japanese companies.