our people

Head of Marketing & Operations

Andrew Bridges

After moving to Japan and freelancing in the digital marketing field, Andrew joins Sector Five bringing experience from various industries including banking, logistics & supply chain, digital retailing, marketing, and luxury goods. He graduated from the University of North Texas with a double major in Fashion Merchandising & Digital Retailing and a minor in brand-focused Marketing.

Although he is a proud Texan, Andrew is currently settled in Tokyo with his wife and son.

Global Operations Director

Michie Kawamura

Michie leads our administration, operations, coordination, and financial departments. Simply put, she manages everything important at Sector Five in both English and Japanese.

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As a former chief cabin purser and senior trainer for All Nippon Airways, she trained over 3,000 Japanese domestic flight attendants.

Assistant Operations Director

Norie M

Norie leads a variety of administrative and operational management functions.

Mascot / Chief Dog Officer

Junior

Junior is one of the world's smartest and cutest dogs. From an early age, he was trained to hunt down and find better homes for some of the world's top creative directors.

Vice President

Ross Pirie

Ross Pirie has been a leading executive search consultant for multinational clients operating in Japan for more than 20 years, placing senior executives in FMCG, Retail, Apparel, Advertising/Marketing Services, Medical Device/Pharma, and Legal. Prior to joining Sector Five, Ross studied Japanese full-time for a year and a half at Tokyo’s Bunka Institute of Language.

Ross hails from Christchurch, New Zealand, and has an MA in Social Sciences from Massey University and a BA in Psychology and Sociology from the University of Canterbury.

Founder / CEO

Jason T. Ayers

Jason has been an executive search consultant in Asia for over 25 years, and previously founded AdMark Asia Group and MedMark International Executive Search. He also founded an experimental startup called Ai.Agency. Jason also advises companies expanding overseas in addition to our traditional client base of western multinationals in Asia.

Born in Texas, grew up in Missouri, and graduated from Southeast Missouri State University, Jason is a US Army veteran and plays ukulele and air guitar.

Client Management - Sr. Consultant

Christophe Bezu

Christophe is an experienced Chief Executive Officer skilled in trend analysis, business growth, commercial business strategy, and digital commerce. He is a strong business development professional with a Master's degree focused in Development Economics and International Development from Paris Business School.

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Christophe developed the Adidas Japan business from scratch into the most profitable business within Adidas, then repeated the feat across the APAC. Christophe served as Global Head of E-Commerce for Adidas, Board Member and Head of Global Transformation for Espirit, and Global CEO of Odlo.

A client since 2001, Christophe joined Sector Five in 2019.

Chief Hospitality and Marketing Officer

Takeki Furukubo

With nearly 35 years of experience in the retail industry, Takeki has most recently provided his expertise in the marketing and retail sectors for the integrated resorts industry.

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He graduated from Waseda University with a bachelor's of English literature, then earned an MBA from Aoyama Gakuin University.

Advertising & Marketing - Sr. Consultant

Kenichiro Watai

​"Ken" is an experienced business producer with 30 years in the marketing communications industry where he developed business skills in developing a marketing strategy, communications strategy, creative development, public relations, strategic partnerships, and new business development.

He is a graduate of Sophia University (Tokyo) with a bachelor's degree in Law.

Sr. Advisor

Katsuhiko Betsushima

"Bets" had a long and successful career which started at JWT Japan as an account man on the agency's most important accounts. He left JWT and served as President/Rep Director of the Relationship Marketing Agency "Carlson Marketing Group" - and when the business was sold globally - Bets arranged for all his Japanese colleagues to be hired by ADK.

Bets then returned to JWT, and served as the Japanese General Manager before officially retiring from JWT in 2007. He was then immediately hired by one of JWT's clients, Nitori Home Furnishings, where he spent several years as President of Nitori Public.

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After Nitori, Bets served as the leader of Sector Five's Japan office as EVP. Semi-retired, he still collaborates with Sector Five for unique client challenges.

Communications Advisor - Sr. Consultant

Bret Shaw

Bret Shaw is an Environmental Communication Specialist for the Division of Extension and an associate professor in the Department of Life Sciences Communication at the University of Wisconsin (Madison), where he earned his Ph.D. in Mass Communication. He focuses on planning, implementing, and evaluating social marketing campaigns dealing with natural resource management issues such as water quality, land use, and environmental conservation.
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Shaw is published in a diverse range of peer-reviewed journals. He has also published extensively in the health communication literature, focusing on how to use technology to help people living with cancer or substance abuse disorders. He has received national and international media attention for his published studies.

Marketing Executive - Sr. Consultant

Rupert Sutton

Rupert Sutton is a critical strategic partner and leads our bespoke marketing consulting expert solutions group. He also administers and assists clients with the proprietary marketing and sales assessment tools he has developed.

He's the founder and Managing Partner of Weben Asia, a Management Consultancy. Previously he was a senior executive with Nestlé in the UK, Japan, and SE Asia. He has over 24 years of market entry and growth acceleration across Asia-Pacific with large food & beverage and OTC multinationals, plus entrepreneurial start-ups. Clients include Heineken, MUFG, Kowa Pharmaceutical, Dole, Hershey, Sanofi, L'Oréal, Pepsico, Pfizer, and Suntory.

Rupert has extensive experience in insights, marketing strategy, innovation, and capability development in the consumer products and lifestyle industries in highly developed and developing markets.

Medical Device - Sr. Advisor

James Harvey Dodds IV

As a medical professional specializing in scopes, Jim is our expert in the medical field, especially regarding medical devices. He has worked with Jason for many years.

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On top of medical devices, Jim also knows everything possible about fishing and race cars.

Corporate Advisory - Sr. Consultant

Steve Markowitz

Steve invented United Airlines Mileage Plus Program- after he founded a dot.com called Mypoints during his MBA days at UC Berkeley. Steve led their IPO and subsequent sale to United Airlines as CEO.

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Previously he was a journalist in Tokyo for the Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones. Now Steve is an activist investor in various "health tech" related ventures, all of which seem to miraculously IPO. Two of Steve's most promising companies are iFirst Medical Technologies and LifeDna.

Chief Intelligence Officer (CIO)

Troy "Tex" Miller

Troy lives in Dallas and is a graduate of Tokyo A&M. He speaks fluent Japanese and Mandarin and leads various research and business development initiatives for our clients globally through his company c3i, and has two new ventures in WealthWave and HowMoneyWorks®.

Troy and Jason have worked together for over twenty years.

FinTech & Marketing - Sr. Consultant

Sei Ikeda

Sei is the founder and leader of a fintech business in the travel industry called Tabi Chokin. He previously worked in global marketing and retail operations at Uniqlo. He was the top retail salesman for Tokyo Star Bank.

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While a student at the University of Hawaii, Sei was one of Sector Five's top-performing student interns. Sei lives near Kamakura and is an avid surfer.

Communications Advisor - Sr. Consultant

Kenneth & Mary Ellen Ayers

Ken held a variety of sales and marketing positions within the pharmaceutical and medical device industries.

Upon graduating from Lynchburg College, he joined Warner Lambert in their General Diagnostics Division and was quickly promoted to a regional territory sales management role based in Dallas. He was later recruited by Mallinckrodt in St. Louis, Missouri where he held a variety of global marketing leadership roles for their medical laboratory products. He then held senior national sales/marketing roles with CIBA GEIGY in their spectrometer business.

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Ken serves as a special advisor to Jason Ayers, and serves as our primary US representative. He advises on client matters related to his background as an international sales and marketing executive for medical device companies.

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Mary Ellen is semi-retired but has the energy and enthusiasm that could only possibly be rivaled by King Junior.

She spent over thirty years as a school nurse, and Head Nurse of Clayton School District- one of the best school districts in Missouri.

She then co-founded a first aid training company called "Safety First"-- and has taught thousands of people life-saving skills.