Chris Cowart serves as the managing director for the Nomura-SRI Innovation Center (NSIC) and is responsible for its operations, creating program content, forming partnerships and working with the member companies. Cowart has been a user experience, design and product executive over the course of his career. He has worked across brands, innovation consulting and venture communities for more than 25 years.

Prior to SRI International, Cowart was the Chief Innovation & Strategy Officer at Treasure8, a food tech company leading a Resource Revolution® to bring disease-fighting, sustainable nutrition to a rapidly growing planet. He has also been a Venture Partner at Montage Ventures for 2 funds — in addition to his role at Treasure8 — focused on disrupting retail, health & wellness, and consumer financial services.

A formative part of his work experience includes 14 years at design and innovation consulting firm, IDEO. Here Cowart pioneered the human factors and user research disciplines in the design industry and launched many ‘first of their categories’ products for the company. He fluidly spans the disciplines of user-centered design, product, partnerships and business, and his continuous learning approach has allowed him to add new facets such as venture capital and future forecasting.

As a thought leader on the future of sports and the future of medicine, Chris’ speaking appearances and publications focus on the leading edge of those fields. He is an engaging speaker, facilitator and thought leader who leverages design and strategic thinking to provoke teams and industries to accelerate change through innovation.
https://www.sri.com/people/chris-cowart/

After getting a master’s from Tokyo Tech in March 1981, he joined Fujitsu Limited in April of the same year. He conducted research on the Fifth-generation computer system at the Institute for New Generation Computer Technology (ICOT), parallelizing compiler development, evaluating commercial server performance, and launching the “K supercomputer” project. He was transferred to Fujitsu Laboratories of America (California) in November 2009 and served as CEO, overseeing R&D and commercialization in fields including healthcare, smart energy, SDN, and security. He returned to Japan in November 2015. Since January 2017, he has served as a Principal Fellow at the Center for Research and Development Strategy (CRDS) of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), conducting surveys on R&D trends in the information technology sector, and left Fujitsu in March 2019. Since July 2019, he has served as an Invited Senior Researcher at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). He also held positions such as Visiting Researcher at Stanford University (1995), Visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo (2002?2006), and Visiting Professor at Kyushu University (2009). Recipient of the Ohm Technology Award and the Information Processing Society of Japan (IPSJ) Achievement Award. Holds a Ph.D. in Engineering.

Hirofumi joined UTEC in 2018. As Senior Manager, founded and led the HR / Platform Team responsible for building management teams at portfolio companies in Japan and overseas. Venture Partner since 2023. Over eight years, has placed more than 200 executives, including CEOs and co-founders, and has been involved in multiple IPOs and M&A transactions, including cross-border deals. Has supported over 70 portfolio companies across organizational strategy, leadership development, and executive assessment, and has worked on co-founding projects from the pre-incorporation team-building stage. Led the creation of the “UTEC Startup Opportunity Club,” UTEC’s proprietary executive talent pool of leaders in life science, physical science, and IT.
Previously, at a UK-based recruitment agency, launched and led the b

Aya Iwasuji serves as the associate director of the Nomura-SRI Innovation Center (NSIC) and is responsible for its member company engagement, program development, ecosystem and partnership development, and overall operations. With a deep understanding of Japanese business practice and culture as well as the Silicon Valley ecosystem, Iwasuji has a 10+ year history of creating successful partnerships and collaborations amongst large corporations, startups, research institutions, and academia and bridging Japan and Silicon Valley.

As a cross-border business consultant/educator, Iwasuji has worked with 200+ large Japanese corporations and 50+ startups and built and executed high-impact consulting projects, including executive and leadership programs on innovation, business acceleration, entrepreneurship, and new business creation.

Prior to SRI, Iwasuji was the program manager of industrial technologies and innovation at the New Energy and Industrial Technologies Development Organization (NEDO) Silicon Valley Office, where she created and managed programs that supported large Japanese corporations’ innovation efforts and startups looking to expand their business in the Bay Area. She received her M.A. in linguistics from San Francisco State University and her B.A. in international studies from Meiji Gakuin University.