In 2008, Tsubaki founded the Asia Africa Investment and Consulting (AAIC) and was appointed Representative Director and Partner. 2013, he has established AAIC Investment, the fund management arm of AAIC, and has been the Director/ CEO since the establishment.
He carries out new business development, market entry support, M＆A, partner sourcing support, business conversion support, etc. through consulting and investment in developing countries including China, Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, and Africa. In 2014, he formed Japan’s first Africa-focused fund and implemented operations. He currently manages the Africa Healthcare Fund (AHF1 and AHF2).
Co-author of “Hyper-accelerated Africa Economy: Future Business Map Changed by LEAPFROG” (Toyo Keizai Inc.), he has authored numerous publications and given many lectures.
Tsubaki is a Master of Business Administration (MBA) Professor at the Business Breakthrough University.

Since 2002, HIDEYA TANAKA has been exclusively involved in the launch of advertising media business and HR business in China. He has worked on business planning, marketing, human resources, recruitment, finance, legal affairs, government affairs, and other major management issues associated with the launch of the China business.
In 2008, he founded Pan Asia Partners Inc. Ltd. (now AAIC) and became a partner. He is mainly responsible for business strategy planning, marketing, research, business establishment and operation, and management support services in Greater China and Southeast Asia. In particular, in China, he has promoted business life cycle optimization support services from the start-up phase of investment to exit in a wide range of products, services, and industries, including manufacturing, services, distribution, trading, and web business.
In recent years, he has focused on the expansion of wide-area business through China, Asia, and Africa. Continuing activities with an awareness of always pursuing efficient utilization of management resources by penetrating the strategic layer and the on-site.Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Shohei Namba is a Partner of AAIC, Head of AAIC Japan since 2019.
He has been dedicated to supporting clients’ business creation, also been responsible for executing growth strategies such as M&A and investment projects in new fields (autonomous driving, digital content, etc.). He has promoted various overseas expansion projects, including marketing execution support, strategising branching outlets in Asia’s shopping complex, planning the location of the production facilities, content business overseas expansion support, business matching and execution in Africa, planning electronics manufacturer’s growth strategy etc.

Before joining Pan Asia Partners (now AAIC), Namba worked as a product manager at GREE, Inc., one of Japan’s largest global social gaming companies. Namba was in charge of global platform construction, virtual currency distribution planning, financial regulations in various countries, business development, etc. In the United States, he has experienced the gaming platform’s post-merger integration (PMI) and launched game studios.

His first career was in IBM Japan, Ltd., engaged in projects such as strategising the systems and supply chain reformation, engaged with global projects in Europe, the United States, and Asia. During his tenure in India, he participated in the global teams as an SME in the steel industry and promoted the planning and development of package solutions.

Shigeru Handa is a seasoned professional with over 20 years of business development consulting experience in the private sector as well as in international development. He has extensive experience in leading multi-national management teams even in fragile states. Handa has consulted and provided a variety of business processes and strategies: developing business/project formulations; designing methods for financing and investment structures; managing and monitoring projects for developing socio-economic infrastructure, including electricity and healthcare. In Japan, he supported companies in reforming their business portfolios and developing business investment strategies. He worked with pharmaceutical companies in enhancing their sales strategies.

Handa joined AAIC Investment Pte Ltd in 2015. He is in charge of sourcing, evaluating innovative businesses, investment as well as advising companies on formulating their business and partnership strategies for entering the markets in Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

Board members of 6 start ups including Africa Healthcare Network.. As part of ProBono international development support, serve as a director of Plan International Japan.

Kitano joined Pan Asia Partners Co., Ltd. (currently AAIC) in 2012 after engaging in customer satisfaction improvement and branding projects at Hoshino Resorts Co., Ltd. as an individual consultant. Before then, she was involved in strategic projects such as management, CRM, business turnaround, marketing, new business launch, etc. at Boston Consulting Group Co., Ltd. (BCG, currently LLC.). Consumer Deep-Dive Project was one of her representative works.
At AAIC, Kitano plans and executes abundant projects to gain consumer insights by analysis of customer behavior, mainly in the BtoC field. She leads marketing strategies for consumer goods, mostly targeting women, in and out of the country. Kitano seamlessly supports or executes survey design, interviews, behavioral analysis, insight extraction, and suggestion proposals. In new business strategies, she runs each stage from research/ analysis to materialization/ execution together with the client.
Kitano is also engaged in several long-term value creation support such as branding and sustainable strategy projects.

Yukihiko Sugimura worked at Apple Japan as a product planner and performed a variety of key tasks centred on forecast planning work. Later, he worked as a senior consultant at a research and consulting firm focusing on the ICT industry, and as a director and head of marketing at an Internet-related start-up. He then joined Fujitsu Limited, where he performed M&A and business due diligence work for ICT companies.
He then worked at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where he accumulated consulting experience and achievements in a wide range of business and operational fields, including the launch of a new service for a major Japanese telecommunications company and marketing operation reform for a major overseas food company.
In 2013, he founded Daybreak Consulting and became the representative. He provides hands-on-style consulting for various business fields in many business fields such as renewable energy business and healthcare business.
At the same time, he has been an assistant governor of Kanagawa prefecture / part-time advisor for eight years since 2014. As a public relations strategy/healthcare strategy manager, he provided guidance and advice to the governor and the formulation and implementation of major policies throughout Kanagawa Prefecture.
Sugimura participated in AAIC Japan as a principal.

Hiroki Ishida is a Principal (Africa) of AAIC. Ishida started his career at Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation. Ishida experienced operations, sales, and planning in the corporate sector and mastered a significant amount of financial knowledge. Ishida also gained experience in the HR department and created systems to facilitate staff training development as a team leader. After completing an M.B.A, Ishida joined Accenture Japan Ltd. and participated in several projects: offshore development for an automobile-related company in emerging Asian countries, merger of foreign financial institutions, etc.
Ishida holds a Bachelor of Arts (in Managerial Accounting ) from Kobe University, and an M.B.A from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Class of 2012).

Yuri Nomura is a Principal of AAIC SOUTH AFRICA (Pty) Ltd. Prior to joining AAIC, Yuri was a Manager at KPMG FAS (Financial Advisory Services) in Japan, specializing strategic deal advisory with nearly ten years of relevant experience in promoting cross-border investments and business development. She is especially experienced in developing economies across all industry verticals (infrastructure, manufacturing and services, financial institutions, technology/ media/ telecommunications). Before joining the consulting industry, she served as an international volunteer in Tanzania for two years.

Mr Yoshiyuki Sato is a Senior Advisor (Africa Representative) of AAIC.
Mr Sato worked at a Japanese fiber company, Toray in Kenya from 1966 to 1970. In 1974, he established Kenya Nuts Company, and over 35 years he built it into Kenya’s largest nuts company.

The company’s main business is the manufacture, processing, and sale of macadamia nuts, and the production of chocolates, wine, and coffee, and has net sales of 50 million USD and more than 4,000 employees. In 2008, he established a public sanitation company in Rwanda utilizing the features of bacteria Organic Solutions Rwanda.

Mr Sato graduated from the Indian and Pakistani Languages Department at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies with a degree in Linguistics and studied at the University of Ghana.

Mr Hiroshi Ishino worked for Mitsubishi Corporation in the Middle East, China, Thailand, and other countries in the automobile business. He was in charge of sales and management of automobile and automobile parts manufacturing.

Mr Ishino joined Kansai Paint in 2003 and was appointed as a Deputy General Manager of the International Division in 2006. He has served as the Managing Director and General Manager of the International Division, Director and Senior Executive Officer. In 2013, he was appointed as President and Representative Director and proposed a strategy for Kansai Paint to become the world’s number one company in the paint industry through M & A and to expand sales in emerging countries, including Africa.
He has been an advisor for AAIC since April 2019.
Mr Ishino graduated from the University of Tokyo Faculty of Law in 1975 and holds an MBA from Wharton Business School in 1982.

Mr Kazunari Uchida is a former professor at the Waseda Business School.

He graduated from the University of Tokyo with a Bachelor of Engineering and Keio University with a Master of Business Administration (MBA).
After working for Japan Airlines, he joined Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in 1985.
After working as a senior vice president in the company, he served as BCG’s Japan representative from 2000 to 2004.
In 2006, he was selected as one of the “25 Leading Consultants in the World”.
Professor at Waseda University since 2006.
Mr Uchida teaches competitive strategy and leadership theory at business schools, lectures in executive programmes and provides corporate leadership training.
His books include “The Art of Hypothesis-Driven Management”, “The Art of Focusing on the Central Issue”, “The Art of Thinking Right in the Right Brain” (Toyo Keizai Inc.), “Deconstruct Your Business to Develop More”, “Restructuring on the Business Chain” (Nikkei Business Publications, Inc.), “Sparking Thinking” (Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd.), “Professional Intellectual Production Technique” (PHP Institute, Inc.). “

Mr Tamagawa has started his career in the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Finance in 1981.

He has accumulated vast experience as the Director of Planning and Research Office for International Affairs, Financial Planning Bureau, Deputy Director of Monetary and Financial Systems Bureau, International Monetary Fund (IMF),Director of International Affairs and Planning Division, NTA, Director of Sapporo Tax Bureau, Director of Budget Development Management System, Asian Development Bank (ADB), Deputy Head of Finance, Japan Tobacco Inc., Head of Asia Representative Office of African Development Bank (AfDB),Previously served as director of the Kanto Shinetsu National Tax Appeals Office.
Currently a  professor( finance, business management and economics) of Kogakuin University.
Graduated from the University of Tokyo and obtained his Master of Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford.

Mr Susumu Nakajima is a Senior Advisor of AAIC.

Mr Nakajima has engaged in the management of general electronic manufacturers mainly in Japan and China for over 30 years. Served in several senior positions such as Special Advisor at Sichuan Changhong Electric Co., Ltd. (2012–), President at Panasonic Corporation of China (2005–2008), Manager of the overseas sales division and Director at Panasonic, Executive Director at Primearth EV Energy Co., Ltd.
Mr Nakajima holds a Bachelor of Arts ( in Economics) from Osaka University.

Mr. Isamu Ochiai is a Senior Advisor of AAIC.

Mr. Ochiai served as Corporate Officer at Lawson, Inc. and President at Shanghai Hualian Lawson Co., Ltd. At Shanghai Hualian Lawson Co., Ltd., he led the company to become profitable as President, and the number of shops increased 2.5-fold. Mr Ochiai also has built a good relationship with local Chinese/China-based clients and gained their trust. He has more than 30 years of experience in the retail industry.

Dr. Amit N. Thakker is a high-level healthcare expert with 30+ years’ experience in health service delivery, health financing and health policy formulation. A visionary entrepreneur & an industry captain, Dr. Amit N. Thakker, has been a ground breaking pioneer in the integration of private sector within the health system in Africa. Dr. Amit has managed several health businesses in service delivery and insurance in African countries including Kenya, Ghana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and South Africa.

He is the Executive Chairman of Africa Health Business, President of Africa Healthcare Federation and serves as a Director with LumiraDx & Ghanima Limited. In his role as the Chairman of Africa Health Business, Dr. Amit plays an advisory role on various projects that are implemented by AHB. He has played an advisory role in the Grand Challenges Canada projects that AHB has been implementing in the area of capacity building of organisations.

Dr. Thakker has a Bachelor’s in medicine and surgery from the University of Nairobi, Kenya and an Executive MBA from the National Insurance Academy (NIA) in India. He has also completed a Health Leadership training from George Washington University, USA.

Takashi has dedicated many years to spearheading the African business at Toyota Tsusho. In 2001, Takashi executed the acquisition of automotive business units in six Southeast African countries from Lonrho (UK). In 2012, he led a major acquisition of CFAO (France), with an acquisition value of 234.5 billion yen, and PMI activities. He was appointed Managing Director and General Manager of the Automotive Division of Toyota Tsusho in 2012 and became Senior Managing Director and first General Manager of the Africa Division in 2017. In March 2020, he was appointed the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Sudan, and served in the role until leaving the post in November 2023.

Takashi graduated from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Nagoya Institute of Technology.