FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What are you doing in Vancouver?
I am building a business network in Vancouver of influential contacts in order to discover opportunities. The objective of meeting people is not to "find a job". It is to make connections that will lead to introductions to opportunities. It could be anything from a traditional leadership role to an investment in a start up to a consulting role. It is not an easy process but I am enjoying every minute of the challenge.
Since buying a home on the campus of UBC in early 2016 I have been building a network at the university. I have been acting as a mentor to various faculties include Sauder School of Business and e@UBC. The experience of living and supporting studies at UBC had been very rewarding to me.
Where have you lived as you have moved around?
I have lived in Edmonton and Vancouver in Canada; Santa Barbara and Manhattan Beach, CA and Dallas in the USA and finally in Tokyo. Now our primary residence is in Vancouver. I have truly fond memories from everywhere I have lived and it would difficult to chose my favorite.
How did you end up in Japan?
I had a series of experiences with Japan and its culture early in my life. We had Japanese homestay students in Canada when I was a teenager, my sister studied at Waseda University in Tokyo, and I worked with Japanese tour operators in Los Angeles during my time there. When Four Seasons was opening their first Asian hotel in Tokyo they asked to me to join the team... I jumped at the chance. The assignment was intended to be temporary for about six months but it grew into a full two years. I returned briefly to the US thereafter. However, I decided to return to Japan and build a life there.
How did you meet your wife Yoshiko?
I was working at the Four Seasons in Tokyo as Director of Marketing and a close family friend was staying at the hotel. Our plans to have dinner together grew to include his business associate and his wife. They in turn invited one of their friends, who turned out to be my future wife. The name of the restaurant where we met was "Bice" and we named one of our cats after it.
How was life in Japan?
Tokyo is one of the great cities of the world. I really enjoyed living in Japan even as a non-Japanese person with Permanent Residency. Sometimes I forgot I was not Japanese. The public transportation is the best in the world, the food is wonderful and the people are generally polite and accommodating. I always strove to find new places and adventures to explore. Language skills make a big difference in adjusting to life there.
What is the meaning of "Patience running dangerously low" in your footer?
I created my first website in 1997 using Microsoft's Front Page 97, their WYSIWYG HTML editor. My early web sites were a dog's breakfast of information. I recall at one point even including my address and telephone number on the site until someone reminded me that anyone could access this information. My ISP at that time provided 50MB of server space for web sites. It was a frustrating and difficult process then to upload files. I would often mutter under my breath, "My patience is running dangerously low." Since then I have always included it in my footers to remain myself how far we have come.
Who created and maintains this site?
I am the webmaster for this site. Always have been and always will be. For more background, go here.