CEO of GVE Ltd
Koji Fusa is currently a visiting professor at The Cyber Security Innovation Centre at Aston University.
He is an experienced director with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry. He is skilled in venture capital, asset management, fund of funds, equities, and capital markets.
He graduated from WASEDA University with a bachelor’s in engineering. At the age of 38 years old he became a CEO and Chief Executive Officer for GVE Ltd, which is a fully licensed bank in Japan. He still works both those roles whilst being a managing partner for MR LP & GP. He contributed to the growth of Japan's capital market in 1990s as well as the forex market between 2006 and 2009. He is a high-tech investor with both an engineering and banking background.
What are the main challenges for business leaders today?
"One of the biggest challenges is the division of the rich and poor has become unsustainable. One of the factors in democratic countries we need to think about is how we are going to use the market but also not allow too few people to have most of the wealth. I think that is the biggest challenge.
One of the measures of impact over the last 30 years has been the development of smart phones and cloud computing. If you are looking at the next 30 years two of the things people expect by to think about is energy consumption which is related to climate change. People are talking about IOT -internet of things and 2030 all the gadgets are going to be connected by either 4, 5 or 6G. Common sense tells you that this is going to include energy consumption however the physics for digitalisation of currency for instant payment is in fact going to reduce energy consumption. This is where you can make a lot of money between the science and what is perceived to be common sense."
What skills do graduates need?
"For the graduates to be successful and become a business leader there are four factors they need to think about. One is the speed of decision making. CEOs and business leaders have to make decisions fast. The second is STEM thinking. STEM is Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics. This is very important. If you are going to create a business, it is more convincing for the investor to put money into your business plan if your business plan has STEM thinking. The third thing is scenario thinking which is long-term thinking like what is going to happen 30 years from now. For example, you cannot predict tomorrow the share price or exchange rate. But if you think whether people are going to use paper money in 30 years’ time the answer is probably no. The fourth is security and with digitalisation cyber security is becoming very important. Universities and Business Schools need to adopt more STEM thinking even in the business classes. I would expect them to have more stem framework and structured thinking."
Why did you want to be a Visiting Professor?
"What excites me a lot is that I can help with closing the gap between the rich and the poor.
Aston University has made enormous endeavour to educate the first generation of university students especially in the Birmingham area. to reduce the gap between rich and the poor.
I want to expand this expertise globally with my background which is Japanese and Asian educated. This excites me a lot."