Eriko Imaizumi Augustus - Founder and President

Eriko Augustus is President of IZUMI Business Solutions which she founded in 2004, and Founding Coach and an Executive Associate accredited by the Institute for Independent Business (IIB), an international non-profit research, training and accreditation organization headquartered in Watford, UK.

Since 2001, Ms. Augustus has been providing management consulting and executive coaching services to various copanies in Japan, the US, Canada, the UK and India.  The range of her projects includes assisting in the transfer of Japan's environmental technology overseas, coaching Japanese entrepreneurs and new CEOs of newly-formed US entiies, advising Japan-based companies on how to develop overseas markets in the US and Europe.  She also trains life and business coaches n both Japanese and English, and teaches middle and upper rank managers coaching skills in multi-cultural office environments.

One of her notable achievements was facilitating communication between Japanese and US parties in a year-long negotiation, helping them to achieve mutual understanding of cultural and business differences.  The negotiation's aim and successful outcome was to license a Japanese environmental tehnology (food waste elimination technology which had been endorsed by Hiroshima's local government and JETRO, Japan External Trade Organization) to a Chicago company.

She has also advised Japanese government agencies including METI (Ministry of Economy and Trade) and the Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation, Japan (SMRJ) on the creation of business angel networks in Japan.  The project included identifying investors and setting up appointments with investors, lawyers and other interested parties in 5 US cities, interpretation of the meetings for Japanese delegates, along with providing advice on economic, cultural and regulatory issues in the US.

Prior to engaging in the consulting business, Ms. Augustus was employed by Wall Street firm Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette Securities Corporation in New York City for over a decade where she held a Vice President position in International Institutional Equity Sales.

She was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan and started her career at Merrill Lynch Tokyo after graduating fro Dokkyo University majoring in English.

With this diverse professional and geographical background, and a Master of Science in Management from the prestigious Sloan Masters Programme at the London Business School, Ms. Augustus brings a broad perspective and flexible management style in forming and implementing coordinated business solutions for clients ranging from mature corporations to entrepreneurial establishments.

Misako Terui - Partner

Ms. Terui has over 20 years of management experiences in large multi-national corporations in both the US and Japan and has a proven track record of helping executives and other professionals achieve their best within a diverse range of organizations and corporate cultures.

Prior to joining IZUMI Business Solutions in 2009, Ms. Terui was a Managing Director at Mitsubushi UFJ Securities (USA).  As head of Japanese Equity Sales, she transformed the team from a niche player to one of the first-tier competitors, as demonstrated by 100% year on year revenue growth and the Institutional Investor regional ranking.  During the course of her career, she worked at First Chicago (currently JP Morgan Chase), Daiwa Securities America, and Salomon Brothers in the US.  in 1999, she was transfered to Tokyo to build the JV business of NikkoCitigroup.  At NikkoCitigroup, she was a first executive member of the Diversity Committee.  She consistently educated diversity concepts to the entire company and changed official corporate policies in recruiting, promotion, work/life balance, and maternity leave  As a result, she was awarded the "President Award" for her contribution to the firm in 2005.  Throughout her career, she has advised over 2,000 Japanese CEOs on international finance and contributed to closeing the US/Japan business culture gap under her capacity as senior equity sales, dealing daily with the overseas investment community. 

She also co-founded IR Japan, Inc. in Tokyo in 1984, when there was no concept of investor relations among Japanese corporations, and was instrumental in educating many of the top Japanese corporate executives on how to communicate with overseas investors.  Among clients, Dainippon Ink & Chemical Corporation and Marui Corporation were awarded Grand Prize by the Japan Public Relations Association's Corporate Publication contest in 1985 and 1986. 

Ms. Terui is straightforward and acute in her observaions and counel.  She helps valued executives to maintain resiliency through dramatic upheavals; adjust habits and behaviors to fit their work environment; enhance leadership, communication, interpersonal, and self-managment skills; and to identify and manage their internal barriers in order to achieve superior performance.  Those transformation lead to the overall profit increase in the firm.

She earned a B.A. from Sophia Univerity in 1984, and an MBA from the University of Chicago in 1989.  She has FINRA series 7, 24 and 63.  She is also a licensed real estate sales in New York state an Connecticut.