Ayu Butterfield is a bilingual recruiter passionate about helping professionals succeed within Japanese companies in the US. Her journey toward this role started in high school when she had the chance to study in the U.S. on an exchange program. That experience sparked a lifelong goal to return and bridge the gap between Japan and the U.S.

After earning her degree and beginning her career in Japan with a major medical device company, she made a significant career shift, moving to the U.S. and diving into the tech startup world. Ayu experienced firsthand the cultural adjustments and challenges of transitioning industries and working internationally. These experiences gave her a unique understanding of the skills and adaptability needed to succeed globally.

Today, as part of Pasona, she is dedicated to supporting professionals and guiding them through the exciting, sometimes challenging path of international careers. Ayu is excited to share insights with you on the skills that can help you thrive in an international environment.

Nicole Adams is passionate about creating sustainable, equitable change by enabling meaningful educational experiences, building community, and co-developing innovative, impactful solutions with social entrepreneurs. With experience working internationally (Fukui Prefecture, 2015-2016, ALT), for nonprofits, and startups, Nicole thrives at the intersection of education, impact, and entrepreneurship. She is currently a founding partner at Nearby Consulting, a social enterprise consulting firm focused on launching and scaling businesses achieving both profit and purpose. Nicole holds a B.A. in English Literature from Seattle University and an M.S. in Social Entrepreneurship from the University of Southern California.

Landon Himeda is a Pacific Northwest native, who graduated with a Linguistics degree and Japanese minor from UW. He worked in various restaurants in both Seattle and New York City before going on JET in Nagasaki Prefecture for 2 years.

After JET, Landon considered both music production and computer programming schools, and eventually decided on a coding bootcamp called Coding Dojo in Bellevue. After 4 months as a student and 6 months as an assistant teacher at the bootcamp, he took an internship, and eventually a job consulting for Microsoft.

Landon is currently a software engineer at Fujifilm Sonosite, working on medical ultrasound software.

Masami Katayama is director of International Finance at Starbucks Corporation, providing financial insights for 85 international markets. She has over 20 years of experience in finance, strategic analysis, operational excellence and project management across various industries. Through her career, Masami completed financial leadership programs and global assignments across the US, Europe, and Asia.  She has extensive experience in CFO roles in General Electric, focusing on financial integration and strategic initiatives. Masami holds a B.S. in Law, at Hitotsubashi University in Japan and also studied Political Science at UCLA. As a passionate advocate for inclusion and diversity, she serves as the board chair for Japan America Society of the State of Washington (JASSW). Outside of her professional life, Masami enjoys time with her husband and their two boys. They cherish the great friendships and a strong community in the Pacific Northwest. 

Brian Watson is that unique weirdo who has managed to combine his passions for Japanese language, writing, and project management for his entire adult career. After three years on the JET Programme (as an AET in Saitama Prefecture, 1988–1991), he stayed in Japan for seven more years, working for CLAIR, as a freelance translator, and then in software localization as a project manager. Headhunted to the Seattle area in 1998, he continued in project management until 2005, when his love for translation reasserted itself as he took a contract position at Nintendo of America. He was hired on full-time at Nintendo in 2015, and although he has both translated and interpreted there, he currently embraces his project management side, developing training content for new hires. Brian has also been a queer leader and mentor for more than thirty-five years, and advocates fiercely for authentic living as he completes his first memoir, Crying in a Foreign Language.