Akira Sawayama

Senior Consultant and Managing Partner

Tokyo

Akira Sawayama is Senior Consultant and Managing Partner of Boyden Tokyo.
He serves the executive recruitment needs of pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device and chemical industries.

Prior to joining Boyden, he was a Partner at Yahagi Consultants Inc., a leading Japanese strategy consultancy and provided consulting advice for enterprises in a broad range of industrial sectors including automotive, consumer electronics, food, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, machines, semiconductors, IT and telecommunications. He has over 20 years of consulting experience in various areas with particular emphasis on corporate wide restructuring and new business and product development strategies. In this role, he formulated and implemented changes in organization, sourcing, procurement systems, process flows, cost-structure, business-mix, and corporate culture.

Earlier, he was employed by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), UK for 6 years during which he served in a variety of marketing and business development positions. His responsibilities included sales promotion for ICI’s heavy duty coatings, techno commercial liaison with the leading Japanese automobile and paint firms concerning license deals and strategic alliances.

He began his career with Xerox Corporation, US where he served as an analyst in the firm’s Information System Group with primary responsibility for industry marketing analysis for Xerox’s copier business.

He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in economics from Keio University, Tokyo.