President
Derek Lehmberg
Derek Lehmberg is a Professor of Management at North Dakota State University. Lehmberg holds a PhD from the Ivey School of Business, an MBA from INSEAD, an MS from Kobe University, and a BA from Northwestern University. Lehmberg’s research areas include strategic management, international management, and Japanese business. Lehmberg’s research has published in Industrial and Corporate Change, Journal of Behavioral Finance, Journal of Management, Long Range Planning, Case Research Journal, Business Horizons, and other peer reviewed outlets. Lehmberg teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in international management, strategic management, management decision making, and operations management. Prior to entering academia, Lehmberg was a management consultant with IBM Japan, PWC Consulting, and Japan Management Association Consulting, practicing in the areas of Strategy and Operations.
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Vice President
Naoki Ando
Naoki Ando is a professor of international business at the Faculty of Business Administration, Hosei University, Japan. He received his PhD in Business Administration from Seoul National University, Korea. His research
interests include MNEs’ competitive strategies in emerging economies, MNEs’ regional geographic diversification, and language barriers inside an MNE. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in international business and global business strategy. His research has been published in journals such as Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Asian Business & Management, Multinational Business Review, Human Resource Management Journal, and International Journal of Human Resource Management.
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Treasurer
H. Richard Nakamura
H. Richard Nakamura is Assistant Professor at the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg (Sweden). He received his doctorate at Stockholm School of Economics, and is researching and teaching International Business and Management with a special focus on Japan and East Asia. He has authored book chapters and published articles on foreign direct investments (FDI), international trade, cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As), international entrepreneurship and digital connectivity. His main research interests are FDI, cross-border M&As and SMEs in Japan and East Asia.
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Secretary
K. Skylar Powell
Skylar Powell received his PhD in International Management from the University of Hawai’i in 2011. He has also completed an MA in management at Durham University (UK) and an MSc in neuroscience at King’s College London (UK). Prior to joining the College of Business and Economics in 2013, he spent two years teaching undergraduate and MBA international business courses at the University of Michigan-Flint. In addition to teaching international business and cross-cultural management courses at WWU, he has taught corporate entrepreneurship courses as a visiting lecturer abroad. He also served as the conference chair of the 34th annual Association of Japanese Business Studies conference in 2022, and regularly reviews for international business and strategy journals.
Skylar has two distinct but interrelated streams of research. One stream focuses broadly on international strategy and management of multinational enterprises. The second stream applies computational neuroscience frameworks to management theory. His recent research focuses on various aspects of the internalization of foreign operations, innovation, and cross-cultural management. Increasingly, he is also interested in entrepreneurship focused topics and managerial decision making. His research has been published at a number of journals, including Journal of Management, Journal of International Business Studies, Management International Review, Journal of Business Research, Journal of International Management, Multinational Business Review, Management Decision, and Personnel Review.
Skylar currently teaches courses on International Business, Cross-Cultural Management, and International Entrepreneurship
Additional Team Members
2026 Conference Chair
Akitsu Oe
Tokyo University of Science
Tokyo, Japan
Public Relations Director
Ting Liu
Kyoto University
Kyoto, Japan
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IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT
Carol Reade
Professor
School of Management
Lucas College and Graduate School of Business
San José State University
San Jose, California, USA
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE SECRETARIAT
Diane Bird
Forest Grove, Oregon, USA
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Former Presidents
2023-2025
Carol Reade
Professor
School of Management
Lucas College and Graduate School of Business
San José State University
San Jose, California, USA
2021 – 2023
Tomoki Sekiguchi
Professor at the Graduate School of Management & Asian Business
Kyoto University
Kyoto, Japan
2019 – 2021
Fabian Jintae Froese
Professor of Human Resource Management & Asian Business
University of Goettingen
Goettingen, Germany
2017 – 2019
Chie Iguchi
Professor
Keio University Faculty of Business and Commerce
Tokyo, Japan
2015 – 2017
James Hagen
Professor for Global Marketing Strategy
Hamline School of Business
St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
2013 – 2015
Gary Knight
Professor for Global Management
Willamette University
Salem, Oregon, USA
2011 – 2013
Norihiko Takeuchi
Associate Professor for International Development
Aoyama Gakuin University
Tokyo, Japan
2009 – 2011
Elizabeth Rose
Professor for International Business
Aalto University
Espoo, Finland
2007 – 2009
Shige Makino
Professor for Management
Chinese University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong
2005 – 2007
Shane Schvaneveldt
Associate Professor for Management
Weber State University
Oden, Utah, USA
2003 – 2005
Chikako Usui
Professor for Sociology
University of Missouri-St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri, USA
2001 – 2003
Tom Roehl
Professor for International Business
Western Washington University
Bellingham, Washington, USA
1999 – 2001
Mitsuru Wakabayashi
Professor for International Business
Nagoya University
Nagoya, Japan
1997 – 1999
Allan Bird
Professor for Global Business
California Polytechnic State University
San Luis Obispo, California, USA
1995 – 1997
Leonard Lynn
Professor for Management Policy
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
1993 – 1995
George Graen
Professor for Psychology
University of Louisiana
Lafayette, Louisiana, USA
1991 – 1993
Koji Taira
Professor
UIUC, Institute Labor & IR
Urbana, Illinois, USA
1987 – 1991
Toshiaki Taga
Founder of AJBS
U.S.-Japan Institute
Washington DC, USA