Takahiko Kusakabe
Dr. Eng

Takahiko Kusakabe is President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Social Designers Base, Inc. founded in April 2023. He received a Doctor of Engineering from Takahiko Kusakabe is President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Social Designers Base, Inc. founded in April 2023. He received a Doctor of Engineering from Kobe University in 2010. After working as Assistant Professor for Tokyo Institute of Technology, he started to work for the Center for Spatial Information Science (CSIS) at the University of Tokyo. Then, he was promoted to Associate Professor and became Project Associate Professor for the graduate school of Engineering at the University of Tokyo in April 2022. While engaged in research and development in the transdisciplinary field between information technology and traffic engineering, he has been working as Data Analysis Director for Hankyu Hanshin Holdings, Inc. since April 2021.
Kiko Yamada-Kawai
Dr. Eng

Kiko Yamada-Kawai is Chief Operations Officer (COO) of Social Designers Base, Inc. She earned a Master of Engineering from Kyoto University in 1991 and a Doctor of Engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2016 in Human-centered Design for infrastructure planning. After working for think tanks including Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc., she became Associate Professor for the User Experience Research Division, Center for Business Creation at Otaru University of Commerce. Since 2012, she has worked as Project Researcher for the School of Environment and Society at Tokyo Institute of Technology and also as a freelancer, engaging in research and practice of methodology for human centered design in infrastructure development.