Meet the team in Japan

Shima Nakahara leads a dedicated team of four BDMs and one Market Analyst with a wealth of combined experience. She herself has over 15 years’ experience with Fonterra including a year with the Category Marketing team at the New Zealand Head office. She has an in-depth technical background, beginning her career as a technologist specializing in cream products before moving into Business Development, a role in which she brought her passion to grow our Beverages & Cultured category.

Her current focus is on enabling the team to forge and grow strong partnerships with customers. She believes this can be achieved by connecting consumer insights and the customers’ voice with Fonterra’s technical expertise, global market insights and high-quality product offerings.

Atsushi Iwanaga is a Business Development Manager focusing on the development of protein infused applications with key customers including the medical nutrition category. He holds a Ph. D (Engineering) and has a strong familiarity with the technical aspects of R&D. His academic background strongly contributes to the team’s business development capabilities.

His expertise extends beyond the Japan domestic market, in particular experience with the South East Asia business sector. Key strengths are in leading customer product development and support for new customer sales, providing global market insights and technical solutions to meet requirements both in Japan and globally.

Laura’s global experience in cheese and fats technical development for Fonterra has been a great foundation for leading the growth of the Dairy Foods category in Japan.

As BDM for Dairy Foods in the Japan market, Laura has been focused on new cheese product development as well as promoting Fonterra`s commitment to sustainability through to our end customers.

Laura is passionate about working with customers & consumers to fully understand their needs and delivering solutions that will be relevant now and far into the future.

Akiko is the marketing & business development manager in charge of the Active Living category for sports and active lifestyle in Japan. Focusing on customer engagement, included market insight, project management, delivering new product value to customers, and new business development. She also works with the Japan technical team/FRDC to provide solutions for customers issues and support with sales promotion.

Shota is our new Market Analyst as of October 2021!

He joined Fonterra in 2017, in a sales role as an Account Manager where he had great success developing new business for Protein and Mascarpone. He is passionate about his work and always keen to find supportive ways of working with his customers. Shota built a solid relationship with his key customer, leading a project to develop high protein dairy beverages.

Shota holds an MBA and has a strong background in marketing and business development honed while working for global food manufacturers and food retail companies.

His mindset and career experience makes Shota the ideal resource to lead and drive Fonterra Japan’s marketing & business development.

Kensuke Suzuki is the newest member of the team, having joined Fonterra Japan as BDM in October 2021. Prior to joining Fonterra Japan, he worked in the food material industry for 15 years, in a variety of roles from R&D to Marketing.

He has managed numerous projects and business development of materials, food additives, seasoning, sugar alcohol, polysaccharide, and starch. Now he is eager to apply his experience to creating new value for cultured and beverage applications. Developing innovative solutions which delight both customers and consumers is his main motivation. Please join in his exciting new journey.