Team
Founder and CEO
Ken Iida
Founder and CEO, NuRetail
Profession
Ken Iida, started his career at the Embassy of Japan to the United States of America in Washington, D.C.
After finishing a summer internship at ESCAP, United Nations in Bangkok, Thailand, he returned to Japan to start a Strategy Consulting career at Accenture Japan.
He went on to develop a career in retail, holding several key lead positions such as Head of Merchandising, Merchandising Planning, eCommerce, Supply Chain to name a few at Walmart Japan / Seiyu and Toysrus Japan. At his next stop, Walt Disney Company Japan, he led the entire Direct-To-Consumer Retail organization (Disney Store and shopDisney) including Merchandising, Store Operations, eCommerce, Marketing, Branding, Digital, Supply Chain, HR, Finance, Accounting, and General Administration before joining LAOX as COO in November 2020.
Ken joined LAOX, a Tokyo Stock Exchange listed public retail company, in November 2020, got promoted to CEO in March 2021 and held the President role of Laox Holdings until he resigned at Shareholder’s Meeting in Mach 2023.
In his 13-year retail career, he has been working on omnichannel initiatives, e.g. Net Super (Grocery eCommerce combined with Ship-from-Store), Fulfillment Center development, logistics network development, new eCommerce platform implementations (3 times), marketplace launch, BOPIS introduction, Store Inventory Locator introduction, and so forth. He is also well networked with global startup communities, and often, the first user of foreign SaaS products in Japan.
Retail segment wise, he has travelled across the wide merchandising spectrum from fast-moving, transactional Fresh Foods, Grocery, Drugs, Electrical Appliances, Stationaries, to more experience-based, Toys, Babies, Apparel, Beddings, Sports, and to extremely immersive and 95% privately produced Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars products.
Ken has launched a RetailTech startup, “NuRetail” centering around Asia Sunshine Market, a very first one-stope Asian Grocery Specialty he founded while at Laox, and MBOed from Laox Holdings upon his resignation. NuRetail aims at generating SaaS based digital products and services.
Ken Iida has a Bachelors degree in Economics from Sophia University in Tokyo, spent two semesters as an Academic Exchange at Salzburg College, Austria, and holds a Masters degree in International Relations from Yale University, New Haven, CT, the United States.
CTO
Daisuke Okuda
CTO, NuRetail
During his university years, Daisuke Okuda’s purchase of a computer led him to immerse himself in hardware configuration and programming. After graduation, he gained experience constructing numerous business systems at a software development company, becoming fascinated with the world of information technology. In 2001, he joined the research and development division of Microsoft Corporation. He worked as the Japanese lead for a team creating foundational technologies for Web APIs, under the direction of the software architect who invented HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol).
It was during this time that he experienced the world (future) beyond the internet and programming. Desiring to work in the heart of information technology—America—he moved to the United States in 2005. For four years, he worked at an IT company headquartered in California, serving as a project manager for global development. Upon returning to Japan, he took charge of large-scale global development and operational projects as a business analyst and project manager at an Indian IT service company based in Japan. He resolved numerous issues arising from the cultural and business gaps between Japan and other countries. Leveraging this experience, he aimed to enhance Japan’s international competitiveness by introducing outstanding digital solutions from overseas without language or technological barriers. With this vision, he established Access Lab in 2013. He has been instrumental in launching Japanese subsidiaries and promoting the introduction and domestic expansion of various overseas SaaS services.
My motto is “Stay hungry, stay foolish,” but at Apple, my favorite is not Jobs but Wozniak.
Legal Counsel
Kazuma Higuchi
Founder and Managing Partner, Higuchi & Partners
Profession
Legal Research and Training Institute of Supreme Court of Japan, 2001 – 2003
Law Clerk
Ohara Law Office, 2003-2006, 2008-2011
Attorney at law
Masuda, Funai, Enfert & Mitchell, LTD, 2007 – 2008
Visiting Attorney
Higuchi & Partners, LPC 2011 – present
Managing Partner
K.K. Asahi Net
Auditor, 2019-2022
Director, Audit and Supervisory Committee Member, 2022 – present
Qualification
Lawyer (Japan), 2003 – present
Lawyer (New York), 2008 – present
Certified Fraud Examiner, 2022-present
Education
Keio University, Tokyo, BA in Law, 1995 – 1999
Graduate School of Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, MA in Language and Sociology, 2000 – 2002
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, Summer School in English Legal Methods, 2001
University of Michigan Law School, Ann Arbor, MI, LLM, 2006-2007
Corporate Profile
| Company | NuRetail |
|---|---|
| Founded | February 8th, 2023 |
| Founder and CEO | Ken Iida |
| Capital | JPY9,000,000 |
| Office | #502 5-17-2 Minamiaoyama, Minatoku, Tokyo Japan |
| Services | RetailTech / DeepTech Consulting Outsourcing Retail Cross-border Trading |
| Bank | SMBC Gotanda Branch |
| Contact | contact@nuretail.com |
