Janelle Sasaki is a third generation Japanese-American. Growing up in California in a mostly non-Asian community, she experienced cultural differences at a very young age. Sasaki was unable to “choose” her identity until she experienced the power of diversity and inclusion as a college student in the classroom – a story that has fueled her ever since.
After working in sales and human resources in Silicon Valley, Sasaki was offered the opportunity of a lifetime by Cisco Systems to head up their Global Diversity & Inclusion Division in Japan. Currently working as Executive Director of the Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Services at Ernst & Young Japan, she’s on a mission to speed up the creation of more inclusive workplaces, including for women, and to change mindsets within companies in Japan.
In our first meeting of the new FEW year, we invite you to join us as we welcome Janelle Sasaki. She’ll share with us her personal journey towards embracing the benefits of a multicultural, diverse society, including how she is pioneering such change here in Japan. Find out how the power of diversity and inclusion can translate into your business or organization, and what you can do to make your workplace and the society around you more inclusive and better respect both you and others.
Janelle Sasaki
Janelle Sasaki serves as the Executive Director of Diversity & Inclusion Services at Ernst & Young Advisory Co., Ltd. (EYA), which uses a sectorfocused approach and global deliver capabilities to help clients transform their business processes and sustain the improvements. Based in Tokyo, Japan, she advises on innovative Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) practices in the workplace for Japan and the Asian Pacific Region. As a well-known D&I expert, Janelle guides top Japanese and multi-national clients on designing and executing workforce, work style and marketplace solutions to create an inclusive culture. She also is a frequent international speaker on Diversity & Inclusion. She served as the Inclusion & Diversity Leader for Cisco Systems Japan G.K. and the Asia Pacific Region and was selected as a mentor for the 2015 Global Ambassador Program (GAP) Japan sponsored by Bank of America. She is a member of the C-Suite network called Women in Leadership Committee at the American Chamber of Commerce Japan. Janelle also serves in leadership roles for the US Japan Council and is the Co-Founder of the Japan D&I Business Round Table Network.
Catering
FEW Monthly Meetings are catered by well-known gourmet food company Kiwi Kitchen. Based on providing healthy, delicious food from all corners of the globe, Kiwi Kitchen delivers gourmet meals and provides catering services for businesses and international schools, office functions and meetings, cocktail parties, BBQs and other functions requiring food delivered on-site within Tokyo Metropolitan area. The company also operates a cafe in Shirokane, right on Platinum dori, less than 10mins walk from Shirokanedai station.