Alan Fetzer
Alan Fetzer is the president of Fetzer & Co. He was born in Hartford, Connecticut. After graduating from Yale University, Mr. Fetzer went directly to Wall Street to work in the field of venture capital.
During the IPO boom of the 1980's he completed several private placement financing deals, and then joined Data Resources, Inc. (DRI), the economic consulting division of Standard & Poors.
As a DRI management consultant, Mr. Fetzer advised Wall Street commodities traders and hedge funds on the use of analytical computer model and predictive trading algorithms to manage risk and maximize trading profits.
Mr. Fetzer was recruited to become president of Taito Software, the North American subsidiary of Taito Corporation, the Japanese video game company that created Space Invaders and is now part of the Square Enix Group.
From 1986 to 1991, under Mr. Fetzer's direction, the company developed several hit video game titles which were distributed in over 15,000 retail outlets in North America.
During this time, Mr. Fetzer worked closely with the management of Kyocera, a Taito corporate shareholder, to establish the brand awareness, international distribution and market share in the game industry that enabled Taito to successfully list its shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Mr. Fetzer has also worked extensively in Silicon Valley assisting numerous early stage companies secure the capital required to bring their proprietary technologies to market.
His success stories in the Silicon Valley include Netmind, a developer of change detection technology; ccRewards, Sentius, a developer of search and navigation technologies; and ISPtel, one of the first global voice-over IP telcos.
He strongly believes that Japanese creativity, innovation and advanced technology will play an important role in helping humanity live better and overcome the global challenges of the 21st century.
In his free time, he enjoys studying Japanese history, visiting shrines and temples in Japan and collecting Japanese pottery.
Alan Fetzer has conducted business in Japan for more than 20 years. He is very familiar with Japanese business practices and the culture and traditions of Japan.