Rika Nakazawa

Rika is a senior technology executive, VC investor, best-selling author, and frequent public speaker on next-generation technologies and their impact on business and society. She is Chief Commercial Innovation at NTT, a leading technology and business services and solutions provider with over 340,000 innovators worldwide. Her focus is on advancing commercial and sustainability applications of Photonic networks and Space & Satellite innovations, and orchestrating impact initiatives across global public and private sectors via the World Expo. Rika was recognized on Forbes 50>50 list in Innovation. And for 2 consecutive years, 2022 and 2023, she has been awarded “Power 70” and “Power 80” recognition for the Women of Channel awards with The Channel Co’s CRN network. She has also been ranked as "Top 100 in Emerging Tech" by Women of the Future.Trilingual in Japanese, German, and English, Rika grew up in Japan and moved to the US to attend Princeton University. Rika has since worked internationally in senior executive roles in strategy, business development, consulting, and marketing with Fortune 500 companies - NVIDIA, Accenture, Capgemini, Sony - and Silicon Valley startups. She is a digital innovation veteran and has served on multiple boards in AI, Next-Gen Computing, Web3, and Cybersecurity ecosystems. Rika is a Doctoral candidate at University of Leipzig in Germany, and holds a Master's Msc/MBA Degree from the UK's University of Leeds, and is the best-selling author of “Dear Chairwoman” - which explores the evolution of corporate board governance. Her next book, featuring the intersection of sustainability, digital innovation, and the pandemic, called “Beyond the Black Swan: How the Pandemic and Digital Innovation Intensified the Sustainability Imperative - Everywhere", was released by business/academic publisher Taylor & Francis.