Ryo Kubota, M.D., Ph.D., Chairman of the Board

Dr. Ryo Kubota is the founder of Acucela Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company established in 2002 which is focused on developing therapies for blinding eye diseases. Dr. Kubota is a world-renowned ophthalmologist having performed over 1,000 eye surgeries, including surgeries on Japanese government officials and other high-profile individuals. With the goal of having a global impact on treating devastating eye diseases, Dr. Kubota focused his career on doing extensive ocular research at Keio University, the oldest and one of the most prestigious private universities in Japan, and in so doing, discovered the glaucoma gene, myocilin. This discovery earned Dr. Kubota the Suda Award for his contribution to the field of neurodegenerative retinal disease. Dr. Kubota's work in the field of retinal neurodegeneration has been cited more than 500 times and has opened the door to other discoveries. As a leader in neurodegenerative disease research, he continued doing ocular research at the University of Washington (UW). His findings, which were then licensed from the UW, comprise the core technology that Acucela is based on. Dr. Kubota received his MD and PhD from the esteemed Keio University in Japan, and then spent five years practicing general ophthalmology at Keio Hospital. Following that, Dr. Kubota spent three years doing a retinal fellowship at Toranomon Hospital and returned back to Keio Hospital for two years prior to becoming an assistant professor at the UW. He then founded Acucela based on the technologies that were licensed from the UW. Dr. Kubota is a member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, the Japanese Ophthalmological Society, and the Japan Glaucoma Association and serves on the Foresight Group of the Department of Pharmacology at Case Western Reserve University and on the board of the Japan-America Society. Dr. Kubota was raised in Japan but had extended exposure to the United States due to a three-year stint in New York, given his father's profession as a port captain. There were many physicians in Dr. Kubota's family, including an uncle who was an ophthalmologist, providing many inspirations for him as a child to enter the medical field. Helping patients by performing ocular surgeries and treatments for their retinal diseases was fulfilling for Dr. Kubota, but he is driven to have an impact on a global scale where he hopes to help millions of people by developing novel and safe therapies for patients with multiple blinding eye diseases.

Yoshitaka Kitao

Mr. Yoshitaka Kitao is the CEO of SBI Holdings, Inc. Mr. Kitao began his career at Nomura Securities Co., Ltd., where during his 21-year career at Nomura Securities Co., Ltd, he was mainly engaged in the investment banking business. He joined SOFTBANK CORP. in 1995 as Executive Vice President and CFO. He has been appointed CEO of the following SBI group companies: SBI Investment Co., Ltd., SBI Mortgage Co., Ltd., SBI VeriTrans Co., Ltd. and Morningstar Japan K.K. He also serves as Chairman of SBI E*TRADE SECURITIES Co., Ltd. He holds degrees in economics from Keio University and Cambridge University.

Peter Kresel, M.B.A.

Mr. Kresel has 40 years of experience in pharmaceuticals, focusing in regulatory affairs. Most recently, he was the Senior Vice President of Global Regulatory Affairs at Allergan, where he facilitated the movement of new products through various regulatory agencies. This includes extremely successful products such as BOTOX, Alphagan and Lumigan, as well as products with difficult regulatory profiles, such as tazarotene. Prior to Allergan, he was the Director of Worldwide Regulatory Affairs at Bristol-Myers Squibb.