Co-Founder & Chair
Masue Katayama was born in Japan during the World War II. She started affordable nursing homes for middle-class families in Japan in the early 1980s by renovating vacant buildings such as former company dormitories. Her model was innovative at that time because there were only two options available: poor quality public housing or very expensive private homes. She established Shinko Fukushikai Social Welfare Corporation which now runs 36 retirement communities and 8 child care facilities in Japan (as of 2017).
In 2012, she was appointed as a Senior Fellow of Ashoka, the international organization supporting social entrepreneurs. Also, she is the first Japanese to be selected as one of the Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneurs of the Year (2014).