6 Jul, 2022
ispace Announces 3 Directors and 2 Audit & Supervisory Board Members to Strengthen its Management Structure for Accelerated Growth
TOKYO – July 6, 2022 – Today, ispace, inc. announced that, Kazuko Nakada (Representative Director, actuali inc.), Kojiro Hatada (President and Representative Director, Innovative Space Carrier Inc.) and Takashi Makino (Advisor, IHI Corporation) were appointed as new External Directors, and Nozomi Oda (Partner, Morrison & Foerster LLP) and Yosihide Todoroki (CPA, TODOROKI Accounting Firm) were appointed as new Audit & Supervisory Board Members of the company at its ordinary general shareholders meeting held on June 30, 2022.
The company’s first mission as part of its HAKUTO-R lunar exploration program is currently planned for Q4 2022* and is expected to launch from the United States on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. As part of its vision to establish high-frequency, low-cost commercial transportation service to the Moon, ispace is fully engaged in lander and rover development for Mission 2 and Mission 3, further establishing services for its growing customer base. The appointment of a new Board of Directors aims to strengthen corporate governance not only in its Tokyo headquarters, which maintains the company’s largest R&D base, but also in its global subsidiary offices in Europe and the United States, thereby promoting collaboration between the government and the private sector in space activities.
Ms. Nakada, who was newly appointed as an external director, has experience as a Managing Director at LIFENET INSURANCE COMPANY and as an external director of multiple companies, and has wide range of insights into corporate management. Last year, Ms. Nakada served as an Audit & Supervisory Board Member of the company. Mr. Hatada has abundant experience and wide-ranging insights such as energy policy and industrial policy at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and efforts to expand the private space business at the Strategic Headquarters for National Space Policy of the Cabinet Office. Mr. Makino was the President of IHI AEROSPACE Co., Ltd. and has a wealth of experience and insight in the space development business.
Ms. Oda, who was newly appointed as an Audit & Supervisory Board Member, serves as a Partner at Morrison & Foerster LLP and has a wealth of experience and knowledge in the field of corporate legal affairs. Mr. Todoroki was a Partner at KPMG AZSA LLC and has a wealth of experience and knowledge in finance and accounting.
By making use of the experience and insight of the newly appointed members, ispace believes they will play an important role in providing useful advice and supervision of execution for the lunar development business that ispace has been long promoting.
“The members of our board represent a wealth of experience and varied backgrounds that we look to leverage as we focus on driving growth in our business and strengthening corporate governance,” said Takeshi Hakamada, Founder and CEO of ispace. “In addition to my appreciation of our new board members, I wish to express my sincerest gratitude to our retiring board members for their dedication to ispace and their contributions from the start of this endeavor.”
From left (Directors): Tohru Akaura, Koichi Kawana, Kojiro Hatada, Takashi Makino, Takeshi Hakamada, Jumpei Nozaki, Kazuko Nakada and Takashi Kuwauchi
From right (Audit & Supervisory Board Members): Yuji Inoue, Yoshihide Todoroki and Nozomi Oda
Continuing from last year, Mr. Tohru Akaura (General Partner & Co-Founder, Incubate Fund, Mr. Koichi Kawana (President and Representative Director, Lublyst Inc.) and Mr. Takashi Kuwauchi (Representative Director & CFO, jinjer Co., Ltd.) were also appointed as External Directors on the same day. From ispace, Takeshi Hakamada (Founder & CEO) will continue to serve as Representative Director, Jumpei Nozaki (CFO) will continue to serve as Director, and Yuji Inoue will continue to serve as a standing Audit & Supervisory Board Member.
With five new External Directors and Audit & Supervisory Board Members, the company continues to build a stringent governance and management system and strive to realize Mission 1 as a first step to achieving its corporate vision.
Board of Directors and Audit & Supervisory Board Members (as of July 1, 2022)
| Representative Director | Takeshi Hakamada | Founder & CEO, ispace, inc. |
| Director | Jumpei Nozaki | CFO, ispace, inc. |
| Director (External Director) | Tohru Akaura | General Partner & Co-Founder, Incubate Fund KK |
| Director (External Director) | Koichi Kawana | President and Representative Director, Lublyst Inc. (Ex-Representative Director, President, JGC CORPORATION (Current JGC Holdings Corporation)) |
| Director (External Director) | Takashi Kuwauchi | Representative Director & CFO, jinjer Co., Ltd. (Ex- General Manager, SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. Private Companies) |
| Director (External Director) | Kazuko Nakada (Newly Appointed) | Representative Director, actuali inc. (Ex- Managing Director, LIFENET INSURANCE COMPANY) |
| Director (External Director) | Kojiro Hatada (Newly Appointed) | President and CEO, Innovative Space Carrier Inc. (Ex-Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) |
| Director (External Director) | Takashi Makino (Newly Appointed) | Advisor, IHI Corporation (Ex-President, IHI AEROSPACE Co.,Ltd.) |
| Standing Audit & Supervisory Board Member | Yuji Inoue | Audit & Supervisory Board Member, ispace, inc. |
| External Audit & Supervisory Board Member | Nozomi Oda (Newly Appointed) | Partner, Morrison & Foerster Law Offices |
| External Audit & Supervisory Board Member | Yoshihide Todoroki (Newly Appointed) | CPA, TODOROKI Accounting Firm (Ex-Partner, KPMG AZSA LLC.) |
About ispace, inc. (https://ispace-inc.com/)
ispace, inc., a lunar resource development company with the vision, “Expand our Planet. Expand our Future.”, specializes in designing and building lunar landers and rovers. ispace aims to extend the sphere of human life into space and create a sustainable world by providing high-frequency, low-cost transportation services to the Moon. The company has offices in Japan, Luxembourg, and the United States with more than 190 employees worldwide. ispace is part of a team led by Draper, which was selected by NASA to compete in its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) Program. Both ispace, inc., and ispace EU were awarded contracts to collect and transfer ownership of lunar regolith to NASA, and ispace EU was selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) to be part of the Science Team for PROSPECT, a program which seeks to extract water on the Moon.
Established in 2010, ispace operated “HAKUTO” which was one of five finalist teams in the Google Lunar XPRIZE race. The company’s first mission as part of its HAKUTO-R lunar exploration program is currently planned for Q4 2022* and is expected to launch from the United States on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. ispace has also launched a lunar data business concept to support new customers as a gateway for private companies to conduct business on the Moon.
* Current plan as of June 2022.