Find Your Element's video: Kathy Matsui - Celebrating and Embracing Womanhood

Kathy Matsui: Goldman Sachs Japan Vice Chair Kathy was born in California in 1965 to Japanese Christian immigrant parents and grew up helping her family business running a commercial flower nursery. She earned a B.A. in Social Studies from Harvard University and M.A. in International Affairs from Johns Hopkins University. She joined the Japan Strategy team of Barclays de Zoete Wedd Securities in 1990 and Goldman Sachs Japan in 1994, where she became managing director in 1998 and the first female partner there in 2000. Kathy published a report in 1999, in which she coined the term “womenomics,” which later influenced and became a part of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Abenomics economic reforms announced in 2012. In the report written during her second pregnancy, she argues that increasing the participation of working-age women in the workforce would work better in solving Japan's economic stagnation than increasing immigration or the birthrate. She compared Japan's rate of participation, at the time one of the lowest among OECD countries, with "running a marathon with one leg.” She was appointed a vice chair of Goldman Sachs Japan in 2015. She continues advocating for gender diversity and women-friendly work environment toward greater female labor participation. In 2001, Kathy was diagnosed with breast cancer: she returned to Goldman Sachs eight months later with a wig after chemotherapy and recuperation. Kathy became involved with Asian University for Women in Bangladesh from 2006 to elevate women’s education level across South Asia after the Bangladeshi-American lawyer convinced her. She promoted investment in the university from Japanese companies by arguing, "Educating women in developing countries is probably the highest return on one’s investment yen or dollar.” The magazine Institutional Investor named Kathy the No. 1 stock market forecaster for Japan in 2000, 2001, and 2006, and the Wall Street Journal chose her as one of "10 Women to Watch in Asia” in 2007. Kathy is married to top economist/FYE Leader Jesper Koll, and is the mother of a son and a daughter. http://findyourelement.jp/class/celebrating-and-embracing-womanhood-with-kathy-matsui/