Entrepreneur Association of Tokyo
Speaker - Mark Ferris, Ascendant Business Solutions KK

2009 Sep 01, TUESDAY (*FCCJ in Yurakucho - Map)
Best (and Worst!) Practices in Business Building

Profile
Mark Ferris, President and Representative Director of Ascendant Business Solutions KK

EA-Tokyo's September speaker, Mark Ferris is one successful entrepreneur who has not been afraid to get his feet wet. He will be talking about how he started out in Tokyo in 1993 with no Japanese language skills and a flair for marketing, and what he learned in a long track record of establishing, growing and exiting from Japan-based businesses.

Originally from South Africa where he practiced as an attorney, Ferris is currently President and Representative Director of Ascendant Business Solutions KK, a Tokyo-based consulting and outsourcing firm, that serves the finance, HR, procurement and risk & compliance needs of multinational companies in Japan.

Ferris began his entrepreneurial career in Japan in 1995 when he founded Ferris & Associates, providing strategic consulting services to a variety of multinational clients in the technology, consumer goods and pharmaceutical industries. Since then, in addition to starting several businesses providing process outsourcing, market research and general consulting, he was also a founding partner of a private equity group, which invested in early stage technology-related businesses.

Ferris also used his marketing and entrepreneurial expertise to go beyond a family tragedy by starting the Tyler Foundation, a non-profit organization set up to support children with cancer and their families in Japan.

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Ascendant Business Solutions KK
Ascendant Business Solutions KK supplies business and technology-related services and solutions to businesses operating in Japan.