Ren Ito

Ren Ito is the current Vice President of Global Strategy at Mercari. Before joining Mercari, they were an Adjunct Lecturer at Sophia University from February 2016 to July 2017, teaching courses on international relations with a focus on East Asia’s geopolitical dynamics, security framework, and trade facilitation. Prior to that, they were a Senior Advisor at Mercari from September 2015 to June 2016, and before that they were an Advisor to the Executive Director at the World Bank from September 2011 to August 2014, where they assisted the Executive Director in setting strategic directions on investment in emerging markets, including projects in energy efficiency, technology, and mobile payments. As part of this role, they contributed to the sourcing of $438M for co-financing the Bank’s lending operations in various jurisdictions. Ren also led the team of quantitative analysis of the impact of free trade agreements between Japan and the other key economies; and promoted policies of facilitating foreign investment in Japan. From August 2014 to August 2015, they were the Principal Deputy Director for Human Rights and Women’s Empowerment at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.

Ren Ito is a graduate of Stanford University's East Asian Studies program and New York University School of Law. Ren also holds a law degree from The University of Tokyo.

Ren Ito reports to Fumiaki Koizumi, President. They work with Tatsuo Kinoshita - Chief Human Resources Officer, Toshihiro Igi - Outside Auditor, and Shuji Kawano - VP of Strategy.