Lawrence Prager

Larry Prager is Chief Executive Officer and Country Head of Nikko Asset Management Americas, Inc. based in New York, responsible for all aspects of the business. He came to the New York office in 2010 from Nikko Asset Management Co., Ltd. in Tokyo, where he was Director of Equity Research. He has been actively involved in Nikko AM’s Global Investment Committee, its Stewardship and Proxy Voting Committee and its ESG activity.

Over an investment career of more than 35 years, Larry has been engaged in providing investment advice to retail and institutional investors in Japan and globally. Prior to joining Nikko AM in Tokyo in 2005, he worked for Nikko Citigroup from its start-up until 2005, focused on retail research services to Nikko Cordial Securities and management of its institutional research department. Prior to that he was a director and co-head of the equity research department and member of the global asset allocation committee at the Nikko Research Center, Ltd. in Tokyo. As co-head of sales and research for Nikko Europe in London he focused on investment advice on Japanese markets for its U.K., European and Middle Eastern institutional clients, and sales of European equities into Japan. At Nikko Securities in Tokyo where he began his career in 1985, following two years of post-graduate studies at Keio University in Tokyo, one year associated with the Department of Business and Commerce, Larry focused on Japanese equity markets for institutional investors and global asset allocation as part of the core investment advisory team providing investment services to its global institutional investor and Japan retail investor client base, and its internal product planning strategy function, and serving in various management positions.

Larry holds dual Bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Asian Studies/Political Science from the University of California Santa Barbara. He received his MBA with a concentration in finance from the University of California Los Angeles. He studied Japanese language at UCSB, UCLA, ICU (International Christian University in Tokyo) and at Keio University under a “Monbusho” (Japanese government) scholarship. He has held the “Gaimuin” (for sales and investment advice), and Naibu kanri sekinin sha (internal administrator) qualifications of the Japan Securities Dealers Association, and the U.S. Series 3, 7, 16, 24, 86, 87 and Swaps Proficiency, the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board’s FSA credential, and the highest proficiency of level 1 in the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test.