Makoto Tahara

Makoto Tahara is an accomplished business executive with extensive experience in e-commerce, business development, and sales operations across various leading companies. Currently serving as the General Manager for Ecommerce in the APAC, Middle East, and Africa regions at TikTok since 2024, Makoto has held pivotal roles including Country Head and Director for Japan at Shopify, and Senior Director of Japan Business Development at DoubleVerify. Previous positions include Vice President and General Manager of Western Japan at OYO, and a range of leadership roles at Google from 2014 to 2019, where responsibilities included overseeing business development for APAC in automotive applications and sales operations for Google Cloud. In the earlier career stages, Makoto contributed at Amazon as a Senior Product and Vendor Manager for Kindle Hardware, and began at Toyota as a Planning Associate. Makoto holds an MBA in International Business from USC Marshall School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from UC Irvine.