Chris Rowan

Chris earned a degree in International Marketing from Santa Clara University, graduating cum laude in three years, then worked at an advertising agency in Paris. Next, in Tokyo, Chris completed graduate studies before joining the entertainment arm of Sony in Tokyo for 8 years where he started new businesses including the first online gaming site in Japan, and assisted the initial PlayStation efforts. He speaks, reads and writes Japanese fluently. In his free time, he coded and operated the first fantasy baseball game in Japan.

After Sony, he was an early employee of IRI, a company key in building the Japanese Internet and mobile internet infrastructure. He managed IRI’s successful IPO and the company reached a $10B market cap. His next role was to handle strategic venture investing for IRI which led to him establishing and leading IRI USA. He went on to co-manage AvTech Ventures, a $150M portfolio of venture investments which achieved top decile returns. After AvTech, Chris assisted several startups in various roles from Chairman to CEO including JP SCOPE. He also assisted MMO developer Sigil with its sale to Sony Online Entertainment.