Resilience: The Key for Professional Growth & Success

Resilience is a crucial trait for career success, empowering individuals to bounce back from failures, adapt to changes, tackle unexpected challenges, and seize opportunities for growth. Many accomplished business leaders demonstrate remarkable resilience throughout their careers. How do leaders navigate unexpected challenges, maintain motivation, and remain determined to achieve their goals? What mindsets have propelled them forward? Join us for an inspiring event on resilience and women’s empowerment. Female leaders from the U.S. and Japan share their personal journeys and insights on building resilience, managing stress, and fostering a mindset essential for success.

Speakers:
Linda Kirkpatrick, President, Americas, Mastercard; Member of the Board of Directors, Japan Society
Izumi Nakamitsu, Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, United Nations

Moderator: 
Joshua W. Walker, Ph.D., President & CEO, Japan Society

Agenda
6:30-7:30 pm: Discussion and Q&A Session
7:30-8:00 pm: Reception

Admission
This event is only available to Japan Society corporate members. Admission is free with advance registration required. Please note that seating is limited and on a first come, first served basis.

About the Speakers

Linda Kirkpatrick
President, Americas, Mastercard

Linda Kirkpatrick is president of the Americas, responsible for Mastercard’s business in the United States, Canada, and Latin America. This includes relationship management, business development, and execution of strategy with financial institutions, merchants, digital partners, fintechs, and governments. Linda brings a broad understanding and appreciation of customer and stakeholder needs. Prior to this role, she served as president of North America, as well as president of US financial institutions where she expanded the company’s engagement model with banks beyond core payments. Linda also led the US acceptance organization where she deepened partnerships and service offerings with merchants and acquirers in the market, and across the enterprise. Since joining Mastercard in 1997, Linda has held several leadership roles, and contributed to the evolution of the company’s business model and culture. She spent over a decade in global and corporate functions, including managing standards and compliance programs, working on the company’s initial public offering, establishing the company’s investor relations function, and building commercial rigor within the organization. Passionate about financial inclusion and volunteerism, Linda serves on several boards including Accion, Japan Society, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Partnership for New York City. She sits on the Global Board of Advisors at Operation Hope and is a Trustee at Manhattanville College. The World Economic Forum named Linda a Young Global Leader in 2015 and she is a David Rockefeller Fellow. In 2020, Linda was named on the 2020 Bloomberg 50, Bloomberg Businessweek’s annual list of innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders who have changed global business. Linda graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in economics and holds an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Manhattanville College.

Izumi Nakamitsu
Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, United Nations

Ms. Izumi Nakamitsu assumed her position as Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs on 1 May 2017. Prior to taking on this post, Ms. Nakamitsu served as Assistant Administrator of the Crisis Response Unit at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) since 2014. She has many years of experience within and outside the United Nations system, most recently as Special Adviser Ad Interim on Follow-up to the Summit on Addressing Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants between 2016 and 2017. She was previously Director of the Asia and the Middle East Division of the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations between 2012 and 2014, and Director of the Department’s Division of Policy, Evaluation and Training, from 2008 to 2012. Between 2005 and 2008, Ms. Nakamitsu was Professor of International Relations at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, where she also served as a member of the Foreign Exchange Council to Japan’s Foreign Minister, and as a visiting senior adviser on peacebuilding at the Japan International Cooperation Agency. Between 1998 and 2004, she was the Chef de Cabinet and Director of Planning and Coordination at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, based in Stockholm, Sweden. Earlier in her career, Ms. Nakamitsu was a member of the United Nations Reform Team of former Secretary-General Kofi Annan. She also held positions with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), including within the office of Assistant High Commissioner for Policy and Operations Sergio Vieira de Mello, and in UNHCR field operations in the former Yugoslavia, Turkey and northern Iraq. Born in 1963, Ms. Nakamitsu holds a Master of Science degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and a Bachelor of Law degree from Waseda University in Tokyo. She is married and has two daughters.

Izumi Nakamitsu © UN Photo.

The U.S.-Japan Women Leaders Initiative is generously supported by Advocate sponsors.

ADVOCATE

Business & Policy Forum is generously supported by Japan Society Global Leaders & Corporate Partners.

GLOBAL LEADERS

CORPORATE PARTNERS

Japan Society programs are supported by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.