Our Team
Ed established Rogers Investment Advisors (“RIA”) in Tokyo in 2006 and currently serves as its Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer. As of 2017, he also serves as Chairman of the Alternative Investment Management Association, Japan Branch after holding the post of Vice-Chairman of AIMA Japan since 2007. Prior to creating RIA, Ed was Deutsche Bank Tokyo’s head of Prime Services sales and a member of DB Tokyo’s Equities Management committee and before that a proprietary trader at Merrill Lynch in London, specializing in yield enhancement and corporate action arbitrage trades. Ed’s Asian career began in 1987 when he was awarded a Princeton in Asia Fellowship for Japan. After working for two years at NKK, the then second largest steel company in Japan, Ed worked at M.W. Marshall in Tokyo and Hong Kong in the interest rate swap and currency forward areas from 1989-1997. Ed received a BA in History from Princeton University in 1987, and an MBA from Georgetown University in 1999.
Ed Rogers
Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer
Prior to joining RIA, Yoshi was Chief Investment Officer at Traders Investment Management where he ran a $40 million Japanese equities long short fund and a $100 million long only fund. Yoshi’s investment career began in 1982 at Bankers Trust Company. Starting as an equity analyst he soon moved on to manage over $4 billion of Japanese equity portfolios for public and private pension clients for twelve years. During these periods, he was a member of the asset allocation committee for Bankers Trust’s global asset allocation which oversaw over $100 billion of assets. In 1996, Yoshi moved to American Express Asset Management International to manage Japanese equity portfolios for American Express Global Mutual Funds and US institutional clients. In 2000, he was promoted to CEO of American Express Financial Advisors Japan Securities. Yoshi received a BA in Economics from Rikkyo University in Tokyo in 1979 and an MBA from Claremont Graduate University in 1982.
Yoshiaki Iizuka
Head of Japanese Research
Len Umantz
PhD, CAIA
Head of External Manager Research
Since 2012, Len has engaged in risk management, portfolio management and asset allocation for RIA's investment products, combining quantitative models, statistical techniques, and qualitative analysis. Len also researches managers of Asian hedge funds and venture capital funds in Japan, Greater China, and South-East Asia. Prior to RIA, Len was an Executive Director at Morgan Stanley New York's Securitized Products Group where he worked on relative value and capital structure arbitrage strategies in credit and mortgage derivatives and oversaw development of quantitative models for mortgage-backed securities trading. Len also worked in fixed income and foreign exchange derivatives trading at Susquehanna International Group in London, where he worked the global exotics / hybrids trading desk covering Europe and Asia. Len holds a Finance PhD from Stanford and a Mathematics MS from Northwestern. During his doctoral studies, he worked for Goldman Sachs Asset Management in New York and Bill Sharpe's Financial Engines in Palo Alto.
Prior to joining Rogers investment Advisors, Takio was responsible for relationship management of the Alternative Investment Services business for the entire APAC region at the Bank of New York Mellon. After joining BNYM in Tokyo in 2012, he later moved to their Hong Kong office being based there until April 2019. Prior to that, from 2006 to 2012, he was a Director / General Manager based in Singapore for United Managers Japan, a multi manager hedge fund platform, responsible for all daily operations as the investment manager of the various funds on the platform. He started his career at Daiwa Securities in Tokyo and was later transferred to their Singapore office to run their listed derivatives desk as well as working at ABN AMRO and Credit Suisse focusing on providing various derivatives products to hedge funds. Takio majored in International Politics and Economics and holds a BA in Economics from Aoyama Gakuin University.
Takio Sato
Co-Chief Operating Officer
Jason joined RIA in 2021, bringing over 25 years of experience in investment management, focused on investment management systems. Most recently, he served as global CTO at Horizon Asset, a multibillion-dollar Japanese long short equity fund, where he worked for eleven years. Previously, Jason gained technology leadership experience at JD Capital Management, Long-Term Capital Management, Azimuth Trust, and Goldman Sachs. Jason was also the co-founder and CTO of a venture-capital-backed U.S. based financial technology company building convertible bond trading platforms and acted as a principal of its brokerage subsidiary. Jason currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Alternative Investment Committee at the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan. Jason has been based in Japan for over twenty years and holds a BA in Computer Science from Harvard University.
Jason Topaz
Co-Chief Operating Officer
Marin graduated from the University of New South Wales in 2024 with a Bachelor of Business, double majoring in Innovation & Entrepreneurship and Human Resource Management. Born in Japan and raised in Hong Kong. She previously interned at Wolver Hill Advisors.
Marin Kamba
Sales Associate
Before joining RIA, Thomas held a variety of positions in institutional equity marketing in Japan. Thomas began his career at Merrill Lynch, first in New York, then in Tokyo where he held positions in equity capital markets and institutional equity sales. Following this, Thomas worked at Deutsche Securities in Tokyo, where he ran the institutional equity sales effort. Most recently, he was Senior Executive Manager in the institutional department of the equity group of Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities. Thomas is a permanent resident of Japan, having lived in Tokyo since 1995. Thomas graduated from Princeton University Summa Cum Laude with a A.B. in East Asian Studies in 1994.
Thomas McDevitt
Head of Sales
Makoto started at Sumitomo Bank in 1986 where he engaged in sales in the retail banking division. Starting from 1989, Makoto has built a 30-year plus track record as a sales professional in the asset management industry at leading financial institutions (J.P. Morgan Trust Bank, Credit Suisse Asset Management, Deutsche Asset Management and Franklin Templeton Investments Japan Limited) where he focused on institutional clients such as Japanese pension funds and financial institutions. In 2000-2001, he worked at Credit Suisse Asset Management's London office as the head of the Japan Sales Desk focusing on solicitation of European pension sponsors and financial institutions to expand the Japan equity business. From 2007 to 2012, Makoto led the institutional sales team at Deutsche Asset Management as department head for both public and private pension sponsors, where he played a key role in implementing a sales strategy for new product introduction and new client acquisitions. Makoto joined RIA in September 2021. He graduated from St. Paul's University in Tokyo, Japan, with a major in International Law.
Makoto Yamakami
Head of Institutional Sales
Yuko joined Rogers Investment Advisors as Office Manager and Executive Assistant in 2024. Prior to this, she held positions at Tanemura & Co., Ltd., United Airlines and Virgin Atlantic Airways.
Yuko Yamanaka
Office Manager / Executive Assistant
Seiji Nomura
Chief Compliance Officer
Cecilia Melin started Gingko Asia Fund after spending over 25 years in the technology sector in the United States and Asia. She started her career with IBM as a Systems Analyst and then become a consultant with Booz, Allen in New York City where she worked with technology companies on strategy and operations improvement. In 1994, Cecilia moved to Hong Kong to join JPMorgan as a technology and telecom investment banker. Subsequently in 1999, she joined HSBC where she became Managing Director and Head of Telecom, Media & Technology Investment Banking. While at HSBC, Cecilia executed US$19bn of mergers & acquisitions and IPO transactions as well as equity offerings throughout Asia-Pacific.
Cecilia founded Asian Technology Advisors Y.K. in 2006 to act as investment advisor to Panax Fund, an Asian technology long / short equity fund. In 2007, Panax Fund ranked in the top 20% of technology funds. In addition to advising Panax from 2006 to 2009, Asian Technology has also advised the global and Asian funds with assets in excess of US$500 million each in identifying investment opportunities among technology and internet companies in the Asian markets. Cecilia is Chief Investment Officer for the Gingko Asia Fund at Rogers Investment Advisors KK.
Cecilia Melin
Portfolio Manager
Patrice Conxicoeur has worked in asset management since 1990. Most recently, he was CEO of HSBC Asset Management (Singapore) Ltd. and Head of Southeast Asia. Previously, he served as CEO of HSBC Asset Management (Japan) K.K. Prior to that, Patrice was Global Head of the Insurance Segment, with overall responsibility for business development for HSBC Asset Management with insurance companies globally after serving as the Head of Institutional Business for Asia Pacific in Hong Kong.
Before joining HSBC Asset Management, Patrice held a number of positions at Sinopia Asset Management, including CEO of Sinopia T&D Asset Management in Japan and Hong Kong, Head of Strategy, Equities and Balanced Products as well as Global Head of Equities. Prior to joining Sinopia, he worked in Tokyo with Japan Gamma Asset Management. Patrice graduated from the E.M. Lyon Business School in France.
Patrice Conxicoeur
Senior Advisor
CEO, Rogers Investment Advisors (Singapore) Pte., Ltd. (license pending)
Seiji Nomura is Chief Compliance Officer of Rogers Investment Advisors K.K. Prior to joining Rogers IA in May 2023, he was a Compliance Manager of Webull Securities (Japan) Co., Ltd. Prior to that he was Representative Director, and Head of Compliance- Japan, etc. at GAM Japan Limited, and Head of Compliance, Senior Compliance Officer at Calyon Securities (Japan). He started his career from a housing loan and mortgage company.
Seiji Nomura holds a BA in Economics from Chuo University, a Master’s degree in finance from the Graduate School of International Politics and Economics of Aoyama Gakuin University, and a Juris Doctorate from the School of Law of Toin University of Yokohama.
Mina has been with RIA since 2010. She is responsible for the office administration, schedule and travel management. Prior to joining RIA she used to work for the Tokyo American Club and Jupiter Shop Channel.
Mina Brase
Client Services