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Tokyo—Space BD, a leading Japanese space startup, announces the appointment of Kenji Yasuno as Executive Vice President as of April 1, 2023. He is a long-time leader who contributed to the expansion of the aerospace business at Mitsubishi Corporation. He served as an executive officer for Mitsubishi Corporation and later as a senior managing executive officer and advisor for Mitsubishi HC Capital Inc.

Space BD leverages our main businesses of satellite launch services and ISS usage services to create new uses of space, including regional industry promotion, education and personnel training business, and technological project management. Space BD also looks to the post-ISS era, and we are making progress with exploration and testing to commercialize low earth orbit on the basis of our insights built in our business to date. In this environment Space BD decided to bring Yasuno into the organization as Executive Vice President to further enhance Space BD’s businesses and management foundation.
Yasuno was consistently involved in the aerospace business at Mitsubishi Corporation since his joining. He also boasts significant international insight from his many years of experience living in New York and Singapore, and in 2011 he was appointed executive officer of Mitsubishi Corporation and led business. Space BD expects that his ample management experience in space-related business and a major company will accelerate Space BD’s business, especially in domestic and international public-private coordination including in the post-ISS era.

 

■Comment from Kenji Yasuno, Executive Vice President, Space BD Inc.

I am truly honored to have received this opportunity to join Space BD, who are developing a new frontier in the space industry, and to contribute to the rise of the Japanese space industry as well as elevating its international standing. At the same time, I am confident about the significant potential of Space BD.
I hope to draw on my many years of experience in aerospace-related businesses in Mitsubishi Group companies. I aim to combine the way I generally understand and think about building businesses, which I have cultivated to date, with the startup spirit that is overflowing in Space BD. By doing so in an ideal way, I will do my best to turn the limitless possibilities of space into a concrete shape.

 

■Background of Kenji Yasuno

Kenji Yasuno joined Mitsubishi Corporation in 1980. He worked in the Aerospace Division, where he was engaged in the very first project in the first aircraft leasing business for the company. He lived for seven years in New York in the United States, and after his return to Japan he was appointed to the member of Corporate Planning Department, where he was involved in formulating overall company management initiatives and approach, etc. In 2001 he newly established the Airline Business Unit, combining aircraft leasing and civil aviation related agency business, as the Unit Manager. In 2008 he was appointed to the first president in charge of launching the aircraft leasing business company MC Aviation Partners Inc. In 2010 he was dispatched to Singapore as the branch head, and was promoted to Senior Vice President of Mitsubishi Corporation in 2011. In 2014 he returned to Japan, where he was appointed to the head of the Ship & Aerospace Division. In this role he contributed to the expansion of the company’s aerospace business until 2017.

In 2017 he was appointed managing executive officer at Mitsubishi UFJ Lease & Finance Co., Ltd. (now Mitsubishi HC Capital Inc.), and he went on to be senior managing executive officer and advisor. In April 2023 he was appointed Executive Vice President for Space BD Inc.

 

■About Space BD

We at Space BD are a one-stop provider of solutions for those in the space utilization field. Not only can we deliver payloads to space by a variety of methods and facilitate the use of International Space Station assets, but we can also assist with everything from business plans to hands-on technical operations. As of February 2023, Space BD’s performance record marked over 70 satellite projects and over 300 orders.