Roundtable #11 – Helping businesses to act on sustainability – with guest James Hollow

Roundtable: Sustainability with Ross Rowbury

The English-language events will invite readers of The Japan Times to be guest speakers. Ross Rowbury (former representative of Edelman Japan), who has a deep knowledge of Japan and boasts a wide network both here and abroad, will sit down in the role of host with Japanese and non-Japanese to discuss their lives in Japan. Held once a month, the format of the roundtable will include time for panel discussions with the participation of the audience.

Guest – James Hollow
James Hollow is CEO and Founder of Fabric KK, a strategic consultancy that helps businesses reframe problems to create shared value with customers and communities. The company is founded on the belief that there is a new social fabric emerging, where the businesses that succeed are the ones that enable culture, build relationships, and act on sustainability.
James graduated from Oxford University with a master’s degree in physics, then joined WPP’s prestigious Fellowship Program where he trained as a brand / business strategist, first in London then Tokyo, where he fell in love with Japanese culture. There he co-founded his first company aged 24, an agency that he grew until its acquisition in 2013, subsequently rising within the MullenLowe Group network to co-CEO of the APAC region in 2019, before following his entrepreneurial instinct and his team’s shared desire to have a positive impact to found Fabric in spring 2021.

Host – Ross Rowbury
Ross Rowbury has observed Japan while living and working here for four decades. Commencing his career in finance in Tokyo in the early 1980s, he later moved into public relations and communications, holding senior positions at Gavin Anderson & Co. (now Kreab) and PRAP Japan. Most recently, he headed the Edelman business in Japan for 10 years until July 2020. Ross is studying to become a kataribe (traditional storyteller) of Japanese legends while doing freelance consulting for a number of firms on their Japan business strategy. He is also visiting professor of Asian marketing at Doshisha University in Kyoto.