
Executive Committee
Chair, Bill Quenemoen - Denham-Blythe
Bill is Chief Executive Officer at Denham-Blythe Company. He is a registered professional engineer in 24 states and member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Concrete Institute. Bill graduated with his BSCE from Ohio State in 1993. Afterwards, he pursued his master's degree in civil engineering at the University of Kentucky while working as a teaching assistant to Prof. Hans Gesund. In April of 1995, Bill accepted a position at the Denham-Blythe Company as a structural engineer in their design department and the following year he received his MSCE degree from UK. In 2004, Bill received his MBA from the Gatton College of Business at UK.
The Denham-Blythe company was founded in 1976 by Charlie Denham and Dale Blythe, both former recipients of the Construction Management Founders Society Lifetime Achievement Award. As a structural engineer, some of the design projects that Bill had the opportunity to work on included a $11.5 million industrial plant for Caterpillar in Danville, Kentucky, a $2.0 million facility expansion for the Okonite Company in Santa Maria, California, a $4.4 million new manufacturing facility for Webasto in Lexington, Kentucky, and a four-story office building for Lexmark in Lexington.
Vice-Chair, Masakazu Sano - Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky
Secretary, Kay Sargent - Lexington Sister Cities
Kay is the Executive Director of Lexington Sister Cities, a program designed to encourage global understanding between American cities and other world communities. Lexington has sister-city ties with Deauville, France; County Kildare, Ireland; Shinhidaka, Japan; and Newmarket, England.
Treasurer, Tomo Nakamura - Crowe
Tomo is Audit Senior Manager at Crowe. Crowe LLP is one of the largest public accounting, consulting and technology firms in the United States. Crowe uses its deep industry expertise to provide audit and tax services to public and private entities while also helping clients reach their goals with advisory, risk and performance services. Crowe serves clients worldwide as an independent member of Crowe Horwath International, one of the largest global accounting networks in the world. The network consists of more than 760 offices in more than 120 countries around the world.
Yukie Cooper - Toyota Tsusho America
Yukie is Senior Project Manager of Corporate Communications and External Affairs at Toyota Tsusho America (TAI). TAI is a wholly owned subsidiary of Toyota Tsusho Corporation, founded as a trading and supply-chain specialist of the Toyota Group. TAI has been operating in North America since 1961, and it has evolved to a multi-business enterprise today that combines international trading of various industrial products incl. metals, machinery, chemicals and electronics, with an expansive range of domestically targeted functions incl. supply-chain services, logistics, intermediate goods processing, and engineering solutions. Yukie is originally from Osaka, Japan, and she loves the culture, food, comedy, and other things originated in the area. Yukie also enjoys gardening, nature walks, traveling, and listening to music.
Rene DeBerdt - Denham-Blythe
Rene is Construction and Development Manager at Denham-Blythe. Denham-Blythe was founded in 1976 by Charlie Denham and Dale Blythe, both former recipients of the Construction Management Founders Society Lifetime Achievement Award.
John Ferguson - Pro Tech Quality Solutions
John is the President of Pro Tech Quality Solutions, an industry leader in third party quality assurances services including Containment, Sorting, Rework, Launch Assistance, Representation and Problem Solving.
Kosuke Tomii - Toyota Tsusho America
Kosuke is Senior Project Manager of Corporate Accounting at Toyota Tsusho America, Inc. He has 14 years of experience in finance and accounting at Toyota Tsusho Corporation and Toyota Tsusho (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd.
Board Members
Matt Adams - Sumitomo Electric Wiring Systems
Matt is General Manager of Sumitomo Electric in Bowling Green. In 1986, Sumitomo Electric Industries (SEI) of Osaka, Japan, and Sumitomo Wiring Systems (SWS) of Yokkaichi, Japan, combined to form Sumitomo Electric Wiring Systems (SEWS), an independent US corporation. Today, with approximately 8,000 employees and net sales over $1,127 million, SEWS manufactures power distribution systems for Toyota, Honda, Ford, GM and others, streamlining the entire product development process, from concept to manufacturing and delivery.
Doug Bowling - Hitachi Automotive Systems
Doug is Vice President, Executive Officer, Head of Operations at Hitachi Automotive Systems, Ltd. The company is a Tier 1 supplier of world-class products to the global automotive market. The company operates ones sales and research and development office, one aftermarket sales office, and three manufacturing facilities in the United States.
Randall Weber - Topy America
Craig Fisher - Hitachi Automotive Systems
Craig is the Senior Vice President of Human Resources & Administration at Hitachi Automotive Systems Americas, Inc. The company is a Tier 1 supplier of world-class products to the global automotive market. The company operates ones sales and research and development office, one aftermarket sales office, and three manufacturing facilities in the United States.
Vanessa Grossl - Council State of Governments
Vanessa is JASK's Young Professional JET Programme Representative. She is a Policy Analyst at the Council State of Governments. Prior to joining CSG, Vanessa worked in Multicultural Affairs with the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government. Prior to her time as a civil servant, Vanessa spent nearly a decade as a foreign language teacher. She was a JET Programme participant in Tahara, Aichi for 5 years from 2006-2011 before serving as Vice President and President of the Kentucky Association of Japanese Language Teachers. While in Japan, Vanessa also worked for the U.S. Embassy in Japan at the USDA’s Agricultural Trade Office where she collaborated with foreign governments on a number of initiatives and coauthored several reports, including the 2007 Exporter Guide.
Bob Helton - AppHarvest
Bob is Development Specialist at AppHarvest. AppHarvest is an applied technology company building some of the world’s largest indoor farms in Appalachia. The Company combines conventional agricultural techniques with cutting-edge technology and is addressing key issues including improving access for all to nutritious food, farming more sustainably, building a home-grown food supply, and increasing investment in Appalachia.
Masamichi Inoue - University of Kentucky
Masamichi is an Associate Professor of Japan Studies at the University of Kentucky. Since the mid-1990s, he has been conducting a series of anthropological and cultural analyses of the U.S. military base issues in Okinawa. Masamichi has initiated a project which traces, through a set of case studies, how Japanese culture has evolved since the 20th century as a global sanctuary—a transnational space of refuge, intimacy, and social critique open to social bodies with diverse gender, ethnic, national, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds. Furthermore, he has been conducting fieldwork with the campus police to examine issues of security in the increasingly globalized environment of post-9.11 American society. “Border-crossing” as a form of intellectual enterprise mediates and unites these projects, manifesting itself as Masamichi writes Japan (including Okinawa) from a global perspective on the one hand and explore global America as a Japanese intellectual on the other.
David Kidd - PNC Bank
David is Senior Vice President in the Commercial and Corporate Banking Department at PNC Financial Services Group. He is in his seventh year at PNC and his seventeenth in corporate and commercial banking. Prior to his banking career, David was in corporate sales at AT&T. In addition to being a board member of JASK, Mr. Kidd is also the current President of the Lexington Children’s Theatre, sits on the Shriner’s Hospital Corporate Council, the board for United Way of the Bluegrass, and is a coach for 4-H Shooting Sports. He is also on the selection committee for Leadership Kentucky and on the steering committee of Leadership Lexington.
Kiyotaka Kobayashi - PricewaterhouseCoopers
Kiyotaka is the Managing Director of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Pricewaterhouse offers assistance in areas ranging from business consultation and tax preparation to audit services.
Jeff McKenzie - Dentons Bingham Greenebaum
Jeff is a Partner at Dentons Bingham Greenebaum. He serves as corporate, transactional and business counsel to numerous industrial, commercial and service businesses. Jeff has provided extensive services and is a principal legal advisor to national and regional clients in the following industries: distilled spirits; hospitals and healthcare; financial services; automotive production; logistics and distribution; steel production and fabrication; construction; engineering; architecture; consumer products; real estate development and brokerage; pharmaceuticals; professional services; restaurants; and medical products and devices. Dentons is the world's largest law firm. Their global team builds agile, tailored solutions to meet the local, national and global needs of private and public clients of any size in 184 locations serving 76 countries.
Kasey Maier - Waterfront Botanical Gardens
Kasey is the President of the Waterfront Botanical Gardens. The Waterfront Botanical Gardens was started by Botanica, an umbrella organization for the local gardening community that was started in 1993 to help enlighten, entertain, and educate the community about the botanical world. In 2001, Botanica learned that it was the beneficiary of a trust established by member Helen Harrigan, a local gardener with a desire to see a botanical garden and conservatory built in Louisville. Helen’s gift reshaped the focus of the organization, and they set about their work to create what will become Louisville’s Waterfront Botanical Gardens.
Kunihiro Takeda - Bicen Tool Corporation
Kunihiro is the President of Bicen Tool Corporation. The company was established in 1976 as a cutting tool and steel supplier. Purchased by a Japanese wholesaler, Tezuka Corp., in 1990, Bicen Tool has diversified its tooling lines with measuring tools as well as supplying automotive, tool and die.
Karen Wheeler - Beam Suntory
Karen is Community Relations and Operations Support Coordinator at Beam Suntory. Beam Suntory is a world leader in premium spirits with a mission of inspiring human connections. The company is a subsidiary of Suntory Beverage & Food Ltd, which itself is a subsidiary of Suntory Holdings of Osaka, Japan.
Doug Whitlock - Eastern Kentucky University
Doug is President Emeritus of Eastern Kentucky University. He graduated from EKU in 1965. He later received honors such as becoming part of the Hall of Distinguished Alumni in 2011 and the University's 11th President. He has also served as a member of the Madison County Schools Board of Education (1999-2011), the Richmond Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, Commerce Lexington's Central Kentucky Public Policy Council, Bluegrass Tomorrow Board of Directors, the International Town and Gown Association, the Southern Growth Policies Board and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
During his tenure, Eastern Kentucky University garnered several national recognitions, including: designations by Forbes and U.S. News as being among America's best colleges; distinctions as a community-engaged university by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Washington (DC) Monthly magazine; and recognition for two consecutive years as one of America's "Great Colleges to Work For," including 2010's designation as an Honor Roll institution, by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Most notably, perhaps, is EKU's recognition as a veterans-friendly campus by G.I. Jobs magazine and a Number 1 ranking in the nation by Military Times EDGE magazine with its "Best for Vets" honor.