In Episode 11, we welcome Kazuyo Kato, the Executive Director of the Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE) USA. The daughter of a diplomat, Kazuyo was born in Australia, spent her early years in Egypt, and grew up going back and forth between the U.S. and Japan. Kazuyo has nearly two decades of experience at nonprofit organizations dedicated to U.S.-Japan relations and international affairs, including the Japan Society in New York, Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA in Washington DC, Sasakawa Peace Foundation in Tokyo, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She has also worked in consulting businesses, including Armitage International and Arthur Andersen (later KPMG) in Tokyo.

We discuss Kazuyo's upbringing in multiple countries; how she overcame the challenge of learning languages and societal expectations; why she decided to work in the nonprofit sector and the importance of people-to-people exchange; and how she developed her own leadership style and what she learned from great leaders like Richard Armitage.

For more information on Kazuyo, please see photos (and the episode transcript) here: https://crossworld-puzzles.com/episode11-kazuyo/.

CrossWorld Puzzles is a podcast that explores how multicultural individuals consider life’s big questions, such as where to be based, how to build their career, who to spend their life with, etc.