For the 2nd Find-Your-Role-Model Session in AY 2023 (72nd session overall), we hosted Dr. Shunsuke Takaki, an Associate Professor and Director of the Yokohama City University Hospital’s Intensive Care Department.

He is also a Chief Executive Officer of CROSS SYNC, Inc. After graduating from Yokohama City University’s School of Medicine, Dr. Takaki worked in intensive care, anesthesiology, and emergency medicine at Yokohama City University, going on to complete his Clinical Fellowship in Malaysia, and become a Clinical Research Fellow in Australia. He was appointed the title of Associate Professor, and Director of the Intensive Care Department after returning to Japan and then founded CROSS SYNC, Inc, a Yokohama City University venture company, where he is working daily to solve problems in the medical field by accelerating the use of AI and information sharing.

First, he shared with us his experiences and what he has considered important in his career building so far. I felt his curiosity has led him to have connections to a lot of people from various backgrounds and it has totally led to his current career as both a physician and executive officer of a company. Also, I was strongly convinced of the importance to challenge anything that we get interested in. 

Through the Q&A session, we discussed his mindset towards balancing his work, private life, and company management. His comment that was so impressing was that he always stays aware of the importance of doing the right thing without being in a hurry for results, and he believes other people will naturally follow him if it is right. He also said we don’t have to feel overwhelmed or be afraid of failure even if we cannot have good results quickly, based on his experiences when he had hard time.

The experience of being a student host in this FYRM session has been a very good motivation for me to think once again about my future plans and my life so far, and it really expanded my perspective. Hearing stories from someone who is a medical professional and also a successful businessperson, I decided to try various things to open up my possibilities.