Greetings from the CEO

My name is Katsuhiko Takata.

I am a professor at the Institute of Wood Technology at Akita Prefectural University in Japan. I am also the CEO of a university-initiated venture company.

I would like to share some public relations material pertaining to our company.

Our company is named the Forest Products Bioeconomy Promotion Agency, BePA for short. It was founded in 2018.

BePA’s objectives are outlined below:

1.        To promote bioeconomy based on Japanese nature, culture, and history

2.        To socially promote the use of environment-friendly wood-like products made from new types of forest-based materials developed at the university

We believe that instead of depleting fossil resources, the utilization of forest-based products, especially wood, should be taken very seriously not just to encourage bioeconomy in Japan but also to revitalize the country’s densely forested rural regions.

The next slide positions the company between forests and end-users and places it between the needs of industries and the seeds of solutions proposed by academia.

The flow of roles and activities from forests to end-users may be observed in the downward vertical movement demonstrated in the middle of the slide.

This flow evinces the process of transfiguration from raw materials to final products, and our company is central to this progression.

We will consult with industries and academia about their needs and seeds, and will try to encourage collaborative research and development between the two sectors using new types of the environment-friendly forest-sourced materials to generate novel products and markets.

This slide displays a sample of our brand-new forest-sourced material.

You can see a small piece of wood akin to laminated veneer lumber (LVL), but the veneer is extremely thin at just 0.4 mm or 400μm, and 25 veneers are laminated using a considerably small amount of glue.

This material is remarkably flexible and is very easy to bend and twist.

Applying this technology, we can produce high-performing plywood-like board materials capable of 3-dimensional deformation.

It is also my hope that you will soon see new products made with this strange but interesting material.

Thank you very much for your attention.

I will see you in the future.

Professional career of the CEO, Katsuhiko Takata.

Professonal Experiance:

<Company>

04/2018 – present 

CEO of Forest Product Bioeconomy Promotion Agency Co. Ltd. (BePA)

<Academia>

04/2020 – present

Director of Institute of Wood Technology, Akita Prefectural University

04/2007 – present             

Professor in Akita Prefectural University

10/2001 – 03/2007            

Associate Professor in Akita Prefectural University March 2007

01/1994 – 09/2001            

Assistant Professor in Kyushu University

07/1992 – 12/1993            

Post-doctoral researcher in FFPRI, Japan

<Overseas’ Research Fellowship>

 01/2011 – 02/2011           

INRA・Orleans, Orleans, France (JSPS)

 10/2004 – 11/2004      

Jatland county council Institute of rural development, Brisgarden, Sweden (JSPS)

 05/1999 – 12/1999      

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umea, Sweden (JSPS)

 10/1995 – 05/1996      

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umea, Sweden (Swedish Institute Post Doctoral Fellowship)

<Educational History>

03/1992                     

Doctor of Agriculture / Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan

Dissertation title “Estimation of Wood Quality of Forest Trees of Japanese Larch by Means of Modulus of Elasticity of Tree Trunk

03/1989                     

MA in Agriculture / Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan

03/1987                            

BA in Agriculture / Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan