Bruce Aronson is senior advisor to the Japan Center of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute and an adjunct professor at NYU School of Law. He has been a tenured professor of law at universities in the United States (Creighton University) and Japan (Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo). Before beginning his academic career, he was a corporate partner at the law firm of Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP in New York. He also served as an independent director at Eisai Co., Ltd., a listed Japanese pharmaceutical company. Professor Aronson twice received Fulbright grants to be a senior research scholar at the University of Tokyo and at Waseda University, and was a visiting scholar at the Bank of Japan. His main area of research is comparative corporate governance with a focus on Japan and Asia. Publications include a textbook, Corporate Governance in Asia: A Comparative Approach (with J. Kim, Cambridge University Press, 2019). His recent publication Designing a New Framework to Regulate Hostile Takeovers in a Changing Japan is available here.

Andrew McDermott is the founder and president of Mission Value Partners, which manages a global equity portfolio that is currently 100% invested in Japan. His journey in finance began after he graduated from Princeton University with a degree in history and worked at NEC Logistics in Tokyo. In 1994 he joined JPMorgan, where he engaged with a wide array of financial services from infrastructure finance in China to tech IPOs in Hong Kong, Singapore, and San Francisco. He founded Mission Value Partners in 2010.

U.S.-Asia Law Institute

Japan's regulatory system for hostile takeovers remains incomplete, complicated, and uncertain. As the government seeks to reignite economic growth and attract foreign investment, there is new urgency to promote best market practices and reform the system for adjudicating hostile takeover bids. Bruce Aronson, an adjunct law professor at NYU School of Law who has been a practicing lawyer, law professor, and listed company board member in Japan, will share his recommendations from a recent co-authored paper. Andrew McDermott, a long-time investor in Japan with first-hand experience in hostile takeovers in Japan and other markets, will be a discussant.