What Silicon Valley Can Learn from Japanese Innovation

Larry Greenwood | Board Member, Japan Society of Northern California

Larry currently serves as Chairman of the Board at Japan Society.  Until July 2015, Larry was senior managing director for government relations in Asia for MetLife. He was responsible for working with governments, legislatures and industry associations to shape financial policies and regulations in Asia. His achievements at MetLife included building a new government relations team in Asia, helping the company open new businesses in Vietnam, Malaysia and Myanmar and supporting U.S. negotiators in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.

Larry served from 2006 to 2011 as vice president at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manila, Philippines, where he oversaw the ADB’s loan and grant operations in East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific Island countries. He played a leading role in helping the bank triple both its lending and capital, increase its budget after a long period of austerity and enhance its development effectiveness.

Larry was a career diplomat from 1976 to 2006 serving in a variety of positions in the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C., and at U.S. embassies in Manila, Dakar, Tokyo and Singapore. He served twice in the embassy in Tokyo from 1986-91 and from 1996-2000 working on a broad range of trade and investment issues, including insurance, telecommunications, retail, air and maritime transport, competition policy, deregulation and corporate governance.

Larry served as U.S. ambassador to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group from 2000 to 2003 and led the team supporting presidential participation in APEC summits in Brunei, Shanghai and Los Cabos. He retired in 2006 as principal deputy assistant secretary in the Economic Bureau of the U.S. State Department where he was responsible for international financial and development matters, including leading the restructuring of Iraqi debt in 2005.

Larry is a senior adviser at Bower Group Asia and advises clients on government relations and international economic policy, with expertise in trade, finance, development and Asia. In addition to supporting clients in the San Francisco Bay Area, Larry draws on his experience over the past four decades to help clients address business issues in Japan.

Larry holds a Bachelor of Arts from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, and a Master of Arts from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Medford, Massachusetts. He speaks and reads Japanese and French.