George Hara

Group Chairman and CEO
DEFTA Partners
Chairman of Board
Alliance Forum Foundation (Organization in Special Consultative Status with the UN Economic and Social Council)

Mr. George Hara is an archaeologist, tech entrepreneur, and venture capitalist.
 
In the public sector in Japan, Ambassador Hara served as Intergovernmental Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to United Nations, and was Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Finance, the Prime Minister’s Special Commissioner on the Government Tax Panel, an advisor to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and a member of various government committees, including Japan’s Industrial Structure Council of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. In these capacities, Ambassador Hara’s efforts are aimed at lowering tax rates while increasing tax revenues in order to enable the Japanese government to establish fiscal discipline.
 
In the private sector, Mr. Hara founded DEFTA Partners in 1984, and himself became a Partner at Accel Partners in 1990. He was considered one of the most prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalists in the 1990s and has led more than twenty companies – including Borland, PictureTel, SCO, Tradex, and Unify – to success. Since 2000, Mr. Hara has served as chairman of the board or helped to manage a number of U.S., Israeli and UK companies including Oplus Technologies (Merged with Intel in 2005), Broadware (merged with Cisco in 2007), Transitive Tech (merged with IBM in 2008) and Fortinet (NASDAQ IPO in 2009).
 
In the area of biotech and healthcare, Mr. Hara invested in IONIS (formerly named ISIS), the world’s first RNA-based therapy company, later went IPO in Nasdaq (NASDAQ: IONS), Arris Pharmaceutical, the world’s first bioinformatics company, later acquired by Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX), and VIAGENE, the world’s first gene therapy company, later acquired by Novartis (NYSE: NVS). DEFTA Partners also invested in Taiwanese pharmaceutical company Acepodia (TPEx: 6976) at its early stage, which went IPO in Taipei Exchange in August 2023.
 
DEFTA Partners has a long-term relationship with top universities and research institutes worldwide to commercialize R&D achievements and to create new industries. His vision is to make the new technologies and treatments accessible to patients, and thus create a thick layer of healthy and well-educated middle class all over the world.
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Speech title & Synopsis

To Build Well-educated, Healthy Middle Class by Establishing Technology Industry

As the world is facing challenges in such turbulence time, foster technology-based industries can create prosperity for the future of Asia.
 
- The importance of technology in sustaining Asia’s economy.
- Strategies for creating a well-educated middle class through creation of technology-based industries.
- The role of Public Interest Capitalism in creating technology-based industry and ensuring equitable growth.