Overview:

“This is the highest challenge I‘ve ever had”

Daisaburo Sakurai is STEM’s Senior Vice President and Representative Director of Japan. He joined the company in September 2019 following a successful, award-winning career in the pharmaceutical industry.

He began his professional life at Bayer, where he spent almost 20 years and held several leadership roles in brand marketing. He later joined Biogen as Director, Head of the Neurology Business Unit and one of the Japan Leadership Team members.

  • Joining STEM was a great opportunity to energise the company – and influence all the top pharma companies in Japan.

    I was a client of STEM. I’d never really thought about joining the company. But life’s a journey and suddenly here was an opportunity to take STEM to an exciting new level and grow the business in Japan. It was such a big decision to make, because I had been successful in pharma. But I realised I was in the comfort zone and needed to be jumping out from there to push my boundaries.

    Ultimately, I joined STEM because I wanted to challenge and prove myself, but I also wanted to make a greater contribution to society.

    That’s something we do at STEM, by helping top pharma companies effectively deliver innovative medicines to patients, changing their lives.

  • We pour our time and passion into every single project to create those ‘aha’ moments for our clients.

    Working for STEM is very different to working within a pharma company. Here, it’s like you’re watching 20 different television channels at once – and all of them are different and fascinating!

    These are our clients and we have to keep them all happy and make each one feel special. It requires an enormous amount of skill, agility, energy and emotional intelligence to meet their needs and exceed their expectations – it’s the highest challenge I’ve ever had, but so enjoyable!

  • A career at STEM is what you make of it. Anything is possible.

    We have a team of about 60 in Japan and we’re growing. But we also work with our colleagues in the global STEM team, which has over 500 people. So this is an exciting time and my ambition is to make us the very best consultants to the pharma industry in Japan.
    We accelerate high performance. That’s about putting clients first and doing the right thing. If we do a great job, the public benefits – and that’s something to be proud of. Having the best partnership with clients enables us to develop a new era for STEM in Japan with sustainable growth.

  • Senior leaders in the pharma industry look to us. That’s an enormous responsibility.

    But it’s also a huge opportunity for accelerated career and developmental growth. To be able to have that level of influence – to make decisions that create a positive change – is the kind of career experience that’s absolutely priceless.

    At STEM everyone is a leader. Even if you’re more junior and you think it might be too early in your career for a move to STEM, don’t worry – the support is here to help you grow. Together we’re a very strong team.