Kohei Nishiyama

Kohei Nishiyama is a Japanese serial entrepreneur and investor in the IT field, recognized as a pioneer in crowdfunding. He established the world's first crowdfunding prototype in 1997, establishing him as a leader in the field. He is the co-founder of ELEPHANT DESIGN HOLDINGS Ltd., which focuses on online platform technologies. He founded CUUSOO SYSTEM Co., Ltd., an open innovation platform that aggregates distributed intellectual resources.
==Early life and education==
Nishiyama was born in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. He lived in Colombia, South America during his teenage years with his family. After returning to Japan and graduating from University of Tokyo, he pursued his studies in industrial design at Kuwasawa Design School.https://b.kobe-u.ac.jp/interview_files/26.pdf
After starting his career, he returned to the University of Tokyo and earned a PhD in Engineering from Graduate School of Engineering, Department of Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies in 2017.https://www.rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/research/people/staff-nishiyama_kohei.htmlhttps://www.ais.rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/about/roundtable_2019.html
Career
1994 Nishiyama’s career began as a consultant at McKinsey & Company.https://b.kobe-u.ac.jp/interview_files/26.pdf
1997 He established elephant design (currently ELEPHANT DESIGN HOLDINGS, ltd.) with his former classmate from Kuwasawa Design School.https://elephantdesignholdings.com/en/
1998 Nishiyama incorporated elephant design and became the CEO and a board member.https://elephantdesignholdings.com/en/
2006 Nishiyama co-founded Student Innovation College, a program supporting university students to learn how to conduct crowd funding projects.https://bpa-japan.org/student-innovation-college/
2007 He opened LEGO CUUSOO, a crowdsourcing/crowdfunding site, as a joint venture between elephant design and LEGO SYSTEM A/S.https://www.dexigner.com/news/23980https://www.hispabrickmagazine.com/pdfs/HBM026_EN/HBM026_EN-17-19.pdf
2011 Nishiyama incorporated CUUSOO system and serves as founder and CEO.https://cuusoo.co.jp/en/index.html
2013 Audiovisual division of ELEPHANT DESIGN HOLDINGS, ltd. was spun out. Nishiyama serves as a board member.http://www.elephant-design.com/
2014 LEGO CUUSOO had its exit to LEGO and is now operated by LEGO’s official service, LEGO IDEAS.https://www.lego.com/en-us/lego-history/lego-ideas-d967cd51dd55442da8a89b8e1abadf94
Board and committee positions
2002 Nishiyama was selected as a judge and unit head of New Business Category for Good Design Award.https://archive.g-mark.org/2002/11jury.html
2007 - 2013 Nishiyama was a member of World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leader.https://www.younggloballeaders.org/community?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=Kohei+Nishiyama&x=0&y=0&status=&class_year=§or=®ion=#results
2010 Nishiyama was elected as a member of International Selection Committee for the 2014 designation of World Design Capital from International Council of Societies of Industrial Design(Icsid).https://wdo.org/programmes/wdc/becoming-a-wdc/selection-committee/past-committees/https://businessofhome.com/articles/icsid-seeks-world-design-capital-for-2014
2011 Nishiyama was selected as a member of The Board to Icsid.https://wdo.org/press-release/2011-2013-icsid-executive-board-elected-and-finalists-announced-for-inaugural-world-design-impact-prize/
2012 - 2015 He served as a member of The Board to Japan Institute of Design Promotion (JDP).https://www.jidp.or.jp/en/2012/07/03/Kohei-Nishiyama-and-Matsutaro-Fukumitsu-Newly-inaugurated-as-directors-of-JDP
2011 - 2013 He was an executive board member of World Design Organization (WDO).https://wdo.org/press-release/2011-2013-icsid-executive-board-elected-and-finalists-announced-for-inaugural-world-design-impact-prize/
Nishiyama is also a member of Asia Society’s Asia 21 Young Leaders Class of 2012.https://asiasociety.org/asia21-young-leaders/class-2012 as well as a member of Japan Society’s US-Japan Innovator Network.https://www.japansociety.org/content.cfm/kohei_nishiyama
Academic positions
2018 Nishiyama became a Project Lecturer at Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST) of University of Tokyo, after serving as Co-operative Research Fellow. https://www.rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/research/people/staff-nishiyama_kohei.html
Nishiyama is also an Adjunct Professor at Tama Art University.http://www.idd.tamabi.ac.jp/design/outline/faculty/visiting/nishiyama.html
Recognition
2009 Nishiyama was chosen as one of the Most Creative People 2009 by FastCompany.https://www.fastcompany.com/most-creative-people/2009
2014 Nishiyama was selected as one of Most Creative People in Business 1000 by FastCompany.https://www.fastcompany.com/3025456/most-creative-people-in-business-1000-the-complete-list
Category:Japanese businesspeople
Category:1970 births
Category:University of Tokyo alumni