57: Frank Packard, Founder & President, Triple A Partners Co. Ltd.

<p>Frank Packard takes us through his journey in Japan as well as different cultures and business experience in the financial industry. Mr. Packard was originally born in Japan and grew up in the US hoping to pursue law or journalism at Princeton University. After graduating, he lived in Cairo, Egypt for a while before returning to Wall Street to enter the financial industry, starting as an analyst at Paine Webber in 1984. He rapidly worked his way up and arrived in Tokyo in 1986 as the Vice President of the Tokyo branch. Since then, Mr. Packard has held leadership positions covering not only Japan but Asia Pacific regions at multinational financial corporations including Drexel Burnham, Bankers Trust and Bank of America. He is the Founder and President of Triple A Partners, an independent company focused on third-party fund-raising, equity research and corporate finance.</p> <p> </p> <p>Much of his leadership style is modelled after what he had learned from his early days in finance from his mentors. On his first multinational leadership experience, Mr. Packard recalls trying to break down the hierarchy by making an open office seating arrangement, which was uncommon during the 80s and early 90s. Mr. Packard also recognized the diversity of Japanese people, with different interest, hobbies and background, which he found shocking in the beginning. He also points out that though he found it challenging to hold non work-related conversations initially, he gradually learned to “let people go at their own pace” to learn something outside of work about his staff. On engaging with the younger generation, Mr. Packard admits it is difficult as the youth have many more choices than those in the 1980s. On gaining trust, Mr. Packard claims that listening to people and having patience is key to winning them over in Japan. After gaining further experience leading a team in Hong Kong for Bankers Trust, Mr. Packard began a joint securities company focused on fund placement. He built on this experience as the HSBC head of North