Ambassador George Hara founded DEFTA Partners in 1984 and serves as its Founder, Group Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer. Ambassador Hara is a Partner at Pond Venture Partners Ltd. He has led more than 20 companies competing with Microsoft for dominance in the software industry – including Borland, PictureTel, SCO, Tradex and Unify to success. Ambassador Hara is active in venture capital and high technology American and Japanese alliances since 1984. He is known as a leading edge venture capitalist and visionary leader in information technology in Japan and the Pacific Rim region. He is responsible for helping portfolio companies build international business alliances that aim to generate substantial revenue growth, particularly in Japan and Asia. He has managed his venture capital funds (DEFTA VENTURE FUNDS) for the U.S., U.K., and Israeli startups mainly in the areas of software, telecommunications, and Internet.

He served as Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Finance, and the Prime Minister’s Special Commissioner on the Government Tax Panel, as Advisor to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and as a member of various government committees, including Japan’s Industrial Structure Council of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry as well as works Special Advisor of the Prime Minister of Japan.

He currently serves as Chairman of the Alliance Forum Foundation (AFF), a non-profit organization comprised of a number of divisions, notably the Alliance Forum Development Program (AFDP) and the Public Interest Capitalism Research Institute (AFRI). AFDP implements the organization’s international development activities focused on (1) eradicating malnutrition, (2) improving education and health care, and (3) promoting economic self-reliance and empowerment in developing nations.

Ambassador Hara established Healthcare Game Changers: Innovations in Science, Policy & Business for Healthy Aging in San Francisco, USA via Alliance Forum.

He is also the Author of numerous articles and publications, including a Japanese best-seller entitled 21 Seiki no Kokufuron (An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations in the 21st Century), and (New Capitalism) book published by PHP Institute in 2009.