Director

Kanae Gamo is the Chief Executive Officer of FIMECS, leading the company’s overall strategy and operations. She began her career at Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited in 2009, working as a biologist in oncology and immunology drug discovery. In 2018, she cofounded FIMECS with former Takeda colleagues as a spinout biotech originating from Takeda. She initially served as Vice President of Biology and was appointed Chief Scientific Officer in 2021. In parallel with building FIMECS, she earned her Ph.D. from the University of Tsukuba in 2020. She has extensive expertise in molecular biology, genetics, epigenetics, and next generation sequencing, and has taken increasing responsibility across target identification and validation throughout her pharmaceutical career. Leveraging FIMECS’ proprietary drug discovery platform, RaPPIDS, she drives both internal and collaborative programs with the aim of delivering innovative, lifesaving medicines to patients worldwide.

Katsuhiro Uto enriches our board’s decision-making process with a fresh and impartial perspective as a board member. His began his professional carrier in 2005 at Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim as a senior research scientist, subsequently expanding his experience at two Japanese specialty pharmaceutical companies. Throughout his carrier, he has been deeply involved in drug discovery and development, achieving significant progress across respiratory, immunology, dermatology and pain management therapeutic areas. He has also led numerous international research collaborations and strategic alliances. In 2021, he joined RaQualia Pharma Inc. and served as a Board Director and Head of Research and Development from 2022 to 2026. Since 2026, He has been leading the Business Strategy Department as Chief Strategic Officer, driving strategy and growth initiatives of RaQualia Group.

Motonori Shimizu serves as the CAO at FIMECS, overseeing the company’s administrative functions. He has extensive experience in human resources and general affairs across multiple companies. At a company of Toyota Tsusho Group, he played a key role as a manager in designing and implementing personnel evaluation and compensation systems. In 2022, he joined RaQualia Pharma, where he led the reforming of the personnel evaluation system and restructuring of the organization as the head of the HR group. In 2025, he was appointed as an Executive Officer in charge of corporate management (current role). In 2025, he joined FIMECS as Vice President of Corporate Development.