Project on Japan - U.S. Relations

IN THE NEWS

(updated 04/06/2005)

Upcoming Events

Midori Goto, concert violinist

April 7, Berkeley College Master's House, 4 pm

Midori's career as a soloist with orchestra and in chamber music performances takes her throughout the United States and abroad, and has spanned over twenty years. Her first violin teacher was her mother, and she continued her studies with Dorothy DeLay in the P re -C ollege program at Juilliard. In 2000, Midori earned her bachelor's degree in psychology and gender studies from the Gallatin School of New York University, and she will complete the master's degree program in F all 2004 . In 1992, Midori founded Midori and Friends , a nonprofit organization that provides arts and music education in underserved schools in New York City , at no cost to the children. She founded an organization in 200 2 with similar goals in Japan , called Music Sharing . Upon receiving the Avery Fisher Prize in 2001, Midori used the monetary award to start a third non-profit organization, Partners in Performance , which brings high-profile chamber music performances to rural communities across America . This academic year marks Midori's fourth on the violin faculty at Manhattan School of Music, and her first as the Jascha Heifetz Chair at USC's Thornton School of Music.

Midori is committed to advocating for education, community outreach, and the arts, and she has spearheaded three non-profit organizations: Midori & Friends, Music Sharing, and Partners in Performance. In addition, she interacts directly with young people in both musical and non-musical encounters through several ongoing projects, notably the University Residencies and Orchestra Residencies programs.

For more information about Midori, visit her website at www.gotomidori.com.  For more information on her music education programs for New York public schools, visit www.midoriandfriends.org.

Timothy C. Collins, SOM '81, Senior Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Ripplewood Holdings LLC

PPE (Politics, Philosophy = Economics)

April 11, 11:30 am, Room A51, Yale School of Management

Timothy C. Collins is the Senior Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Ripplewood Holdings LLC. Mr. Collins founded Ripplewood in 1995 to apply an “Industrial Partnership” approach to leveraged acquisitions. Previously, Mr. Collins managed Onex Corporation’s New York office, where he led the effort to identify and recruit five of the senior operating executives responsible for Onex’s Industrial Partnerships. Mr. Collins also played a key role in overseeing and restructuring several pre-existing Onex investments.

Prior to Onex, Mr. Collins was a Vice President at Lazard Frères & Co., LLC in New York (1984 to 1990) and from 1981 to 1984, he worked with the management-consulting firm of Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Inc., specializing in strategic and operational assignments with major industrial and financial firms. He began his career in finance, marketing, and manufacturing at Cummins Engine Company.

Ripplewood currently manages approximately $3.9 billion of committed capital through four institutional private equity funds: Ripplewood Partners, L.P., Ripplewood Partners II, L.P., RHJ Industrial Partners, L.P. and New LTCB Partners C.V. The company invests in various sectors: education publishing and training, selected technology market segments, automotive retail, specialty chemicals, consumer products & food manufacturing, and industrial products.

Ripplewood’s recent purchase of the Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan, since renamed Shinsei Bank and one of Japan’s largest banks, was the first takeover of a Japanese bank by a foreign investor and the largest LBO ever done.

In addition to serving on the Ripplewood Board, he is a director of Shinsei Bank, WRC Media Inc., Asbury Automotive Group, Columbia Music Entertainment (Japan), D&M Holdings, Inc., Meyer’s Bakeries, and Kraton Polymers LLC. Mr. Collins is a member of the Boards of Lennox Hill Neighborhood House, Yale Divinity School, American Friends of the British Museum, Rosie’s For All Kids Foundation, United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, and the Trilateral Commission.

Mr. Collins has a B.A. degree in Philosophy from DePauw University and a M.B.A. in Public and Private Management from the Yale School of Management.

Past Events

Japan:  Memoirs of a Secret Empire

http://www.pbs.org/empires/japan/index.html

Three-part PBS program on the Tokugawa Shogunate.  Project Director Michael Auslin is a featured commentator. Now available on DVD.