Moving halfway around the world for college, Shuhei Sekiguchi always had a mind to create breadth in his life. After early jobs centered on especially American domestic pursuits, he looked for something that provided a little more meaning to him, with more of a global flair. Find out how seeing intrigue in the unknown and being ready to say yes can lead to a series of adventures.
Guest Shuhei Sekiguchi had moved halfway around the world to attend college in the Northeast U.S., having been raised in Japan. Though he came from a family steeped in the health professions, he took an interest through internships in advertising and found his first job in that field upon graduation. Not fulfilled by having clients inexplicably shooting down ideas, he found work in sales at an educational start-up to be aligned with a field that felt more fulfilling. What he realized, though is that these early jobs centered on two especially domestic pursuits—advertising and education—and was looking for something that provide a global outlook.
Pharmaceuticals and health care seemed to fit the bill and he started working for Johnson & Johnson in the U.S., beginning a career that would span nearly twenty years and nearly as many time zones—first making a fairly blind jump to Australia, then returning to live in Japan for the first time in more than two decades, and jumping back and forth across the globe for more assignments, creating breadth all the while. Along the way, his family grew and the new generation intertwined with the old.
In this episode, find out from Shuhei how seeing intrigue in the unknown and being ready to say yes can lead to a series of adventures…on ROADS TAKEN...with Leslie Jennings Rowley.
About This Episode's Guest
Shuhei Sekiguchi has spent nearly two decades in various roles at Johnson & Johnson, where his is now President of the Jansen Pharmaceutical Companies of J&J in Tokyo, Japan. He lives there with his wife and two children.
Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley
Music: Brian Burrows
Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com
Email the show at RoadsTakenShow@gmail.com
Shuhei Sekiguchi: Everything is basically a yes, no questionnaire. Right? So are you mobile? Are you willing to go to different parts of the world, but it's not like you have a choice, right? It's not like they come in Allah cart and they say, well, would you like Japan? We should like Germany. Would you like Canada? Because these positions don't open up very often.
Leslie Jennings Rowley: Moving halfway around the world for college, Shuhei Sekiguchi always had a mind to create breadth in his life. After early jobs centered on especially American domestic pursuits, he looked for something that provided a little more meaning to him, with more of a global flair. Find out how seeing intrigue in the unknown and being ready to say yes can lead to a series of adventures…on today's Roads Taken, with me, Leslie Jennings Rowley.
I'm here today with Shuhei Sekiguchi. And we are going to talk about multiple times around this girdled earth and the paths that lead us back home sometimes. So it's so great to see you.
SS: Nice to see you. Thanks for inviting me.
LJR: Well, it's lovely. So Shuhei, we ask the same questions of all of our guests each week and they are these: When we were in college, who were you? And when we were getting ready to leave, who did you think you would be?
SS: Well, I don't think I had too much direction when I was in college. I mean, I certainly remember the fun times, but you know, as far as what I wanted to do you know, once I got out of Dartmouth, I don't know that I really had a clear idea. You know, I think many people know that I was basically been in Japan through high school. And then I went to Hanover, New Hampshire, you know, right from Japan, right? So it was very different experience. And, you know, there were a lot of options about whether I should go back to Japan or whether I should remain in the U.S. and, you know, I think I was considering too many options and I'm not really sure that I really had a direction.
LJR: Yeah. So let's go back even further. How did you to Dartmouth. What was that path for you? And what did you think you were getting into when you got there?
SS: You know, I think the expectation was that I would get away from home, right? Or at least that was the expectation from my parents. And, and in this case, you know, went as far away from Japan as I could. And, you know, I went through the college tours. I, you know, fell in love with Dartmouth. I applied early, I got in early. So by the time I was, you know, Christmas senior year, I was done, but the expectation was always that, that I would probably go to college in the U.S. because I did go to an international school in Japan and, you know, that's what people around me did.
LJR: Yeah. Yeah. So no clear. I want to be a doctor. I want to be in an anything. It was, here's a liberal arts opportunity in our beautiful place?
SS: I mean, I come from a family of physicians, you know, so might my dad was a doctor and he came from a family of nine brothers and sisters, and they were all with the exception of one pharmacists or doctors. So I think the expectation was there. And, you know, when I first graduated from Dartmouth, my first job was in advertising. So, you know, I immediately became the black sheep of the family, you know, people just asking me what I was really trying to do with my life, which, you know, as I said before, you know, still trying to figure out.
LJR: Yeah. Yeah. You and the crazy uncle, like, right. Okay. So advertising came from, I mean, that seemed to be a path that an government.
SS: Government major. Asian studies as a minor, but government.
LJR: Was that through a corporate recruiting, one of these companies that came? No, it was actually through an internship that I had in my junior summer and I worked at a US-based agency and athat's how I ended up getting the job in San Francisco. So that's, that's where I ended up moving after Dartmouth.
LJR: I was there, too. I didn't know that you were there doing that.
SS: So I was there for two years in the height of the dotcom buildup.
LJR: And so where you working for a lot of the, like, did you do the sock puppet for pets.com or any of those crazy…?
SS: Well, we had, yeah, so we had some local clients like sun Microsystems and, you know, also back when, you know, people had those bricks in their hands as cell phones, you know, we worked with Sprint and Telecom. You know, was a good way to kind of get breadth of experience and work with, with clients who were, you know, sometimes unreasonable. And, you know, ultimately the reason I left at advertising was because there was just so little control over what we were doing, right, that you would present an idea. And you had a product manager for, from some client company that would basically tell you that he or she didn't like. Didn't really understand why, but, you know, that meant when you go back to the drawing board and, you know, I think two years in, you know, that was a pretty big moment where it kind of said, well, it's probably not for me, right. I want to do something that's a little more meaningful. And I ended up joining a startup company, which was in education and, you know, it was a little closer to my heart and something that was a little more meaningful.
LJR: Wow. Okay. I didn't know this. So how long did you stick with them?
SS: Four years.
LJR: Is that how you met your wife? Cause she's an educator, too.
SS: Yeah.
LJR: And I know this because this is one of my favorite post-Dartmouth, Dartmouth stories that Shuhei was with his—I'm not sure if you were married then, I think you were—then wife Heather at Heather's friend Janet's wedding. And I was at my husband, Clancy's friend, Janet’s wedding. And I didn't know anyone. I'm not sure if you knew anyone else. And we walked in and I heard Leslie and I said, shoe, both of our spouses looked at each other going, how is this happening? So they were…that was a fun...
SS: You know these weddings. You run into all sorts of random people. Yeah.
LJR: So you were in education and that drew you because it felt meaningful, but still kind of on that creative marketing side?
SS: Yeah. So sales mainly so sales, but also you know, it was a startup company. So we were creating basically college prep materials in the beginning and then kind of moved over to doing something different, right? So basically helping public schools do better on standardized tests and going into underperforming schools to help them with the curriculum. So, you know, my wife now, Heather, was basically building the curriculum. She got a master's in education. She ended up joining the company. I came in through the sales angle and, you know, essentially sell what she built, but, you know, we were all young, right? Like, I mean, it's a good time to meet people. A lot of, you know, a lot of people from that company, Achieve, I still keep in touch with, you know, we work really long hours, but you know, we're all you and going out to have fun and also spend time together, right, Outside of work, which, you know, we do much less of today.
LJR: But that did help with the family-building part of your life. But then at some point there was a step into a different line that would really kind of become the you who you've become., right? So tell me about that.
SS: Yeah. So, you know, I worked at the startup company for four years and that was six years. And I think the thing about start-up companies is that you end up making a lot of decisions and you’re placed in positions where you can make a lot of decisions, but you just don't know that they're actually based on any good decision-making skills or, you know, you realize the gaps that you have. And I ended up going back to business school after that, after six years. And then, you know, that's where you essentially go through a two year process of trying to find your next job, right, in addition to going to school. And, you know, having gone back to this idea that I'm Japanese, you know, I was basically working in a very domestic industry in education as well as advertising. And I thought, well, how do I actually leverage or take advantage of the background that I have? And, you know, is there an opportunity for me to work in a more international industry, right? Cause education is as domestic as you get, right? And then even advertising for that matter, you're, you're basically promoting to a local customer base, right. [LJR: Right.] And that's where I ended up getting interested in healthcare, you know, perhaps that's the family, I don't know, right, by healthcare. And did a summer with a pharmaceutical company, decided that that's what I wanted to do. I didn't join that, that company that I entered that. But ended up joining J &J at graduation. And now it's been 18 years of J&J.
LJR: Yeah, exactly. And you have not only, and we'll get to this, but you know, the geography changes along the way, but there've been lots of different ways that you've contributed and learned within that organization. Some hearkening back to other times, but kind of give us a taste of 15 years in the same company.
SS: Yeah. So it was a, you know, basically a U.S. local hire. Right. And I joined the U S operating company J& J so to learn the business in the largest market in the world. Right? So if you look at the pharmaceutical market over 50% of that market is accounted for by the U.S. So it's a really large market also means you have a lot of resources to kind of sharpen your craft, right? And I did that for about six years in the U.S. in New Jersey, as well as in Pennsylvania. And then I remember I had actually just come back from vacation in the us and you know, my vice president at the time basically came to me on a Thursday evening and said, well, would you like to work overseas? And you know, I've always said I wanted to, but he was pretty vague, right? You know, I didn't know what I was going to be working on, other than the fact that I'd be working somewhere in the Australasia areas, basically is what he said. [LJR: Okay.] And without all the details he basically said, can you make a decision by Sunday right? On whether you would be interested.
LJR: So at this point, tell me about the family.
SS: We were married.
LJR: Okay. Okay. So it's a joint decision in four days.
SS: So I went back Thursday evening and, you know, asked Heather because she was working, right. And we basically had a house, you know, two cars, that kind of thing. And we said, well, what does moving to Australia look like, right. What do we do with our house? Do we rent it out? Do we, you know, what kind of job am I going to? What's Australia like? But, you know, I think the thing about these is, especially when you're young, You kind of just have to dive in and trust that somethings are going to work out, right? And you know, it gets harder and harder as you get kids or, you know, you have a family or you have other responsibilities. But, you know, I'm glad I made the decision I did, cause you know, it led to other opportunities and Australia is a fantastic country to live in, right? Good quality of life and, and you know, a nice change from living in Pennsylvania.
LJR: So it turned out to be Australia?
SS: Yeah, it ended up being Sydney for two years.
LJR: Not bad, not bad. Okay. And so, and what did you do then? What was that? What was gig like?
SS: Yeah, so, you know, basically worked on us CNS, so that's central nervous system product working on schizophrenia, the schizophrenia portfolio. And I led the marketing team there in Australia. So not a huge product about $60 million at the time, but still an interesting opportunity to experience a different market work on a different product and create breadth. I think that's essentially what I was looking for was essentially creating breadth. And I think now in hindsight, the more breadth you create, the less de-railers you have in making decisions along the way, right? That's part of why we encourage different experiences.
LJR: Right, because then you can get deployed in lots of different ways. Have new experiences, kind of a number of people have said previously on this that, you know, we learned how to learn. Right. And so that's kind of, you're taking this into the real world. So talk to me though about, so you're on a product and you’re leading that product. When does an end come to that? Cause it feels like that could be forever. You know, you could be stuck, not stuck, but like I love this or I am stuck or whatever, but how, how do these kind of deployments work in knowing where the end and when the end happens?
SS: Yeah. So this was actually a structured program where you're guaranteed a position to return back to the U.S. position after two years. So we knew the end date was clear, right. And when there's an end date and means that's your end date, right? If it's July 1st, June 30th, your benefits basically, you know, basically, you know, the, all the perks that you have basically disappear June 30th. Right? So it's pretty clear that you're expected to be there for, for a finite period of time. And you're expected to work on your own development, but also contribute to the organization that you're a part of. And then your job is essentially to decide whether you want to go back to the original kind of job you had before. Or, you know, as in my case, I ended up finding my first job in Japan after. And, you know, that's another kind of interesting story where you know, that internship that I mentioned during MBA right, was I was at a different company, but my boss at the time had moved to J&J and we had run into each other over coffee at a regional meeting, right? Because remember I was working in Australia and we joined people from Japan and other Asia Pacific countries. And I kind of ran into him and started talking again. And he said, well, would you like, would you be interested in working in Japan? And I said, yes. And that's how I ended up not returning to Pennsylvania and going to Japan. It's kind of like that wedding in LA, right?
LJR: Yeah, you never know when you're going to see somebody again
SS: …and what that may lead to, right? So, you know, you can call it serendipity, but you know, I think in many ways, someone has a plan.
LJR: Yeah. Right, right. So the plan was to go to Japan. Now, are you coming back as the prodigal black sheep, are people excited or are they still a little disappointed? Like, what is it?
SS: Well, it's a little more acceptable given that, you know, it's, it's in healthcare [LJR: Oh, right, right.]…and you know, and it's also a company that you would recognize, right? In terms of awareness, you're not working for a small startup company in the Bay Area, you're working for a larger healthcare company. So, and I basically, I had not lived in Japan until 2011 and that was the first time I returned back to Japan after ‘92. Yeah.
LJR: Wow. But family is still there?
SS: Yeah. So my parents were, were, were still there at the time and, and our first child Kaito was born in Tokyo. And I remember, I still remember, you know, Heather standing behind me at the check-in counter cause she was seven months pregnant from Sydney. And you know, the rule is that you can't fly, right, when you're that late. And we just kind of checked in and she was hiding behind to make sure that the picture is the same, right on the passport. And then we went to Japan two months later, we had the child and then, you know, we ended up living two blocks away from the school I went to. Son the way to school, on the way to work, sometimes I would see some of these kids, you know, walking the other way towards school and the same path that I used to go to kind of walk up to, to school for, you know, so it's very strange kind of going back to your own hometown after so long. But, you know, I got to spend time with, with my parents and, you know, my dad has passed, but you know, he got a chance to meet our son. You know, and, and our son ended up being born there. So, yeah.
LJR: Very cool. Very cool. But your son is not alone in the next branch of that family tree. So where in the next move and the next child, how does how's the rest of this place? Yeah. So I ended up spending three years in Japan, 2011 to 14. And then after that, I ended up returning back in New Jersey, again with J& J, but working on more of the pipeline products, right? So essentially kind of building out our pipeline for this area in infectious disease and vaccines. So I ended up returning back to New Hope in Pennsylvania, just across the border from New Jersey, which you've been to, Leslie. And then we had our second child Senna in 2014 in Princeton.
LJR: And we, it was so fun to, to see everybody and have you guys here, but we knew it wasn't going to be forever. And we were, we're waiting for the day that you would announced the J&J is going to take you someplace else, which they did. And we wanted to get in your suitcase because it seemed like it was going to be another set of adventures. So tell us more.
SS: Yeah. And then I returned to Japan for the second time to lead up the immunology and infectious disease business. And, you know, that was a pretty neat experience, you know, kind of leading a large group of people for sales and marketing and, you know, launching a number of different products, which in pharmaceutical industry kind of terms is, is a pretty big deal. Right? You get, you don't get to launch a product all the time. So I worked on a couple of launches in Japan. You know, went through a couple of transformations within the company. And then that's when I got asked to go to Taiwan and I ended up going to Taiwan for a couple of years as the managing director for Taiwan. And returned to Japan about a year ago for my third assignment in Japan. All with J&J?
LJR: Now does this one have an end date
SS: In Japan? I mean, usually there is a term that you start off with usually, you know, a few years. But. You know, I think it depends on how I do. Yeah. Right.
LJR: Everything has an end date. Yeah.
SS: I think is, you know, I think, you know, the kids are pretty small, right.
So, you know, our kids are 10 and seven and we've been able to pick up and I think we're relatively, you know, kind of mobile today. But at some point, you know, as the kid's going to start approaching middle. You know, I'm waiting for the moment where, you know, the older son comes to me and tells me that I'm ruining his life and taking him away from his friends. And at some point we're going to have to basically settle down right as they apply for college. You go through everything that we did many years ago.
LJR: Right, right. But they've had an exciting life thus far, and I'm sure their Japanese is very good now after these few tours and family and all of that.
Yeah. Shuhei, when you went so far away, partly because that's what young people kind of want to do, but also because you were seeking experience, is this the type of life that you could have imagined for yourself at 18?
SS: Yeah. The thing about these things is, you know, when you're talking about career development within a large company like this, you know, everything is basically a yes, no questionnaire, right? So are you, are you mobile? Are you willing to go to different parts of the world? And as soon as you say yes, you're being considered, right? Obviously I'm assuming that you're doing a decent job. But it's not like you have a choice, right? It's not like they come in ala cart and they say, well, would you like Japan? Would you like Germany? Would you like Canada? Which one would you like? Because really, you know, these positions don't open up very often and you know, it may not be the market that you want to live in, but if you turn it down, it does not necessarily preclude you in the future, but it does end up in this awkward conversation where you said, you said you were interested and now you're telling me you're not interested because it's Germany. And that can be a an awkward conversation to have, right? So when you say yes, you know, it's yes. You know, up to the company's discretion oftentimes.
LJR: Yeah. So you could have, and that you, you did say yes to Dartmouth and going halfway around the world. And so kind of, it, it seems fitting that you would continue to say yes to these kind of various, like roll the dice kind of experiences.
SS: Yeah. But, you know, I think, you know, we're, we're all obviously the same age and, you know, kind of going through the same stages of life. You know, as we look forward, you know, some of the decisions I think coming up are probably going to be a little differently informed, right? Like we're going to be making probably different decisions and perhaps my next assignment or, you know, future retirement or, you know, what we all kind of think about given that we're all, what approaching 50.
LJR: Yeah, let's keep that, keep that down. No one needs to know. Well, this last 25 years seems to have suited you and been there with the right opportunities. And you were astute enough to make yourself available to them.
SS: Well I mean, I think astute maybe, maybe a part of it, but a lot of it just has to do with luck.
LJR: Right. Good timing then. It's in great timing to get you and probably between meetings 13 hours difference than I or 14, but it's lovely to talk to you and to hear these roads and just share these roads. And we just hope that they sometimes occasionally bring you back to see us on this side of the world.
SS: Yeah. For sure. I look forward to it.
LJR: That was Shuhei Sekiguchi, who has spent nearly two decades in various roles at Johnson & Johnson, where his is now President of the Jansen Pharmaceutical Companies of J&J in Tokyo, Japan. He lives there with his wife and two children. Just as Shuhei has never really known where the next adventure will take him, we are also always looking forward with excitement for another guest each week on the podcast. Be sure to follow or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or check us out at RoadsTakenShow.com so you don't miss a single adventure with my guests and me, Leslie Jennings Rowley, on Roads Taken.