Founder

Asim Ali

Country Manager Pakistan

Asim is the Country Manager for Profound Vision K.K. in Pakistan and his main area of focus are Marketing and Human Resource Management. Before taking this role, he was a professional Forex Trader in Dubai and London with Saxo Bank.

His family firm had a long history of dealing with prominent Japanese automobile manufacturers Hino Trucks and Mitsubishi Motors. Upon graduation, Asim joined his family business and worked in the business development division. Later his role was to routinely interact with Hino Trucks and Mitsubishi Motors headquarters to guide and educate them on Pakistan’s customer behaviors and pricing models. He established and managed the Dubai office as an expat for 10 years.

Asim received his Bachelor’s in Commerce from the University of Karachi and a postgraduate degree from the Institute of Business Administration, Pakistan. He is fond of chess, swimming, reading fiction and autobiographies.

Daishiro Aramaki

Honorary Advisor

Daishiro serves as the Honorary Advisor for Profound Vision K.K. Previously he was the CEO of 'Kabukiza Butai' and also the Board of Directors of Shochiku, as well as the Chairman of Shochiku Geino.

He was recognized for his role in Kabuki's inbound activities and was appointed as "VISIT JAPAN Ambassador" by the Japan Tourism Agency. A few highlights of his career consist of his participation in the Grand Gala opening at the Aratani Theatre in Los Angeles. Moreover, he was also an official representative of Shochiku in 'Ichikawa Ennosuke' European performance.

He graduated from the Faculty of Law from Kyoto University. Other achievements include productions of "Dragon Quest" musical in which the leading Japanese pop artist group "SMAP " participated. He is also a regular lecturer at the NHK Culture Center in Fukuoka City. His hobbies include golf and jazz music.

Daniel T. Allen

Country Manager for the United States

Daniel serves as Country Manager for the United States for Profound Vision K.K. He is also the Managing Director of the Americas for BennBridge, a subsidiary of a 14-billion-dollar asset management group headquartered in Australia. Prior to this role, he was CEO of Aliier Global, GmbH, a global financial platform that worked with asset managers across Europe, North America, Australasia, and Japan.

Daniel started his career as a turn-around consultant, and he moved into finance 20 years ago when recruited by Citigroup Smith Barney NYSE:C. His career has focused on asset managers seeking transnational business opportunities across various international markets to include Japan.

Daniel received his BBA from Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia. He runs one of the largest online ESG Investing Groups in the world and has also spoken at the closing bell ceremony of both the NYSE and NASDAQ on the topic. Daniel loves art, scuba diving, and traveling with his wife. Early in his career, he had the opportunity to live in Japan for several years, where he lived and was especially proud of having a Japanese driver's license.

Founder

David Curry

Chief Information Officer

David serves as Chief Information Officer of Profound Vision. Prior to co-founding Profound Vision, David was head of Banking Technology for Japan, Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. Based in Tokyo, he also oversees technology risk and control for banking entities in Asia Pacific.

David joined J.P. Morgan in 2013. He has previously held a range of senior positions at RBS, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch in Japan and New York. In these roles, David led significant IT transformations, and most recently, the use of innovation and disruptive technology to produce solutions in the areas of Treasury Services and Cash Management.

David studied Computer Science at the University of Sydney. He is also fluent in Japanese and has spent the last 25 years working in Finance in Tokyo. David is an avid golfer and basketball lover, a dad of 3 teenage boys, who can't find enough time in the week to complete all these activities.

Muhammad Yar Hiraj

Special Advisor

Hiraj serves as Special Advisor to the Management for Profound Vision. Previously, Hiraj spent over a decade with Morgan Stanley's technology investment Bank and advisory businesses based out of New York, San Francisco, and Tokyo.

Hiraj has also led numerous strategic advisory assignments for big technology multinational companies including Intel, Amazon, eBay, Intuit, NEC, Sony, Yahoo, and Samsung, among others.

Currently he is the CEO of OneLoad, which is the first independent fintech firm in Pakistan that successfully digitized and captured micro-SMEs in the Pakistan market.

Hiraj has an undergraduate degree from Brown University and a master's degree from Harvard University. Hiraj enjoys speaking in Japanese and is very fond of Japanese culture. Further, he has worked with many technology startups as an adviser and a potential investor, several of which became world-leading companies.

Principal Founder

Mariko Goto

Joint Representative Director

Mariko serves as Representative Director of Profound Vision and is also a founding partner. Her family is based in Yamagata Prefecture.

Prior to founding Profound Vision Mariko worked in several prestigious IT firms, such as NEC, Toshiba, and IBM Japan. She has expertise in supply chain management, client support, and human resource protocols. Mariko is bicultural and has developed expertise in navigating cultural gaps that can develop between offshore companies and Japan.

Mariko received her undergraduate degree from Toyoko-Gakuen Women’s College. Her interests include music, piano, trombone, and watching figure skating.

Founder

Nobuo Shiobara

CEO and Representative Director

Nobuo serves as President and Representative Director (CEO) of Profound Vision. Prior to Profound Vision, Nobuo was an executive at Honda Motors Japan and was leading the PR team for Honda Motors Japan. During his time at Honda Motors Japan, he also worked closely with Honda Motor USA for all market press coverage in the USA.

Later Nobuo was invited to initiate and become a start-up member and a co-founder for an American PR firm, Fleishman Hillard Japan, to establish Japan operations as part of the senior management, and to act as Senior Advisor for the firm.

Nobuo later was later engaged with the Ibaraki Prefectural Government office to head up their PR division, responsible for prefectural government affairs’ PR, both local and on a national scale.

Nobuo will be guiding the Profound Vision team in Research and Development, focusing on the Smart Community projects driven by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MEITI), and Toyota’s WOVEN City project.

Nobuo attended Keio University in Tokyo, Japan and graduated from the School of Economics.

Founder

Nofil Iqbal

Chief Operating Officer

Nofil Iqbal is Co-Founder and COO of Profound Vision. Prior to Profound Vision, he was a US Equity Sales Trader and Fund Marketer and worked for firms like Smith Barney/Citibank, HSBC Premier, and Capital Asset Management for over 20 years.

After the collapse of HSBC Premier Japan, he worked for Ernst Young Japan and was nominated among the Japanese Prime Minister’s initiative, the Abenomics Project. He has remarkable experience in Marketing and focusing on financial business development with innovative solutions and aligning clients’ interests. In addition, his expertise includes taking boutique brands in the domestic and global markets to exceptional standards and marketing brands and new product strategies.

Nofil attended St. Mary’s International School in Tokyo, Japan. He received his undergraduate degree from St. Patrick College, and majored in Economics. He is also fluent in Japanese and has been living in Japan for over 30+ years. His interests include baseball, politics, and history. His Favorite quote is: "Thy Sea, O God so great My boat, so Small."

Founder

Paul G. Guilfoile

Chairman

Paul serves as Chairman and co-founder of Profound Vision. Previously, Paul was the Chairman of Kirin-Tropicana, Inc. in Japan, under Joseph E. Seagrams and Pepsico. Paul led the development of Tropicana juice in Japan for over 16 years, making it the #1 juice brand in Japan today, and the largest juice brand in Asia.

Paul was also in two major advertising agencies in Japan prior to this with accounts such as Uni-Lever, DeBeers Diamonds, IBM Asia, and Coca-Cola. Paul is an expert in bringing new businesses into Japan and building brands over time. He is also an expert in helping brands and the organizations behind them adapt to the Japanese consumer and business culture.

Paul is a graduate of the Comparative Culture Department of Sophia University. He was the chairman of the St. Mary’s International School Alumni Association. He has lived in Japan for over 57 years.

Vivien Allen

Director of Communications

Vivien serves as the Director of Communications for Profound Vision. She retired from the position of Senior Litigation Paralegal after a career spanning 30 years, working in various commercial litigation firms, assigned to top litigation attorneys. Her primary specialty was electronic case management and electronic discovery, which involved utilizing state of the art litigation software. Since retirement she has become active in volunteering in various local organizations.

Vivien attended the University of Denver in Denver, Colorado. Her degree focused on Communication, Writing, and Business Management.

Vivien is married to Daniel Allen. They have two adult children and four grandchildren. She and Daniel recently relocated to Georgetown, Kentucky from Nashville, Tennessee. They moved to be closer to their family, grandchildren and horses. She also enjoys cooking and following political and business news.

CEO Message

Profound Vision was established as a Sole Proprietorship 12 years ago, and on April 30th 2021, we converted the company to a ‘Company Limited’ entity.

Since establishment, we have been working closely with various cottage industries of Japan and especially with the Municipal Government of Yonezawa and Yamagata Prefectural Government (Agriculture Division). We have also been consultants for various global Asset Managers.

We decided to incorporate the company when I realized that Japan's IT resources are seriously depleted with projections for a large shortage of 790,000 IT engineers in Japan by 2030. Also, the Japanese Government has signed several Memorandums of Understanding with the Sub-Continent countries and is inviting young and educated IT Engineers to Japan to work for Japanese enterprises.

With this in mind, we immediately opened an office in Karachi, Pakistan and we are preparing to open an office in Australia and the USA in the very near future. As Profound Vision has a strong bi-lingual/bi-cultural team we seek to become a global firm that is admired and respected.

It is essential that we align our actions with focus on meeting our client needs while working closely with our business partners and with our core customers, and establishing a solid business foundation amidst a challenging operating environment.

My mission is to extend this trajectory into the future and turn Profound Vision into a leading global company.

Welcome to Profound Vision!

Nobuo Shiobara

Representative Director and CEO

Our Story

In September of 2009, at a Yamagata Harvest event (referred to locally as Imoni-Kai) held at Tamagawa Jyosui Park in Tokyo, Japan. An idea was conceived to create a company that would export the unique products of the cottage industries and arts of Yamagata Prefecture to the world.

As the company took form, the president chose a very distinctive name, ‘Profound’, that originated in part from a speech delivered by John F. Kennedy in 1962 at the Kennedy Center stating, “Art is political in the most profound sense.” Vision was later added, to memorialize that the founders had a vision for the future of Japan.

In October 2009, Mariko Goto formed and registered “Profound Vision Private Limited” with the Japanese local authorities and on April 30, 2021, Profound Vision changed its status to a corporation (public limited company).