Saya Iwasaki

Saya was born in America, raised Japanese in Africa and Southeast Asia, and nurtured her career in APAC and Silicon Valley. An avid problem solver, her mission is always to help scale the power of people.

She has over 14+ years of experience in education, HR and strategic operations. Prior to Japan, she served as the Head of People for OpenSea, and helped scale DoorDash from 800 to 15,000 employees worldwide. She is currently supporting legacy companies in Japan seeking to reboot their operating culture and infuse innovative practices.

Saya designs & optimizes complex people functions, programs + processes towards desired business outcomes – particularly for companies in the growth stage. She has worked on large-scale global expansions, M&As, C-Suite executive coaching, change management, culture design, HR transformation and operational excellence. She has also overseen end-to-end HR, inclusive of Recruiting, HR Operations, Total Rewards, HR Consulting, Workplace, Employee Engagement and Learning & Development. In a past life, she dove into Sales, Developer Relations and Customer Support.

An avid learner, she completed her Master's at Stanford University (4.2 GPA) and studied Political Studies at Bard College (with her thesis focused on the evolution of feminism in Japan from 1900 - 2012). On the side, when not solving big problems and being a mother to a toddler, you can find her making creative websites that explore the intersection of AI, human psychology and creativity.