Hill is a passionate and dynamic business and civic leader. As President and CEO of Oak Lawn Marketing, Inc. from 2006 until 2017, the company grew from ¥15 billion to ¥68 billion in sales. Hill and his management team created a powerful corporate culture based on the vision of “enriching lifestyle’s worldwide.” In 2009 he orchestrated one of the largest M&A transactions of the year, when NTT Docomo took a 51% share in OLM. In September of 2017, Hill stepped down from the day-to-day operations but remains active as an outside director. In addition to Better-U and Oak Lawn Marketing, Hill has founded, managed or been on the board of numerous companies in a variety of industries such promoting international exchange and education, sports and entertainment management, real estate and relocation services, master planned community development including the development of two golf courses, and a SAAS company that analyzes GPS data to understand human behavior.
Hill is active both as a business and civic leader. He was appointed by the White House from 2014-2020 to serve as the Co-Chair of CULCON, a bi-national group advising the US and Japanese governments on promoting the next generation of leaders and as Chair of the Japan-US Friendship Commission. He is also Vice Chair of the Japan-U.S. Bridging Foundation, which supports US students with scholarships to study in Japan. He is an active leader of the American Chamber of Commerce Japan (ACCJ).
In Japanese, his two of his favorite words are the homonym Souzou (想像/創造). The first characters mean imagine and the second characters mean to build. Hill’s management and leadership philosophy encompasses both meanings, imagining unrealized potential that is tempered with a concrete blueprint to achieve. The two words must co-exist for sustained success. Hill and his wife of 36 years, Yumiko, have 5 children and one grandchild. He is a 5th degree black belt in Shojinji Kempo and currently coaches kickboxing at the UFC Gyms in Japan. He has acted in several productions of Shakespeare with the Nameless Theatre group in Nagoya.
