Leadership

The Rt. Hon. Ruth Kelly is an Independent Director for Gorilla Technology.

Since November 2021, Ms. Kelly has been non-executive Chair of Thames Freeport, a private-sector led, UK government sponsored regeneration initiative, north of the Thames Estuary. Since September 2020, Ms. Kelly has been a member of the Vatican’s Council for the Economy, which oversees the Holy See’s finances.

Since April 2019, Ms. Kelly has also been a non-executive Director of Heathrow Airport and a member of the airport’s Audit and Finance committees. From April 2016 to March 2019, Ms. Kelly served as a non-executive director of the Financial Conduct Authority, the regulator of the conduct of financial services in the UK; throughout that time, she also served as Chair of the regulator’s Audit Committee and member of its Risk Committee.

Between October 2011 and July 2017, Ms. Kelly was a non-executive director of National Grid, one of the world’s largest publicly listed utilities focused on transmission and distribution of electricity and gas across the UK and US, serving on its finance, audit and nomination committees. From September 2015 to August 2019, Ms. Kelly served as Pro Vice Chancellor of St Mary’s University, Twickenham, London, overseeing the development, enterprise and research agendas.

From May 2010-August 2015, Ms. Kelly worked as a Managing Director at HSBC Bank, during which time she became Global Head of Client Strategy in HSBC Global Asset Management, overseeing global marketing and managing global relationships across the banking group.

From May 1997 to April 2010, Ms. Kelly was a UK politician, serving in various ministerial capacities including as Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Minister of State in the Cabinet Office, Secretary of State for Education, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and Secretary of State for Transport.

From September 1994 to April 1997, Ms. Kelly worked as an economist at the Bank of England. From August 1990 to September 1994, Ms. Kelly was an economics journalist on The Guardian newspaper. In 1992, Ms. Kelly received a Masters of Science from the London School of Economics. Ms. Kelly graduated from The Queen’s College, Oxford, in 1989 in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.

Yoichiro Hirano is currently an Independent Director for Gorilla Technology.

Mr. Hirano is the founder of Asteria Corporation (TSE:3853) and has been the Chief Executive Officer since 1998. He also serves as a director and Chairman of the Board of the company.

Mr. Hirano has over thirty years of experience in the software industry, beginning in 1998 when he founded the Infoteria Corporation, the predecessor to Asteria. He has served as a Visiting Professor at Aoyama Gakuin University, Graduate School of Social Informatics from 2008 to 2011.

Prior to founding Asteria, he led the Marketing and Strategic Planning team for ten years at Lotus Development Corporation, which was acquired by IBM.

Mr. Hirano attended Kumamoto University where he studied Applied Chemistry.

Gregg Walker is currently an Independent Director for Gorilla Technology.

Mr. Walker joined Muller & Monroe Asset Management as a Partner and Managing Director in July 2021 and leads the co-investment efforts of the firm as well as the firm’s New York City office. Mr. Walker founded G.A. Walker, LLC in July 2016 when he left his position as the Senior Vice President for Corporate Development at Sony Corporation of America (Sony), a position he had held since March 2009, and he has been the Managing Member of G.A. Walker, LLC since its inception.

Mr. Walker is currently a member of the Board of Vewd Software A/S and of Blue Whale Acquisition Corp I (a SPAC sponsored by Mubadala Capital). While serving as the Managing Member of G.A. Walker, LLC, Mr. Walker also served as the President and COO of Remarkable, LLC, a live entertainment company based in New York City, from 2017 until January 2021. When Remarkable, LLC invested in the Big Apple Circus in 2017, Mr. Walker added the role of CEO of the Big Apple Circus to his list of responsibilities and served as the CEO of the Big Apple Circus until January 2021. During Mr. Walker’s tenure as CEO, the Big Apple Circus achieved record levels of revenues.

At Sony, Mr. Walker worked across all of Sony’s business units including PlayStation, Sony Pictures, Sony Music, and Sony Electronics, and Mr. Walker had helped lead many major transactions and strategic efforts, including Sony’s purchase of the 50% of Sony/ATV Music Publishing previously owned by the Michael Jackson Estate. Mr. Walker served on the Board of Directors of movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) as well as on the Boards of EMI Music Publishing and Sony/ATV Music Publishing. In 2010, he was chosen by Crain’s New York Business as one of New York City’s 40 Under 40 Rising Stars.

Prior to joining Sony, Mr. Walker was Vice President of Mergers and Acquisitions at Viacom for three years. Before, Viacom, Mr. Walker was a Vice President at Goldman Sachs in the investment banking division. Mr. Walker was at Goldman Sachs for nearly a decade.

Mr. Walker earned an undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis and a law degree from Yale Law School. In 2012, Mr. Walker was honored by Washington University as one of six alumni to receive a Distinguished Alumni Award, and Washington University honored him again in 2016 with the Alumnus of the Year Award for the New York City metro area.

Mr. Walker is the former President of the Levitt Foundation, the former Chairman of the Harlem YMCA (where his leadership resulted in the Harlem YMCA achieving the Transformational Leadership Award from the YMCA of New York City — an award that had only ever been awarded once before), and a member of the Board of Harlem RBI (now called “Dream”).