Thomas P. Logan

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Thomas P. (Tom) Logan

Born	January 31, 1956 (1956-01-31) (age 52) Los Angeles County, California, United States
Occupation	businessman, venture capitalist, former space journalist
Nationality	American

Thomas P. Logan トーマス・P・ローガン (Tom Logan) is an American-born businessman, venture capitalist, Rotary International Fellow (Class of 1981 from USA to Japan), former space journalist and staff member for a United States Congressman^[1]. He has served in a variety of other positions in the United States and Asia.

He began his career in 1978 as a clerical intern and assistant in Santa Monica, California to Bay Buchanan, who later became Treasurer of the United States, at the Citizens for the Republic (CFTR). A public policy research think-tank and political action committee established by former California Governor Ronald Reagan in Santa Monica, California, CFTR facilitated Mr. Reagan's eventual run for President in 1980. Logan went on to serve for three years as a district deputy and legislative staff aide to a United States Congressman on Capitol Hill, specializing on East Asian affairs for the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs and issues relating to Airborne Collision Avoidance System. He assisted in the drafting of H.R. 3004^[2] and later H.R. 4304^[3] in the House Committee on Science and Technology, (now known as House Science Committee), mandating the use of ACAS systems on all civil and military aircraft within the United States which was later passed. Assignments took him to refugee camps and close to hot Cambodian-Vietnamese War zones on the Thai-Cambodian^[4] and Thai-Laotion borders during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Upon return to the United States, he remained active in resettlement and family reunification efforts on behalf of the Vietnamese, Lao and Cambodian refugee communities. Comments on the human tragedy he directly witnessed in Southeast Asia were reflected in the form of his poem, entered in the Congressional Record on January 24, 1980.

[edit] Personal and career background

Thomas P. (Tom) Logan was born in Inglewood, California and lived for much of his pre-adult years in the beachside community of Manhattan Beach, California in southern California. A product of private and public schools in the area, including Mira Costa High School, he graduated in 1981 as a "Thomas P. Pike-Christopher Scholar" from Loyola Marymount University with an undergraduate degree in Philosophy. As a free-lance aerospace reporter, he was accredited to cover the Kennedy Space Center, the Johnson Space Center, and Dryden Flight Research Center facilities during the NASA missions of Apollo 17, Skylab 2 and Skylab 3, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project and the California desert Space Shuttle Enterprise Approach and Landing Tests.

Immediately after undergraduate work, Logan competed against hundreds of American graduate students and was selected as one of six to receive Rotary International fellowships for two years of intensive study in Tokyo, Japan. Upon being assigned to Tokyo, he studied at International Christian University (国際基督教大学) in Mitaka, Japan, took up residence in Chōfu City and was hosted by the Chofu Rotary Club. He committed to further business studies in the Graduate School of Commerce in Waseda University,(早稲田大学大学院商学研究科)^[5] a prestigious private university in Tokyo, and under noted Professor Kinichiro Toba^[6]. US Ambassador Mike Mansfield received him briefly in August of 1981 for a coffee briefing at the US Embassy, serving him a cup of his famous "Mansfield's Embassy Coffee"^[7] and cautioning the enthusiastic and young Logan about the realities of living in Japan as a 'gaijin'.

He went on to spend a total of 18 years in Japan, first as a graduate business and foreign language student (Japanese, Chinese and Korean languages), then as co-host of a daily English instructional program "Zoku Kiso Eigo" (続基礎英語) on NHK National Educational Radio^[8] ("Kyoiku Hoso"), and finally serving as an expatriate executive with both The Austin Company^[9] as Japan Branch Manager of it's long-standing Tokyo office, and as Vice President, Japan for the American Electronics Association^[10]. At Austin, between 1990 and 1994, successful work was awarded to Austin's Tokyo Office of nearly US$55 million worth of billings on nine major design, engineering, construction management and consulting projects in Kobe, Osaka, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Okinawa, including the baggage handling system at Kansai International Airport in joint venture with Kawasaki Heavy Industries. At AeA Japan, Logan was elected to serve on numerous technical standards policy-setting boards by the Japanese Ministry of Telecommunications as one of several non-Japanese representing foreign industry, including those covering Intelligent Transportation Systems, dedicated short-range communications, 3-G wireless system, electromagnetic interference, 2.5 gigahertz spectrum and satellite technology. On behalf of American business interests in Japan, he delivered testimony^[11] on November 5, 1999 before the Japanese Prime Minister's "Cabinet Councilor's Office on External Affairs" forum for foreign companies headed by the Foreign Affairs Ministry, and was appeared on CNN, CBS Evening News, PBS (Nightly Business News), ^[12]NHK and other media outlets on the topic of successfully reducing Japanese trade barriers to American firms. US Ambassador to Japan Thomas Foley recognized Tom Logan's efforts at AeA by letter, with specific reference to his role in helping bring about a US-Japan agreement^[13] on lowering Japanese telecom interconnectivity rates and thus opening the market further to non-Japanese companies. Later he joined in a losing battle ^[14]in 2000 to keep the AeA Japan office^[15] open as American IT industry continued its preoccupation and focus on Chinese markets to the exclusion of Japanese opportunities, so-called "Japan Passing".^[16], and despite support from Ambassador Foley. Logan also had stints as a technology and Asian competitive policy analyst for a think-tank^[17] at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico in the mid-1990s, and as a business consultant successfully involved in certifying large 200-ton construction cranes with the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare for export to the Japanese market for the Manitowoc Company, Inc.^[18], and further served five years in economic development in Northern Virginia for Fairfax County Economic Development Authority (FCEDA)^[19]. He was co-author of a series of Japanese articles in the monthly "Chiiki Kaihatsu" on N.P.O. Regional Leadership and Development of the Suburban Washington, D.C. Area .^[20] Since late 2006, Tom Logan has been venture capitalist Investment Manager for TNP On The Road, the investing subsidiary of Tsunami Network Partners^[21] in Yokohama, Japan, and is an occasional speaker before Rotary Clubs in the United States and Asia. Privately, he is completing his novel "Dango" Price fixing (談合)(English: "Bid Rigging")^[22], based on his first-hand familiarity^[23] with the various human, commercial, often political intricacies^[24] of The Teahouse, i.e. the double-dealing^[25] and sometimes dangerous drama^[26] associated with the nefarious underworld Yakuza of the Japanese construction industry in the 1980s (which still exists today)^[27].