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Fletcher Dedicates New State-of-the-Art Conference Room
by Liz Hincks and Terry Ann Knopf

The Fletcher School's expanding International Business Relations program received an important boost on Dec. 3 when a dedication ceremony was held to formally open its brand new state-of-the-art Isobe conference room.

Among those attending the ceremony were Dean Stephen W. Bosworth and Yumi Isobe, representing her father Asahiko Isobe, a prominent businessman from Japan, in whose name the new seminar room has been named. Speaking on behalf of her father, Ms. Isobe sounded an idealistic note in these troubled times. "Open your minds more than ever and try to get united with each other in order to make the whole world one family," she said. 

Also on hand was Paul Vaaler, Assistant Professor of International Business and Director of Fletcher’s Hitachi Center for Technology and International Affairs, who extended a warm welcome to the gathering and recounted some stories about Mr. Isobe's previous visits. Ralph Dineen, the architect who was hired to design the Isobe room, spoke about the room’s versatility, and flexibility as a space for teaching, service and research.

 Asahiko Isobe, whose career spans five decades, has been a prominent banking executive and public policy-maker in Japan. With extensive experience in international affairs, he is very much the embodiment of the Fletcher School ideal of public service. Currently, he is the President of the Hitachi Research Institute. From 1956 to 1986, he was a central banker for the Bank of Japan with various domestic and international postings, including the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC and the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland. 

Since 1986 he has been an executive at Hitachi Ltd, where he has served in various capacities, including President of the Hitachi Research Institute. And since 1998, he has also served his government as a member and advisor to Japan’s Financial Reconstruction Commission, dealing with the disposition of Japanese banking institutions and reform of the broader domestic and international financial system. 

Mr. Isobe's multifaceted career reflects his strong interest in and generous financial support for the study of international business, finance and banking, and public policy at the Fletcher School.

Mr. Isobe, through his daughter, spoke about the importance of inclusion during a time when globalization has made our world smaller. “Every one of us has the freedom as well as the right to pursue happiness regardless of which country you are in, whatever religion you follow, whatever language you speak," he said. "We are all one family on this small planet. For this, we have to climb every mountain and cross over wild rivers. To achieve that goal, we have to come together and be united no matter what country you are from, what religion you follow, what language you speak. That is what the Fletcher School is for, and that is what the Isobe Room is for.”

Dean Bosworth, surveying the new conference room, was clearly pleased by the occasion. “This is a lovely space. I may come down here and do some work, myself," he quipped.