Uploaded December 2014 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
Hiroshi "Mickey" Mikitani, CEO, Rakuten
Hosted by Paul Papadimitriou, Intelligencr
Hiroshi “Mickey” Mikitani is the founder, chairman and CEO of Rakuten, Inc., one of the world’s largest Internet companies. He began his career as an investment banker at Industrial Bank of Japan and left in 1995 to start his own consulting firm, Crimson Group. Two years later and with just a handful of employees, he launched “Rakuten Ichiba” – the Rakuten marketplace. In Japanese the word rakuten means optimism.
Rakuten, which was founded on a mission of empowering the world through the Internet, has expanded beyond e-commerce to encompass a dynamic global ecosystem of 55 different Internet services companies as diverse as travel, banking, credit card, eReading, and professional sports. The firm has operations in 28 countries and customers all over the world.
Born in Kobe, Mikitani was educated at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo and then earned his MBA at Harvard Business School in Cambridge, MA. In 2012, he was awarded the HBS Alumni Achievement Award, one of the school’s highest honors. He is also a recipient of the Legion of Honour, an award bestowed by the French government in recognition of his contributions to the economy and culture of France. He lives in Tokyo with his wife and two children.
Hiroshi "Mickey" Mikitani, CEO, Rakuten
Hosted by Paul Papadimitriou, Intelligencr
Hiroshi “Mickey” Mikitani is the founder, chairman and CEO of Rakuten, Inc., one of the world’s largest Internet companies. He began his career as an investment banker at Industrial Bank of Japan and left in 1995 to start his own consulting firm, Crimson Group. Two years later and with just a handful of employees, he launched “Rakuten Ichiba” – the Rakuten marketplace. In Japanese the word rakuten means optimism.
Rakuten, which was founded on a mission of empowering the world through the Internet, has expanded beyond e-commerce to encompass a dynamic global ecosystem of 55 different Internet services companies as diverse as travel, banking, credit card, eReading, and professional sports. The firm has operations in 28 countries and customers all over the world.
Born in Kobe, Mikitani was educated at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo and then earned his MBA at Harvard Business School in Cambridge, MA. In 2012, he was awarded the HBS Alumni Achievement Award, one of the school’s highest honors. He is also a recipient of the Legion of Honour, an award bestowed by the French government in recognition of his contributions to the economy and culture of France. He lives in Tokyo with his wife and two children.
