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—Please tell us how you became interested in Japan. I was born in Thailand, but when I was still a baby, my family decided to live in Sweden, and spent about 19 years in Sweden. After graduating from high school, I went to a university in England, majored in diplomatic politics in the Asia-Pacific region, and also learned Japanese and Korean. My roots are in Asia, but as I grew up in Sweden, I didn't really have any exposure to learning about the Asian region. I was really interested in Asian countries. If I studied something I had a real interest in rather than something for practical work in the future, I think I probably would have been more successful in my studies.

Since I was a child, I always looked at things from a global perspective, so when I was a university student in England, I also went to Japan and Korea to study. While studying in Japan, I was staying in Akita Prefecture, and I liked it very much, partly because it is similar to the area in Sweden where I grew up in, and the region in Akita that I was in only had one shop around the university premises. Other than that, I've lived in quite a few countries but those were mostly just for traveling.

—What made you want to work in Japan? After graduating from university, I stayed in Australia on a working holiday for about two years, working at restaurants, customer service, sales operations, and other hospitality work. After that, since I retained my earlier interest in Asia, I decided to come to Japan, which is also partly due to the fact that I have many friends here from my studying days. I speak mainly English and Swedish at a native level, but I can't say that I'm good at Thai, Korean, or Japanese. Nevertheless, I am able to spend my time in Japan without any major inconveniences, and I am also able to work. Living in Tokyo sometimes makes me want to go out to a quiet Japanese suburb, but in Japan there are many safe and very convenient places for single women to live.

—Please tell us more about how you joined Cornerstone. I got acquainted with Cornerstone members through my previous job and was invited to join the company as a startup member. As I knew just how passionate the two Cornerstone founders were about this business, I was able to place my trust in the company being a success. The fact that it was a start-up company also majorly contributed to my joining the company. It would be easy to forecast the chances of success if I were to join an already established organization, so that was why I thought that the experience of creating our own success from scratch, on the other hand, would be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

—What do you find attractive in your work environment? Cornerstone has many opportunities for career development, personal development, and promotion. In addition, my team members like communicating with people, so much so that we talk a little too much sometimes, but this also helps us to actively share information on our work with each other, which consequently leads to more efficiency at work. The members from the other teams and the management team are also very friendly, and since it is a "smart casual" workplace, it is very comfortable to work in. I myself engage in my work not only with the mentality of working as an employee, but also with the desire to create a truly wonderful company with Cornerstone.

—What tasks are you currently in charge of? I joined the company as a senior consultant, but I worked as a manager for about one year and three months. My team is dedicated to the IT industry and has six team members. As each team has a variety of clients, we hold weekly meetings to share information on talented candidates and also to support each other. There are many ad hoc tasks that come in every day, and the only fixed task that we have daily is to check for new emails. Sometimes we receive requests from clients that are slightly more challenging to fulfill, but even in such situations, we communicate openly and have the courage to not simply agree to each and every request, and instead strive to provide alternate solutions for our clients.

—Which task are you particularly focused on currently? My personal challenge is managing my time between consulting work and managerial duties. I've had fewer coffee breaks since I became a manager. Now, I constantly plan what to do two or three hours ahead while simultaneously doing my work. I am currently both working as a consultant and a manager, and have thus come to value my time very much. If you belong to an organization, your actions will also affect other members, so I think that managing your own and other people's time is a key element to building a great organization.

—Please tell us more about what your goals at work are. I am enthusiastically working on my job so that I can be further promoted myself, and I would also like to promote my team members. Within the next two to three years, I would like to have two or three more managers within my team to make each team larger. My goal for the future is to create strong organizations and teams like those created by Cornerstone management.

—What kind of person do you want to work with to create an organization? I love working with people who are good at problem solving, people who can communicate openly and are friendly, and truly creative people who are not bound by existing frameworks. The client places great importance on who they will be working with, so I think that these skills would be highly rated by the company. Additionally, I'd like everyone both within and outside my team to be successful, but I am not going to be pushing work onto them. People who are self-driven and have a proactive desire to succeed will be extremely welcome here!