Biography
A passionate and dynamic business and civic leader, Harry Hill served as President and CEO of Oak Lawn Marketing, Inc from 2006 until 2017. During Hill’s tenure, the company grew from ¥15 billion to ¥68 billion in sales while creating numerous best-selling products that became household names. Operating as Shop Japan, a retail company marketing healthy lifestyle products to Japanese consumers, the company created several long selling product brands, and created new niche categories such as contour overlay mattresses, home fitness, ceramic cookware and steam cleaning products. Hill and his management team created a powerful corporate culture based on the vision of “enriching lifestyle worldwide.” While President and CEO, Hill also managed one of the largest M&A transactions of 2009, when NTT Docomo took a 51% share in OLM. In September 2017, Hill stepped down from the company’s day-to-day operations, but remains active as an independent outside director focusing on new business development.
Hill has both founded and contributed to several start-up companies. He currently sits on the board of Ten Ten Technologies as an outside director.
Hill is an engaged business and civic leader. Since 2013, he has been serving as Co-Chair of CULCON, a bi-national group advising the U.S. and Japanese governments on educational and cultural exchange between Japan and the United States. He also serves as Chair of the Japan-US Friendship Commission. Hill is an active member of the ACCJ. The Japanese Cabinet recognized Hill for his role in promoting gender diversity and named him a Male Champion of Change. Hill has a particular passion for HOPE International Development Organization, a Japanese NPO, which provides clean water for the neglected poor. The organization also responded to the challenges of 3/11 by creating the Genki Japan fund, which helped 77 different groups and individuals rebuild their livelihoods. One of the recipients best encapsulated Hill’s philosophy, “If we get help to rebuild our livelihoods, we can rebuild our homes and communities ourselves.”
In both business and civic activities, the themes of self-reliance, empowerment, education and an optimistic vision for the future drive Hill. In Japanese, his favorite words are the homonym Souzou (想像/創造). The first characters mean imagine and the second characters mean to build. Hill’s management and leadership philosophy are based on imagining unrealized potential that is tempered with the concrete blueprint to achieve. The two words must co-exist for sustained success.
Hill is a sought-after speaker and guest. He has appeared on numerous TV shows focusing on the themes of business, leadership and family. He has given numerous interviews, written a six-month guest column for the Chunichi and Tokyo Newspaper, and delivered speeches to business groups, universities and civic groups. He has also published a book in Japanese called Long Selling Marketing.
