WHO WE ARE

Ken Takebayashi

Business Producer

Hi, I'm Ken Takebayashi. I'm a board member of Tsunagaru and the manager and body of the ENdemic team. A simple way to describe what I do is that I am a designer. I am good at designing intangible things, businesses, organizations, projects, communication, experiences, relationships, and so on. Today, I am challenging myself with societal design. As a manager, my mission is to start the business, develop the project planning, negotiate with stakeholders, increase the number of partners, and lead this movement to success. I value alternative approaches and diversity, and I am looking forward to connecting with a world I have not yet seen.

Roland Haller

Creative Director

Hi, I’m Roland Haller, Creative Director for Tsunagaru, the heart of the ENdemic movement. I’ve had more than 40 different jobs since I was a 17years old Lumberjack. I’ve been a salesman, homeless, waiter, actor, cook, copy-writer, care-taker, interpreter, guide, consultant in international tourism, and lately experience designer before joining this amazing team. After having seen some of diversity’s most beautiful and most challenging sights, I strive to break preconceptions. To bridge people, cultures, and social circles. I build multifaceted projects to help myself and the world around me to grow more rational, empathetic and resilient. I am passionate about rationality, emotional literacy, innovation, languages, and perfumes. Also, I crave intelligent conversation with intense people. Tell me about your ambitions, and Let’s build a better world together.

Alice Balle

Scientific Director

Hi! I'm Alice. I’m the head of the ENdemic movement and, many other other things to come. I can endorse a series of designations based on the skills I acquired: PhD, project developer, heritage expert, etc. But I'm more than a toolbox, or a collection of information stored in a brain. I am a work in progress, a lifelong learner, an empathetic optimist with a strong need to do something meaningful. I have 32 years worth of skills and experiences, spreading from academic research to professional projects. They are focused on two main poles: heritage and culture on the one hand, and science and multimedia techniques on the other. I nurture transversality and hybridism, in order to build bridges between fields of expertise.

Tsunagaru

Tsunagaru is a Japanese company based in Osaka, and its rapidly growing workforce holds offices in Tokyo, Sapporo, Fukuoka and Beppu. Kanaoka Takeshi founded the company in 2010 with the express purpose of transcending social boundaries and through human connection, and communication, pave new paths to emotion, surprise, and empathy. 1 During the last 10 years, Tsunagaru mainly focuses on communication and advertising for the global market in Japan. Through connections to more than a thousand partners all over the world, they provided a window to the world for Japan. Since the pandemic of 2020 underlined all the more the importance of human connection, Tsunagaru renewed its commitment to connect people through the social walls and to transcend boundaries for mutual enrichment. The Fukuoka team, assigned to the creation of new businesses and activities, is now fully devoted to this endeavor through the ENdemic Movement. The Nomado Project is one of the solutions created by their efforts and collaborations.