Guest Speaker: Steve Van Andel, Chairman of Alticor Inc.

On October 2, 2006, students and faculty at Hitotsubashi ICS had the pleasure of welcoming Mr. Steve Van Andel, Chairman of Alticor Inc., the parent company of Amway Corp. Mr. Van Andel, the oldest son of Amway co-founder, Jay Van Andel, was named Amway's chairman in 1995.

Since 1995, Steve Van Andel has been the prime architect of a global effort to develop a new business strategy and restructure the operations of Amway Corp., culminating in the decision to create a sibling company, Access Business Group LLC, and join it with Amway and Quixtar Inc. under the Alticor banner. As chairman, he led the expansion of Alticor into a stronger and more diversified company to be more competitive in the new economy.

During his visit to ICS, Mr. Van Andel talked about how Alticor positions its social contributions, including the activities of Amway Japan, China, India, and North America. He was also joined by Mr. Gary Sumihiro, the Director of Amway Japan, to meet the recipients of this year's Japan Amway Scholarship. Amway Japan provides scholarships of two million yen for three non-Japanese students each year at ICS. Proud recipients of the Japan Amway Scholarship for the Class of 2006 are Yo Han Choi (Korea), Frederik Otte-Trojel (Denmark), and Vinh Vu (Vietnam).