Directors

Peter M. Skaer,

Board of Directors – Director General / Board of Trustees

Greetings—I’m Peter M. Skaer, originally from San Francisco California. After getting my PhD from the University of Washington, I joined the US State Department Foreign Service, first in WA DC, and then later as a US Diplomat/Director of the US Foreign Service Institute in Yokohama. I then ventured south to Hiroshima, where I have been teaching at Hiroshima University for the past 25 years.  During that time, I have lived close to Hiroshima International School, which my daughter attended several years ago.  In the past, I have served on both the Board of Trustees, and the Board of Directors, and at one time was the Director of the BOD. I am working to contribute in any way I can to help sustain and develop HIS, hoping to provide useful and fruitful opportunities for coming generations of children from the international community.

Ryoma Matsumoto

Board of Directors

Ryoma Matsumoto was born in Hiroshima and attended the Independent Waldorf Steiner School both in Tokyo and then in the West Midlands, England. After obtaining a BA from Sophia University, he continued his studies in Paris, France and Abu Dhabi, UAE, where he received an MA in International Business and Languages from the Paris-Sorbonne University in Abu Dhabi. Since returning to Hiroshima he has been running a business, managing a commercial port and a regional energy hub. He is an acting board member of the Takehara Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Tourism Cooperation Committee for Hiroshima Prefecture. He is also a part-time lecturer of languages and business marketing management at Hiroshima University and the Paris-Sorbonne University in Abu Dhabi. Ryoma thoroughly enjoys working with other members of the community and looks forward to continuing this work, eager to contribute, drawing from his international experience both in education and in business.

Guy Hird

Board of Directors – Treasurer

Guy Hird was born, and lived his formative years, in Birmingham, UK. After obtaining a BSc in Electronics Engineering from the University of Durham, he joined Ford Motor Company. First serving in several engineering positions in Essex, near London he came to Japan in 1998 for a foreign service assignment, returning to the UK in 2001 with his Japanese wife. They returned to Hiroshima in 2007 living here since with their three children. Guy is currently an Engineering Manager for electronic products at Visteon Japan (a car parts supplier), and enjoys the surprises, and challenges of living in Japan. Before moving to the Board of Directors as Secretary in 2017, Guy was a member of the Board of Trustees and Secretary from 2012.

Kelly Rose

Board of Directors – BoT Chair

Kelly Rose has worked as an educator for over fifteen years, the majority in Japan. Originally from California, she worked as a secondary social science teacher before moving to northern Japan. She worked for the Aomori Prefecture School Education Center (青森県 総合学校教育センター) and currently works as an English language instructor and teacher-trainer at Hiroshima Bunkyo University. She holds a BA in history, Master of Education with a specialty in TESOL, a California teaching certificate, and an IB MYP teaching certificate. As a parent of two HIS students, she looks forward to working with other board members in fostering HIS’s unique atmosphere of globally-minded learners.

Yukari Rutson-Griffiths

Board of Directors

Yukari Rutson-Griffiths was born in Osaka and has lived in Hiroshima since 2011. She has been involved in education for over 10 years and currently works at Hiroshima Bunkyo University as a lecturer, a Learning Advisor, and the Self-Access Learning Center Coordinator. In her role as a Learning Advisor, she helps students one-on-one to achieve their goals and is passionate about helping all students to reach their potential. After graduating from Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, she studied at Essex University in the United Kingdom, where she obtained a master’s degree in sociolinguistics. 

Chiaki Kataoka

Board of Directors

Chiaki Kataoka was born and raised in Hiroshima. She studied “Methodology” of “Teaching English as a Foreign Language” at UC Santa Barbara. After returning to Japan, she first worked at Ford Motor Company. Later in her career, she experienced several functions in her companies such as Marketing PR, Human Resource, Project Management, etc. She experienced Director positions in two European companies.

Today Chiaki works as a consultant in change management in human resource and organizational development projects, facilitating workshops and coaching & training of the executives and the managers of her client companies to support their realization of their strategic targets. She enjoys working in the multi-national environment bridging people from different part of the world. At HIS, she would enjoy developing solutions with the BoD members, which would help create new global leadership grown-ups coming from HIS.

James Steward

Board of Directors – Principal

I grew up in the small town of North Bay in northern Ontario, Canada. It was an amazing place. Since then I have been fortunate to have seen the world through education and sport. While I enjoy just about any sport, ice hockey has been integral in my life. I also love to play the piano and guitar. 

Japan is a wonderful country and Hiroshima is a beautiful city. Prior to HIS, I served as the Head of Tohoku International School for 11 years. Our students, families and teachers are wonderful! I encourage you to visit our amazing school.

Minoru Suyama

Auditor

Eisuke Tsuyama

Auditor