Employee Spotlight: Ian Wright

This week in our “Employee Spotlight” series, Ian Wright, Senior Supervisor in JERA’S Strategic Legal Unit, discusses his career and experiences at JERA.

Don’t forget to like the JERA page for more employee stories and to keep up to date with our latest position openings.

Please tell us a little about you (life, career, hobbies etc)

?I grew up in Virginia, U.S.A., just outside of Washington, D.C. I studied Japanese in high school and college and spent two years in Japan on the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme. After attending law school and working in private practice in the United States, I returned to Japan in 2005 and spent more than a decade in private practice in Tokyo before joining JERA. ?

?I have two children in elementary school and most of my free time is spent with them and their various activities. Otherwise, I enjoy travelling, sports and reading. Due to the pandemic, and resulting hurdles to international travel, I have had the opportunity to visit many new places in Japan, and my recent travels include Okinawa, Hokkaido and many prefectures in between. In addition, because we have been at home more the past couple of years, I have started to play piano again (together with my daughter) for the first time in many years.

What is role at JERA and what do you enjoy the most about your role?

?I am a Senior Supervisor in the Strategic Legal Unit, which is part of JERA’s Legal Group.?My work involves providing a full range of legal support to designated business teams at JERA’s headquarters in Tokyo. Much of my work involves cross-border investments and transactions, and my recent work includes support on major JERA investments in the United States and Southeast Asia. I also have plenty of opportunities to work on the growth and development of the legal function at JERA, including the development of our legal talent and the transformation of how the Strategic Legal Unit provides legal services within JERA.

?My role allows me to become involved in projects at a very early stage, and to provide strategic as well as standard legal advice to our commercial teams. In addition, I enjoy the opportunity to work on a broad range of projects and transactions across JERA’s value chain. Finally, I enjoy the opportunity to work with colleagues across business lines in Japan, as well as with colleagues in JERA’s group companies around the world.?

?What attracted you to JERA as a company?

JERA’s mission is to provide cutting-edge solutions to the world’s energy issues and our vision is, as a global leader in LNG and renewables, to spark the transition to a clean energy economy.?The importance of this mission and vision resonated with me, and I was excited to contribute to our collective efforts to achieve them. In addition, JERA is a relatively young company, so the ability to join JERA and make contributions at an early stage was attractive to me.

What has been the most transformative experience you had since joining JERA?

I have found the work at JERA rewarding on many fronts – including working on major transactions and the evolution of the Legal Group itself – so it’s difficult to single out one experience as being transformative. One of the most memorable experiences for me was assisting with the planning of JERA’s first internal Global Legal Forum in 2021. For the first time, we brought together JERA’s legal and compliance professionals around the world for two half-day sessions to exchange information and ideas. Although travel was not possible in 2021, having everyone gathered electronically really brought home the breadth and depth of legal expertise in the legal and compliance functions of the JERA Group. We are already planning for the 2022 Global Legal Forum with our growing number of colleagues.

What’s one piece of advice you would share with your younger self?

While setting professional goals and making plans to achieve them is certainly important, it is also important to be flexible and openminded in pursuit of them. You never know when an unexpected and interesting opportunity may arise. I am consistently impressed by the varied career paths of my JERA colleagues and others with whom I work professionally. Interesting career paths may include, for example, a transition in profession, such as starting in law and transitioning to business, or working in places around that world that were never foreseen at the start of a career. ?

What would you tell someone that is interested in joining JERA?

JERA’s mission and vision (mentioned above), and the challenges involved in achieving them, drive the work we do here and make the work very rewarding. In addition to the professional satisfaction of working on such an important mission, I have found the work environment stimulating and I enjoy working with talented colleagues of diverse backgrounds both in Japan and around the world.

?If you are interested in JERA’s mission and vision, and would embrace the challenge of working to achieve them, I suggest that you take a close look at JERA!

?How did you learn Japanese, and when you entered JERA what was your Japanese level like? Have you kept studying while at JERA?

As mentioned above, I studied Japanese in high school and college. I also spent ten months studying Japanese intensively at the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies in Yokohama. Although I joined JERA with Level N1 Japanese proficiency, there is always more Japanese to learn. These days I do not study Japanese formally, but I have increased my focus on reading Japanese for pleasure in order to expand my vocabulary and increase my reading speed. My New Year’s resolutions for this year include reading a targeted number of books in English and in Japanese.

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We hope you enjoyed getting to know Ian and learning about his journey at JERA.

?If you are interested in learning more about #LifeatJERA or you’re looking for a new challenge this year, check out the open positions under “Jobs” and stay connected with us by following the JERA Linkedin page. We’re Hiring!