Minori Hara is Chief Digital & Information Officer at Santen Pharmaceutical, a specialized company dedicated to ophthalmology. Santen carries out research, development, marketing, and sales of pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter products, and medical devices. Its products now reach patients in over 60 countries. Toward realizing “Happiness with Vision,” Santen aims to reduce the social and economic opportunity loss of people worldwide caused by eye diseases and defects by orchestrating and mobilizing key technologies and players around the world. Minori is a member of the company’s Executive Management Team and oversees all aspects of digital and IT strategy for its global operations and value chain transformation. He is currently based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Before joining Santen in 2018, he worked for the United Nations organizations for nearly 20 years to advance Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He started his UN career in 1999 at International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in India and Geneva. He then moved to the US to work for the United Nations Headquarters in New York till 2006. Then he returned to Europe to work for the United Nations Volunteers in Germany and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna to focus mainly on IT infrastructure, security, service management, and IT governance.

He held the role of CIO at the International Training Centre of the ILO in Turin, Italy in 2012 and the Deputy CIO role at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) in Rome in 2017, where he was driving the organization with multi-year IT/digital transformation strategy.

He holds an M.Eng (MSc) from Sophia University, Tokyo, and an Executive Master in Management of International Organizations (EMMIO) from SDA Bocconi School of Management, Milan.