In our forty years of existence, this was probably the most difficult year we have ever faced as a company. As most of you know, Iwaki-san, our President and leader, passed away this year suddenly after a short battle with cancer.

For all of us (and perhaps many of you too) Iwakisan was an inspiration; he was a man of great honesty and integrity. His words and his actions were completely in synch; he never said one thing and did something different. He was full of joy and positive energy; the troubles and worries of daily life; such as a lost contract, a missed shinkansen or anything else, none of it ever seemed to get him down.

His untiring smile and his corny jokes carried us along through it all. And when anyone else was in pain or unhappy, nomatter the reason, he was always ready to listenand to personally do whatever it took to find asolution. In fact, we often thought he cared too much about other people and not enough about himself. And the thing that many of us envied him for was that he did what he loved and he loved what he did; he absolutely believed that helping others was the highest calling and most important work anyone could do.

We all miss him deeply and think about him daily and hope that one day we can be just a little bit like him.

Mark Beresford
Program Director