Team

The INJM team is made up of a combination of Japanese and international volunteers from all over the world and varying backgrounds. Without their motivation, hard work and sacrifice INJM would not be the group it is today.

INJM Board of Directors (Left to Right): Masae Ishikawa, Manish Sreenivasa, Marci McComish and Jamie El-Banna

Board of Directors

Jamie El-Banna – Chairperson
Jamie is the founder and chairperson of INJM. Before moving to Ishinomaki as a full-time volunteer he had a background in teaching and event management. The group grew out of his own volunteer efforts, as well as the support and motivation he provided to other volunteers from mid-June 2011. Jamie handles all the day-to-day operations of INJM including sourcing new projects and local contacts, and simultaneously keeping an overview on long term progress of projects. He is supported in this mammoth task by the rest of the INJM board as well as our team of permanent volunteers. He originally hails from London, England and has been known to possess many quintessential British traits, including, but not limited to: crooked teeth, a sarcastic sense of humor and a love for football. He has been known to wear purple on occasion.

Marci McComish – Vice-Chairperson
Marci is a New Zealander with a background in project management, marketing and business strategy. She currently works as a teacher in Tokyo but will soon permanently move to Ishinomaki. Her role in INJM encompasses a wide range of activities like, liaison with potential donors, planning projects, establishing long term goals and general management of the NPO. She also enjoys wielding a crow-bar from time to time, and finds herself in Ishinomaki almost every weekend to fulfill this passion.

Masae Ishikawa – Director
Born and raised in Ishinomaki, Masae acts as a vital bridge between the locals and all of the INJM volunteer efforts. Her involvement with INJM started out with helping the day-to-day volunteer activities. Since then she has taken on a central role and her knowledge of the regional businesses, infrastructure and culture, makes sure that INJM can make a real difference at the grass root level. Masae’s family was directly affected by the tsunami, suffering the loss of relatives as well as serious damage to their business. The story of their recovery from the disaster is a model in itself and inspires her to help others in similar situations.

Manish Sreenivasa – Director
During the day, Manish works as a scientist at the University of Tokyo doing research on robotics and neuroscience. His evenings and weekends are dedicated to INJM work and traveling to Ishinomaki, respectively. His contribution to INJM is in applying his background in planning, organization and engineering to the various projects. When in Ishinomaki, he gladly trades in his desk job for a shovel and/or sledgehammer, deriving an inappropriate amount of fun from demolition things.

Auditor

Kazuma Hattori

Members

Alexander Draude                                                     Joji Kikukawa

Andrew Hough                                                          Kenji

Ayami Sasas                                                              Mari Tayama

Choco Chiba                                                             Michael Connolly

Joe Kern                                                                    Michelle Aldridge

Damian Keyte                                                           Stefan Haflidason

Dave Ludvik                                                              Yannick Hiryczuk

Gavin Wisdom

Supporting Members

In addition to those above, we presently have many other members who contribute to INJM activities on an on-off basis. It would actually take more time and space than available to name everyone who has come up here, or helped us from a distance. Most of our members come back after coming once. Volunteering is highly addictive!