Governing Body Spotlight

Alan Tachikawa, as managing director and chief financial officer of Aflac Global Investments, is responsible for managing the financial aspects of Aflac Global Investments for the two asset management subsidiaries located in the U.S. and Japan. Prior to joining Aflac in August 2022, Alan spent 13 years at MetLife, during which he served as head of financial planning and analysis at MetLife in the US, Japan, and Hong Kong and held various other finance roles. Alan previously held positions with Capital One Financial Corporation and started his career as a CPA at Cherry, Bekaert and Holland LLP.

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Give us a brief overview of the path that led to your current role.

The path is a very windy road as there were various lateral transfers within the same organization (once at Capital One, several times within MetLife). However, I believe that not every job movement needs to be a move up as a lateral transfer to a different department or a different location will open itself up to learning something new which may then lead to more new opportunities. 

I had the opportunity within Capital One to transfer from a regulatory reporting department to US Card finance where I learned financial planning and projection which was something completely new to me at the time as my background was in accounting and was always focused on historical information and financial reporting. Within MetLife, I made a lateral transfer from financial reporting in Tampa to corporate finance in New York, which further led to another opportunity for a lateral transfer to Asia where I eventually was promoted. I ultimately moved back to NY where more doors opened up because of my diverse background which led me to my current role.
 

What is one of your guiding leadership principles?

I don’t know if this is a principle per se, but I believe that I am tough but very fair. I believe in treating everyone equally, I expect others to do the same, and I will continue to challenge people in a way that it’s just enough to make them stretch but not too much where it breaks them. One of the compliments I’ve had, which is a fairly common theme from my previous team members or coworkers, is that while working with/for me was tough at times, it made them a better professional today because of it. I truly appreciate that, because I think it reflects how I want to be as a leader and what I like out of my leaders.
 

With disruption being a key theme of the past few years, where do you see your role as a CFO going in the next 1-2 years?

This is probably nothing new in terms of what we think when there is a period of major change, but I expect our roles as chief financial officers to even be more nimble and prepared. That’s really the job, but with the development of AI – and other technology that may not be getting as many headlines – the versatility and how we can prepare the organization for sudden shifts becomes crucial. I’m sure people said the same thing when they shifted to computers from manual spreadsheets and when the internet became mainstream, but as change happens, it enables us to analyze more and faster. But as the world changes at an even more rapid pace, that’s where it’s important for us to stay ahead of the curve.
 

What advice would you give to someone just starting out in the role as a CFO?

The advice I would give is something I’ve been trying to do. It’s to just learn as much and as fast as possible while leveraging your strengths. I believe in using my strengths and experience in order to keep certain finance aspects humming along while I spend my time and focus on learning or getting up to speed on the new role.
 

Tell us 3 fun facts about yourself.

I don’t know if these are fun, but they may be a few of my quirks:

1. I love the water, but I hate beaches.
2. I really enjoy coffee. I do a lot of coffee snob things and go to a lot of coffee snob places, but I also enjoy diner/pot coffees. (I just enjoy them as different things instead of trying to compare within the spectrum of coffee.)
3. I’m bilingual, but that’s not what’s fun. Apparently, my tone and demeanor completely change depending on whether I’m speaking English or Japanese, especially over the phone or video calls.
    

What is the value of joining an Evanta community?

I look forward to making more connections with my peers and discussing the current issues (and potential solutions) that span across various industries, as well as within the similar ones.
 

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