JD STORY
JD, his name coined from TV personality days in Japan, has lived 9 lives, as a global serial Entrepreneur life, TV personality life in Japan and Czech Republic, an Athlete life breaking records in race-walking, competed in Japan's National athletics Championships, Table-tennis life training for the Olympics, Japan life as Samurai-JD, Business life establishing two successful food franchise chains, family life, & a Football life as a TV commentator, president and player. Now JD wants to leverage his wealth of experience to help people achieve their dreams!
LIFE
JD's life is filled with crazy life experiences, including having climbed Mt. Fuji backwards and walked down barefoot, recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records, the first foreigner to graduate from the world famous Donut University, was accepted into Dr. Nakamatsu’s famous Inventor College, and secretly climbed to the peak of the Egyptian pyramids at midnight, and had the honour of speaking with the Japanese Emperor.
BUSINESS
While still in university, he established one of Japan’s leading bakery chains “SunMerry” into Australia’s No.1 quality chain, & played a key executive role in establishing the world’s largest donut chain, Mister Donut, in Australia. He also pioneered a unique “edutaining" language learning TV series for mobile-TV in Japan early 2000’s, produced Samurai Eikaiwa 1min series, and achieved Top10 iPhone app status in 2013 in 5 countries. Developed the World's 1st mobile video greeting cards in Japan, contract with Japan's largest 3G operator KDDI. Recognised by TechCrunch as a Top 100 global startup, and Winner of Red Herring Top 100 Europe award. Instrumental in building a successful match-making startup which later sold to a public company early 2000s. Serial Startup entrepreneur having built a number of technology startups from zero to hero. Loves helping youth achieve their goals fast!
SPORTS
His 1500m race-walking record stood unbroken for well over 10 years, and was a ping-pong ball away from making the Olympics in table-tennis. He played for the Czech cricket team as a pace bowler, and in 2002 established AFL football in Czech Republic, later winning the leading Aussie football goal kicker award in the European Cup in 2006. Still an avid table-tennis player, he played in the European Championships in 2022.
TV
Fluent in Japanese JD was a top10 gaijin TV personality in Japan having created a number of successful original TV shows and was a weekly regular on high-profile Japanese television shows such as The TONIGHT Show, CNN Daybreak, Waratte iitomo (Guinness Book of Records as Japan’s 32yr highest-ranking comedy show), featured as the leading role in television commercials for SONY, TOYOTA Vista, and COCA COLA where he was a lead dancer in Coca Cola’s 100th anniversary TV ad, had regular weekly columns in leading Japanese magazines, and was MC at a number of World Championships. He also had his own successful regular show on Czech TV NOVA.
LEGACY
Through his unofficial charity “JD Dream Teen Foundation” JD aims to leverage his vast experiences to help ambitious kids around the world to chase and achieve their dreams in business, sports, & life. He established a sister-city relationship between Japan & Australia, and has been a child-trepreneur before the ripe age of 10.
JD: “When I was a young kid, I had no support but had huge dreams. Just imagine what I could have achieved in this world if I had better support. As a young kid training to make the Olympic Games, I sent 50 letters out to a list of Japanese firms listed in the chamber of commerce, but I only got one positive response, from Snow Brand Milk with a $20 cheque wishing me luck. I was grateful to Snow Brand that I could at least buy shoes or shorts. Through my vast experiences I am now able to have meaningful impact on youth lives. This will be my Legacy”
