Chiaki Tanuma MPS’80

When Chiaki Tanuma’s father Bunzo Tanuma founded his first food service business in 1947, the war had just ended, and he aspired to “do work that contributes to society” as a means of honoring the lives of his subordinates who died during the war.  To address the food shortage after the war, Bunzo Tanuma went out of his way to source food to take care of student meals in the dormitory of Keio University, and even provided free meals to students without money.

From this humble beginning, Green House Group’s guiding principle has been “making others happy leads to our own prosperity.”  This simple yet very power motto has guided the company for the past 75+ years on how to run their business and how to treat their customers, partners, the society, and most importantly their employees and their families.

Chiaki Tanuma takes up the post of President of Green House from his father Bunzo Tanuma who takes up the post of Chairman of the Board (1993)

Chiaki Tanuma took over from his father as President and CEO of Green House in 1993 and continued to build on this philosophy, growing the company’s business in contract food services for government offices, company offices, factories, hospitals, nursing homes, schools and other organizations to over 2000 outlets in Japan and overseas.  In addition, Green House Group operates hotels, restaurants, and takeout shops throughout Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Canada, The Philippines, China, and Hong Kong, with over 600 locations in Japan and overseas.  Within the hotel industry, the group operates 15 accommodations all over Japan including 4 hotels under their own original brand Grand Bach, and offers consulting service as Horwath HTL Japan.

According to Chiaki, “The ability to notice what will bring joy to our customers and taking action is the driving force behind Green House’s innovation in the face of the changing times. This has been and will continue to be the case.”

Chiaki Tanuma enrolled at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration, Master of Professional Studies (MPS) Program in 1978.   Upon graduation, Chiaki returned to Green House in 1980 and took charge of a project to develop a new restaurant concept. The members of “Team Chiaki,” formed prior to his study abroad, were eagerly waiting for his return and fully supported the project.

The “Kushiage (deep-fried skewers) Restaurant”, which he opened as a new type of restaurant, was a great success.  He was one of the first to recognize the increasing number of women entering the workforce and developed “Delicatessen Saboten” as a new business model before the market for home-meal replacement attracted much attention in Japan, which also became hugely successful.

Their Chinese restaurant “Shahoden” developed a Chinese-style “Osechi” (traditional New Year’s food in Japan) that became a big hit. Although the manufacturing process was difficult, Chiaki took the lead in overcoming the difficulties by building various cooperative relationships both internally and externally.

At the time Chiaki became President & CEO, he had said that he would “turn Green House into a company with sales of 100 billion yen,” and in 2006, he made it happen.

Chiaki is sometimes referred to as a “right-brain” CEO. This does not mean everything is from his mere inspiration, but inspiration backed up by careful calculations based on his reading of the current trends of the times. His vision and foresight resulted in numerous ventures such as the acquisition of Nissan Motor’s food service division, the first public listing in Japan in the contract food service industry, and the new foray into the hotel business.

When Chiaki was considering listing Green House, he was anxious and consulted his father whose words at that time, “If you fail, just start from scratch again,” motivated Chiaki. Bunzo Tanuma passed away in 2000.

An elderly man once thanked Chiaki. He said, “In high school, in college, at work, and at the senior citizen’s home where I live now, it just so happens that meals were provided by Green House. My body is made of Green House, and it keeps me healthy.” Chiaki realized the need to provide not only good food, but healthy food as well.

In 2007, Chiaki launched Asken, an internet-based professional advice program for nutritional management. A few years later, the program became a huge hit, thanks to the use of image analysis technology, done in collaboration with Sony, and the widespread use of smartphones.

With Chiaki’s global connections, Green House is aggressively expanding globally, including forming alliances with three major European contract foodservice companies in 2006 and the acquisition of a major Singapore contract foodservice company in 2019.

In 2022, Green House’s Innovation Center “GreeneX Plus” was created as a place to develop and demonstrate cutting-edge digital solutions with various partners. In addition, the suite room of the Hotel Grand Bach Tokyo Ginza was recreated into an Innovation Center. It is used as a presentation room for visitors and potential clients to experience a new era of service that utilizes the know-how of Green House.

Education and philanthropy in support of future hoteliers has been a passion of Chiaki.  In 1997, he established Green House Hospitality Scholarship for Japanese and Asian Careers which has to date supported over 40 students.  He also founded the Integrated Hospitality Program of Kyoto University and contributed to establishing the Kyoto-Cornell International Collaborative Degree Opportunity: KC-CDO (Joint master’s degree) in 2019 to offer more global education opportunity to future students from Japan and foreign countries.

Chiaki has assumed numerous past and current voluntary leadership roles for Cornell University including President, Cornell Club of Japan; Regional Vice President, Cornell Hotel Society Japan; Advisory Board Member for the Cornell-Nanyang Institute of Hospitality Management; Member of the Cornell University Board of Trustee; and Cornell University Presidential Councillor.

For his contributions to Japan and Cornell, Chiaki was awarded several prestigious awards including:

• Medal with Blue Ribbon from Japanese government (November 2011)
• The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon from Japanese government (April 2023)
• Cornell Hotel School MPS/MMH Outstanding Alumnus of the Year Award (November 2015)

Chiaki Tanuma awarded Ranjuhosho (Medal of Honor with Blue Ribbon) (2011)