Alumnus Interview, Masayuki Shintani: United Nations World Food Programme

NUCB Alumnus Masayuki Shintani is working as a Finance Officer for the United Nations World Food Program, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020. He sat down with Chancellor Dr. Hiroyuki Kurimoto about his career post graduation and shares his thoughts on our school and how the Case Method helped him in his career and studies.

How did you come to work for the UN World Food Program?

I graduated from NUCB in 2003 and started working for Takenaka Corporation in the accounting department. After almost 4-years, I decided to move to New Zealand and obtained a master's degree in accounting from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

Currently, I work for the Thai regional office of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), but I have also worked in Nairobi and Rome.

The WFP headquarters are in Italy, but there are six regional offices under the headquarters, and 83 country offices under that. One of those regional offices is the regional office in Bangkok, Thailand, which looks after 17 countries from Afghanistan to Fiji. I work as a Finance Officer, and my main task is to check the accounting procedures of each country office to ensure that they are in line with international public accounting standards. I also examine the internal controls of each country office and coordinate with the headquarters.

How has NUCB helped you in your career?

I think NUCB gave me leadership skills and the ability to think for myself through the Case Method.

The Case Method has helped me a lot in my career, and we also had a case study for my CPA exam, asking us to think in the position of a CFO on how to grow a department store and how to explain it to shareholders. I am also impressed by the number of international students here and the diversity on campus.

Future Plans

There is a possibility that I will continue working at the United Nations. When I became an accountant, I wanted to provide accounting services to those in need, and therefore I find the work of the United Nations very rewarding.

For NUCB students, I hope you don't give up on interacting with students from different backgrounds or nationalities and take up the opportunity of studying abroad. I want you to challenge various things without being intimidated.