Kentaro Shibata

Managing Director, Chief Governance Officer & Chief of Staff

Kentaro (Ken) Shibata was appointed Managing Director, Chief of Staff at SMBC MANUBANK in February 2025 after joining the bank as Chief Governance Officer in May 2024. As Chief of Staff, Ken is principal advisor to the Chairman & Chief Executive Officer in addition to managing matters handled in his original role as Chief Governance Officer. These responsibilities include engaging with the executive leadership team, Board of Directors, and regulators to enhance the bank’s governance framework.

Before coming to SMBC MANUBANK, Ken worked in the Japanese and Asian Corporate Banking Department of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) in New York, where he served as Managing Director and General Manager in charge of internal control and risk management.

Ken joined SMBC in April 1997, and his career background includes more than 14 years of corporate banking business in Los Angeles, New York, and Tokyo. He also spent 7 years engaging in business development and investments in financial institutions in Southeast Asian markets as part of SMBC Group’s Multi-Franchise strategy. Between 2016 and 2018, Ken was assigned to lead strategic planning for a large Vietnamese bank in which SMBC held a minority stake.