Steven Towns is the author of 'Investing in Japan' (March 2012). There is no stock market as undervalued and as misunderstood. 'Investing in Japan' fills the void of information about Japanese stocks, providing a comprehensive overview of the market, challenging conventional wisdom of Japan being on its last lag, and providing insightful discussion of many key aspects to investing in Japan, including the activities of investment funds, idiosyncrasies of the market, returns on equity, shareholder rights, and more. Please see book detail page below or paste the following book link to Amazon in your browser: http://amzn.to/AENfeH

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Steven aims to enhance shareholder value among select stocks that he owns ...More (primarily involving Japanese and North American companies) via dialogue with board directors and/or shareowner proposals.

His ongoing activist investment focus is Internet Initiative Japan (IIJI) (JP: 3774). During IIJ’s fiscal year-ended March 31, 2011 (his activism began around the start of the fiscal; Steven urged the board to consider unlocking shareholder value via a number of means and questioned operational efficiency, as well as corresponded directly with founding chairman and president Suzuki) IIJ raised its dividend 3 times to ¥2,750/share (aggregate increase of 37.5%). In fact, for fiscal 2011 IIJ has issued guidance for a target dividend of ¥3,000/share, representing a total increase of 50% since last fiscal year. This level of success in Japan is unprecedented, not to mention that it was achieved independently.

In 2008, Steven was interviewed by The Economist, and mentioned in, “Business in Japan: Criss-cross capitalism,” in regards to cross-shareholding.

Another activist focus of Steven’s is General Electric (GE). More than “unlocking” value, GE is a more immediate case involving preservation of both shareowner value and shareowner rights. As of February 2012, Steven has an outstanding shareowner proposal to GE that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has already ruled GE may not omit. It is customary that companies seek “no-action” approval from the SEC to avoid having to print proponents’ proposals in their proxy statements and thus prevent resolution either via proxy vote or presentation and vote at an Annual Meeting. GE is relentless in its repeated unfounded no-action requests, but Steven believes the SEC will not allow GE to omit his proposal. Steven was mentioned in a February 2011 Fortune article, “Grading Jeff Immelt.”

Steven is a member of the United States Proxy Exchange (USPX), and supports its efforts to facilitate shareowner rights. In September/October 2010, he participated in a letter writing campaign that resulted in Symantec Corporation reversing its decision to host future virtual-only annual shareowner meetings; instead it will offer a hybrid (live or in-person, and virtual) meeting. Most recently in spring 2011, Steven coauthored the USPX draft guidelines for voting on say-on-pay. Steven is also an “Advocate” at Moxy Vote. All readers and investors are highly encouraged to visit the USPX and Moxy Vote websites in order to stay on top of very important developments affecting your investments and shareowner rights.

Please follow Active Investing on Twitter (@ActiveInvesting), where Steven shares his thoughts, and links to articles, about such things as Japanese equities and socioeconomic developments, value investing, corporate governance, and shareowner rights.

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Current employment: Assistant Director of Research, Yale University (Development)

Prior employment: Editor and Japan Analyst, Seeking Alpha, with 1,500+ articles published; Economic and Commercial Development with Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan; Research Associate at boutique M&A consulting firm (exp. in medical devices; casino/hotel; wireless telecom)

Education: Master's Int'l Mgmt and Finance & B.A. Asian Studies, University of Maryland University College; Level-1 certification (highest) of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test.

Website: Active Investing at http://steventowns.com

If you're like GE's deputy GC & trash proxies still worth reading abt my critical dividend proposal at GE! OK'd by SEC. But GE challenging. Jan 24, 2012