Mika Masunari has been Santen’s General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer since October 2020, responsible for overseeing legal and compliance affairs worldwide. She ensures that Santen is in full legal compliance and operating with high ethics and integrity in the highly regulated healthcare industry, ultimately to support sustainable and robust growth. Mika also acts as head of the board’s secretariat, working to enhance shareholder rights and corporate values by solidifying corporate governance and increasing the board’s effectiveness.

Mika contributes to strategic investments in her legal and negotiating capacities. In addition, through her professional legal support, Mika helps to minimize new types of risk and contributes to value creation, thereby contributing to Santen’s efforts to transform itself into a social innovator, including by expanding its geographic footprint and developing a wider range of ophthalmic solutions, such as for cell and gene therapy and digital health.

Mika joined Santen in 2016 as Legal Director of the Business Development Department and then went to the USA in 2017 as Vice President, Head of Legal and Compliance at Santen Inc. While in the USA, she helped to pave Santen’s reentry into the local market by designing and building a robust legal and compliance team.

After returning to Japan in 2019, she became Head of the Legal and Compliance Department. During this time, she reinvented the company’s total compliance program, including organizational structure, risk assessment, policies and guidelines, training programs and monitoring.

Mika holds a bachelor's degree in law from Kyushu University, Japan and a master’s degree in law from New York University School of Law, USA. She is a licensed attorney in New York, USA.