Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
NEWS
Chair Hitoshi Abe met with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and a delegation of local and national business leaders, along with executives from the Port of Los Angeles, Los Angeles World Airports and LA, Inc. on December 12 in Sendai, Japan. While in Sendai, the delegation met with Sendai Mayor Emiko Okuyama and met with disaster preparedness experts to share best practices with key experts.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at Arahama Elementary School, (Sendai). This site became the collection grounds for salvaged motor vehicles many were marekd with the locations of where they were recovered.
Sharing Best Emergency Preparedness Practices
Japan’s early warning system is believed to have saved businesses, hospitals, and transportation networks hundreds of millions of dollars in damages by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami because they were able to shut down processes 30 to 60 seconds prior to the earthquake.
The delegation meets with experts at Tohoku University.
The delegation visited Tokyo and the earthquake ravaged Sendai and Arahama, Japan, to meet with local government officials, emergency responders and university researchers about how the area responded to the natural disasters. Villaraigosa met with the Mayor of Sendai, Japan, as well as tour Sendai with first responders and visited Tohoku University, a major player in disaster preparedness. Villaraigosa also attended a disaster emergency briefing at the Japan Meteorological Agency and learned from experts about Japan’s early warning system demonstration, with the goal of learning and sharing emergency preparedness best practices.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa with Akihisa Inoue, President, Tohoku University
Delegation
Villaraigosa traveled with a limited number of city staff, as well as executives from Port of Los Angeles, Los Angeles World Airports and LA Inc. Villaraigosa was accompanied by a delegation of top national and local business leaders. The delegates were:
Antonio R. Villaraigosa - Mayor of Los Angeles
Michael “Mickey” Kantor – Partner – Mayer Brown
Thomas “Mack” McLarty – President – McLarty Associates
David Fisher - Chairman - Capital Group
Jose Villarreal – Senior Advisor - Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
Don Chang - CEO - Forever 21
Dr. Sung Won Sohn - Vice Chairman - Forever 21; Commissioner - Board
of Harbor Commissioners
Gina Marie Lindsey – Executive Director, Los Angeles World Airports
Michael Lawson - President - Board of Airport Commissioners - Los
Angeles World Airports
Kathryn McDermott - Deputy Executive Director - Port of Los Angeles
Patti MacJennett - Senior Vice President, Marketing at LA INC, Los
Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau
Mary Carley - Associate Vice President, Travel Industry Marketing at
LA INC., Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau
Jim Featherstone, General Manager, LA Emergency Management Department
(Japan Only)
Elga Sharpe - Chief of Protocol, City of LA
Matt Karatz - Deputy Mayor of Business and Economic Policy, City of LA
Eileen Decker – Deputy Mayor of Homeland Security, City of LA (Japan Only)
Stephen Cheung - Managing Director of Business and Economic Policy -International Trade, City of LA
Nicole Legacki - Director of Business and Economic Policy -
International Trade, City of LA
Casey Hernandez - Press Secretary to Mayor Villaraigosa
Gabriela Ortiz – Special Assistant to Mayor Villaraigosa
