Yuuki Sasao-Ruef

Yuuki is a Co-founder of the Weaving Nest Program and a second-year student at the Thunderbird School of Global Management. Born and raised in a rural village in Fukuoka, Japan, she moved to Buffalo, NY, becoming the first college graduate in her family. She worked as a Public Accountant at the world headquarters of PwC in New York City, as well as in Portland, OR, in a similar role with Deloitte. During her time at Deloitte, Yuuki also founded her first company, Excel House, LLC, to support low-income immigrants and international students by providing fully furnished housing and career counseling services—an endeavor inspired by her own experience of being unsheltered.

In 2020, Yuuki relocated to Tokyo, Japan, to work as an Organizational Development Consultant, focusing on Human Resources and social capital. Her primary project has been community-building work through the Weaving Nest Program, where she designs and facilitates events and workshops. This initiative aims to build social capital in Phoenix through cross-sector collaborations with government, nonprofit, and business sectors. Yuuki’s goal is to empower marginalized communities and traditional organizations to weave their own nests through collective efforts, creating significant social impact in the community.

This past summer, Yuuki also organized and hosted an exchange program between her hometown and a rural village in the Philippines in collaboration with the Bliss Scholarship Foundation. Her mission is to minimize the opportunity gap for those in marginalized communities and rural areas.