Lowell Sheppard

Lowell Sheppard is a thought leader, advisor, author, researcher and keynote speaker whose work helps organisations navigate one of the defining challenges of our time: how longer lives are reshaping leadership, work, markets and society.

A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS) and Special Advisor to the International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Lowell combines rigorous research with immersive fieldwork, travelling throughout Japan to understand why some communities age better than others and what business and society can learn from them.

His work is grounded in more than three decades of leadership, entrepreneurship and social innovation. As Founder and President of HOPE International Development Agency Japan, he led the organisation from a start-up to becoming one of Japan's top-performing NGOs, earning the coveted Nintei (certified public interest) status — a distinction achieved by only a small percentage of charitable organisations in Japan.

Over the past twenty years Lowell has also served as an informal advisor to boards, business leaders, foundations and non-profit organisations, helping them think through leadership, ethics, organisational culture, community building and long-term legacy. Today his advisory work focuses increasingly on helping organisations understand the emerging longevity economy and the changing expectations of longer-living customers. His clients include insurance companies, think tanks, educational institutions, and organisations seeking to understand how longer lives are changing decision-making, customer behaviour, health, purpose and independence.

His current research project has taken him to all 47 prefectures of Japan, exploring what he calls The Art of Community — the social, cultural and behavioural practices that enable people not simply to live longer, but to remain healthy, engaged and purposeful throughout later life. This work forms the basis of his forthcoming book, Longevity and the Art of Community: Lessons from Japan, currently under consideration by twelve publishers across ten language markets following presentations at the London Book Fair.

Lowell is also the author of ten books, including Dare to Dream, shortlisted for Business Book of the Year. Originally written as the companion volume to a History Channel television pilot, the book chronicles his own journey of reinvention while exploring broader themes of leadership, resilience, curiosity and purposeful living.

Whether speaking to thousands from the stage or facilitating a strategy session with a leadership team, Lowell's goal is the same: to challenge conventional thinking, provoke meaningful conversation, and help organisations navigate the opportunities emerging from a rapidly changing world.