Stonebridge Partners Group is a strategic intelligence and public affairs advisory firm. We help our clients mitigate risks, enhance their reputation, and engage with stakeholders.

Based in Kuala Lumpur, we work globally and specialize in Malaysia and Southeast Asia.

Romain Caillaud is a risk and reputation management consultant with more than a decade of experience providing public affairs and strategic intelligence services to corporations, law firms and nonprofits in Japan and Southeast Asia, with particular expertise in the technology, energy and manufacturing sectors. Currently located in Japan, Romain was based prior in Singapore and in Myanmar, and is originally from France.

Romain established in January 2021 in Tokyo, public affairs and strategic intelligence consultancy, SIPA Partners. He is also a 2023 Eisenhower Global Fellow, a member of the Japan Committee of the Temple University Law School Compliance Advisory Board, and an associate fellow in the Myanmar Studies Program at Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute).

Romain was earlier a senior director with a NASDAQ-listed multidisciplinary advisory firm, in its Tokyo and Singapore offices, where he led strategic communications and corporate intelligence teams across Asia. Notable mandates he oversaw in this capacity include advising a global technology firm on the development and implementation of its public policy and government relations strategy for Japan including intelligence gathering, issues analysis and stakeholder outreach; and advising a major Japanese manufacturing conglomerate on the management of a compliance, reputation and ethical crisis it faced having received allegations of modern slavery in its Southeast Asian supply chain. Romain also worked prior as a director with two Southeast Asia-focused government affairs consultancies, in Myanmar and in Singapore.

Romain holds a Master in International Affairs from Sciences Po Paris, and a Bachelor of Arts in Southeast Asian Studies and Burmese Language from the French National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations. He also studied at Waseda University in Japan, Yangon University of Foreign Languages in Myanmar, and the University of Pennsylvania in the United States. Romain is fluent in French and English, and conversant in Japanese and Burmese.

Kei Sakaguchi has four decades of experience as a corporate communications, external affairs and business development executive and advisor, having worked in-house at both Japanese and American global corporations, as well as at specialized consultancies. He most recently served as Japan Country Representative for Eurasia Group, the leading global political risk consultancy whose Tokyo office he established.

Kei started his career at Sony Corporation and spent more than 25 years with the company, serving both in Tokyo and New York in various managerial positions including Senior Director for Communications and External Affairs, and General Manager for Corporate Communications.

Kei then served with The Coca-Cola Company as Japan’s Vice-President for Public Affairs and Communications. Before joining Eurasia Group, he was Japan’s Managing Director of Strategic Partnerships for Meltwater Group, the global online media monitoring and social intelligence software company.

Kei Sakaguchi holds a Bachelor of Arts in Law from Keio University, and a Master of Comparative Jurisprudence from New York University’s School of Law.