Mr. Stephen D. Bloom

Senior Fellow

Mr. Bloom will join USJF as a Senior Fellow in September 2025, following 20 years of transformational leadership as CEO of the Portland Japanese Garden. In that role, he will advise the Foundation's leadership and board on strategies to expand impact and visibility, with a particular focus on the US-Japan Leadership Program.

In addition to his work with USJF, Mr. Bloom is advising the Nobel Peace Center on how to amplify its mission of fostering global conversations around peace, dialogue, and shared humanity.

During his tenure at the Portland Japanese Garden, Mr. Bloom changed not only the landscape of Portland but the international field of Japanese gardens and the global conversation around the art and importance of cultural diplomacy.

A prolific fundraiser, Mr. Bloom raised more than $75 million in support of the Garden and the US-Japan Cultural partnership. Under his leadership, attendance at the Garden grew from 100,000 to 500,000 annually, and its staff increased from 17 employees in 2005 to more than 150.

Mr. Bloom is responsible for the creation of Japan Institute in 2020, a sibling organization of Portland Japanese Garden with a vision of being the leading global platform outside Japan for sharing the nation’s greatest gifts with the world, including its culture, art, design, and unique connection to nature.

The Institute is based in Portland but presents programming on six continents. Its signature series of Peace Symposia, titled “Peacemaking at the Intersection of Culture, Art, and Nature," has engaged individuals and organizations such as Japan’s Imperial Family and the Nobel Peace Center.

One of Mr. Bloom's signature initiatives at the garden was the Cultural Crossing project, an endeavor that saw the opening of a new $37-million Cultural Village designed by renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma.

This project -- Kuma's first in North America -- won more than 20 local, national, and international design awards and recognitions, and was selected by Architectural Digest as the best designed building project in the history of the State of Oregon. 

Mr. Bloom also launched the North American Japanese Garden Initiative which over the past decade has brought together for the first time the international Japanese garden field through the creation of the North American Japanese Garden Association, where he served as founding Board President.

In 2018, on the occasion of its 100th Anniversary, the Garden Society of Japan bestowed for the first time ever to a foreigner honorary membership to Mr. Bloom. In 2015, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced it was awarding the Foreign Minister’s Commendations in Honor of the 70th anniversary of the End of World War II. The award was given to individuals and groups with outstanding achievements in the promotion of friendship between Japan and the United States. Mr. Bloom was awarded this prestigious recognition along with 27 other individuals.

Mr. Bloom began his career as an aspiring symphony orchestra conductor having attended fellowship programs at the Aspen Music Festival and Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Music Festival. Mr. Bloom served in conducting roles for the Buffalo Philharmonic and Sacramento Symphony before transitioning into management, serving as President of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, and Executive Director of the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra.