Evolene Zhang - Managing Partner

IMForce Marketing Solutions, Ltd

Ms. Zhang contributes extensive management consulting, marketing and business development experience.

Specializing in building and implementing integrated marketing strategies for clients, Evolene is primarily responsible for providing strategic consulting service to the clients in industries of IT outsourcing (ITO), Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), law service and other business service sector.  She has been responsible for leading many of the projects in the area of lead generation, lead nurturing, Industry-specific branding, Online Marketing, Event marketing etc.

Prior to establishing the current company, Evolene worked as the B2B Lead Generation Director at Objectiva, a IT service company where she accumulated abundant marketing experiences including strategic internet marketing planning, online advertising campaigns, and opt-in Email marketing campaigns.

Evolene's consulting experience stretches back to over 5 years, serving as a management consultant, focusing on Strategic/Marketing Function to China and U.S. clients in high-tech and traditional industries.

Evolene holds a BA degree in English from Tsinghua University.  She likes literature, opera of Kunqu.  She has a 7-year-old son and is active in participating children commonweal business as she believes children are the hope for the new world.

Her dream is to create a platform for the ambitious youth to express their capabilities.

Top

Chris Devonshire-Ellis - Senior Partner

Dezan Shira & Associates, Publisher, Asia Briefing Ltd

Chris is senior partner of the Asian foreign direct investment practice Dezan Shira & Associates, established in 1992 with one office in Shenzhen, and now an Asian regional practice with seventeen offices across China, Hong Kong, India and Vietnam. He has serviced over 3,000 multinational companies in China since his practice began, many of them SME's.

Chris also established the Asia Briefing Ltd publications house in 1999,  which now publishes a variety of different titles in several languages.   These include  China Briefing, India Briefing, Vietnam Briefing, and 2point6billion, in addition to a selection of regional travel and cultural titles. Asia Briefing produces five different monthly magazines, sand has published over 50 different books on matters of foreign direct investment legal and tax issues.

Chris has been a columnist for the highly prestigious Beijing Review, established by Chairman Mao 50 years ago and the business magazine of the Chinese Government, for the past six years. His comments regularly appear in international publications such as The Economist, Time, Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The South China Morning Post, China Daily, The Hindu Times, The Times of India, Shanghai Daily and a host of other internationally recognized publications.

He is a sought after speaker internationally and is a member of the Royal Overseas League, the Young Presidents Organization, The China Exploration and Research Society, and the Capital Club and American Clubs in Beijing and is a member of the legal committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing.

Top

Wang Yijiang, Ph.D., Harvard University - Professor of Economics

Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business

Dr. Wang was previously a Professor at Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, and a Senior Fellow at the National Center of Economic Research, Tsinghua University. He earned his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University, and his research interests include organization theory, labor economics and human resource management, economics of transitioning and emerging markets, and the Chinese economy. Among his many papers, "The Nature of the Township and Village Enterprise," was selected as the "most influential piece ever written on the Chinese economy since reform" to be included in a volume in the Cambridge Series on Trade and Development. His work has also been published in American Economic Review and Journal of Labor Economics.

Top

Jasmine Keel - Founder and General Manager

INSPIRED

Jasmine Keel holds a Masters in Strategy (Paris Dauphine) and is a Chartered Management Accountant (CIMA).

Born and raised in Strasbourg (France), of a French dad and a Tunisian mom, Jasmine understood very quickly the importance of thinking “outside the box".

With 10 years of international work experience in the telecoms, investment banking and healthcare sectors with an emphasis on management accounting and project management, Jasmine decided to reinvent herself in China and to become an entrepreneur.

Early 2007, Jasmine founded INSPIRED, now the most comprehensive life & career transition service in China for expat partners.

Since INSPIRED was launched, Jasmine and her pool of coaches and HR professionals have tackled the main challenge related to international assignments – expat spouse dissatisfaction - and helped companies successfully retain their expat assets.

Jasmine and her team have developed a unique career coaching program for local foreign professionals in China. Since the program was launched, INSPIRED has had an exceptionally high success rate with most participant spouses finding professional positions. This program has also been the catalyst for several workshops and seminars.

Today, INSPIRED is proud to count Microsoft as one of its corporate clients and is SantaFe's career assistance provider for expat spouses relocating to China.

Jasmine believes that the journey to finding work you love is much more effective if you have the support of a local network. For her, it meant co-founding with Ms Sarah Cooper, Viva, a Beijing professional women's network, and Mumtrepreneurs, a support network for Mums who juggle business and motherhood.

Jasmine's favourite quotes are:
"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand." Randy Pausch
"Cherish your visions and your dreams, as they are the children of your soul." Anonymous

Top

Terry Crossman - Old Headhunter of Beijing

Cross Search

After 13 plus years of recruiting senior Chinese managers in China, Terry has seen the ups and downs of hiring in China from the go-go greenfield years of the mid 90's to the doldrums of the 97 financial crisis through the dot com boom and then the SARS slowdown in 2003 to the post WTO boom and now the uncertainty of the times we now face. One key element has remained constant though all these years, boom or bust, all companies need effective and trustworthy Chinese executives in order to succeed in this market, and almost all business failures are due to having the wrong people in place.

Terry Crossman, President and Founder of Cross Search can truly qualify for the title of Lao Lie Tou (Old Headhunter) as well as an Old China Hand. Prior to Cross Search, he has previously established 2 offices for other overseas search firms and trained and managed teams of local consultants and researchers who have successfully completed over 300 searches for multinational companies in over 15 locations throughout China.

Terry is originally from the US and has been a fluent Mandarin speaker for over 35 years. He is an honors graduate with a BA degree in Chinese Studies from the University of Pennsylvania from way back in the 70's before China became “popular". Prior to working in the executive search industry, he had worked for over 12 years in Hong Kong in financial services with CIGNA, Thomas Cook and AIG and also learned how to speak decent Cantonese.

A lifelong student of the society that we all live in, Terry has developed relationships with thousands of people and has deep insider knowledge of many industries and of the challenges of doing business in China.

Mr. Crossman has a passion for people, a passion for photography, is a student of ideas and an informal counselor/coach to many. He raised his family here in Beijing and currently resides here with his Singaporean wife, 2 dogs and a cat, as both his children are now in the US. Terry is also the founder and President of the Penn Club of Beijing which now has over 250 members.

Top

Xiaoyu Xu - Vice President

Shinetech Software Inc.

Mr. Xiaoyu Xu is the Vice President of Shinetech Software Inc., responsible for business development and sales and marketing. He has been working in this position for over 6 years. In these 6 years, Shinetech grew up to a software outsourcing company with 300 employees focusing on North America and Europe market. Shinetech's unique marketing methods and development methodology differentiate itself from other software outsourcing companies.

Prior to Joining Shinetech, Mr. Xu worked as a consultant in Accenture Japan, Operation Solutions Section which provides IT outsourcing service to customers. He accumulated his experience in software outsourcing since then. Mr. Xu had also worked in other Japanese and Swedish companies before going to Japan. The working experience in companies with different cultures and scales helped Mr. Xu be able to quickly understand the needs and concerns of different customers to be able to address them to provide tailored service to each specific customer.

Top

Yuan Haiying - President

Yuan Associates

Mr. Yuan Haiying founded Yuan Associates in February 2004, and since then he and the firm have become major players in China's growing government affairs industry.

Mr. Yuan has thirty years experience in the Chinese Government, including senior diplomatic postings in Washington D.C., as China's Agriculture Attaché, and in Rome, as the Alternate Representative to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO). He has been involved in negotiations on numerous bilateral and multilateral agreements in the areas of trade, investment, agriculture, forestry, fishery and environmental protection. For his efforts, Mr. Yuan received an Outstanding Contribution Certificate from the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and Outstanding Contribution Awards from the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In China, Mr. Yuan was the Director of the Ministry of Forestry's Department of International Cooperation, where he coordinated the Ministry's relations and joint projects with foreign governments and international organizations.

After retiring from public service, Mr. Yuan worked as Senior Vice President at Edelman Public Relations for three years and as Vice President at APCO Worldwide for three years. Mr. Yuan chaired the Government Affairs Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce and the China Quality Brands Protection Committee (QBPC) of the Chinese Government Cooperation Committee. Additionally, he was a Council Member of the China International Public Relations Association (CIPRA) and the Beijing Foreign Investment Association.

Mr. Yuan graduated from Peking University with a degree in English and International Politics. He speaks Mandarin and fluent English.

Top

AJ Warner - Director

Touchdown!

Mr. Warner established Touchdown! into one of China's leading educational consulting companies since starting firm back in 2005. He has been responsible for creating the company's service delivery model and marketing strategy. He manages the company's daily operations.

AJ focuses primarily on working with clients interested in entering Top 20 global MBA programs. He has made presentations at over 10 of Beijing's top universities to college students about how to be successful in the graduate application process to leading business schools in Canada, UK, and US business schools. His thoughts and advice about applying to top MBA programs will appear in an upcoming edition of Staffers Magazine, one of China's most popular job advice publications.

After first arriving in China, AJ consulted to six of China's leading IT outsourcing companies about how to build up their operations and sales departments to expand in the US market. He was invited to speak at numerous outsourcing industry events and consulted to the Beijing Municipal Government. Later, he worked with Chinese start-up companies, helping them meet with leading VC firms in Beijing and Silicon Valley to secure investments.

Prior to moving to Beijing, AJ was a Manager at Deloitte Consulting in Dallas, Texas. He was responsible for helping US MNCs formulate their outsourcing strategy and helped a number of companies build support centers based in India. He wrote articles that appeared in major IT magazines outsourcing about how to balance risk when moving IT maintenance offshore and how to have a success knowledge transfer during an outsourcing transition.

AJ earned his MBA from The University of Texas where he received a full scholarship. He is the Texas MBA Beijing Alumni Chapter President. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. AJ is a proud father of two young boys.

Top

William Moss - Director

Burson-Marsteller China

William has been working in media and technology for fifteen years, in a progression that has taken him from radio and television to game development to e-commerce and ultimately public relations. Today William provides corporate positioning, digital strategy, media relations, media training, and issues management advisory to Burson-Marsteller's clients in China.

William came to China in 2004 following nine years in Singapore, where he helped found and lead a company developing online computer games and was later part of the senior management team at one of Singapore's best known Internet and e-commerce consultancies. Because of his mix of Internet and media experience, William has a particular interest in how the Internet is shaping modern media, public relations and corporate communication.

William has written on technology and business for various print and online publications in the United States, Singapore and China and also authors Imagethief, a widely read blog on communication, media and life in China (news.imagethief.com). Prior to moving to Asia, William worked in both radio and television news in San Francisco, USA, and co-authored two books on online computer games.

Top

Keith Bradbury - General Manager

ClubFootball Limited

Responsible for the overall direction and operation of ClubFootball, Keith has been leading the company for more than 7 years, since its establishment as China's first Joint Venture soccer network in 2001.

The company operates a range of properties & platforms catering to foreign & local, individuals & organizations. Examples include year-round men's 5-a-side leagues & junior coaching courses, 1-day charity fundraising events, a membership benefits programme, websites and email newsletters.

As one might expect, the decision to kick-off ClubFootball was partly an emotional one. Hailing from Manchester, England, Keith has always been passionate about football and as a lifelong fan and player (at an amateur level) it was an exciting proposition to combine business and pleasure and form a football-related company with a group of like-minded friends with skills and experience in relevant sectors.

At the time Keith was coming to the end of a 3-year spell with Zhaopin.com (a recruitment/HR portal) which he helped to found in 1997. During his time at one of China's most successful online enterprises, Keith occupied roles in fields as diverse as IT and BD, and feels that the “dotcom boom" in China was a tremendously exciting & valuable learning experience for him.

With almost 12 years of China experience and a Bachelor's Degree from Durham University (UK) in Chinese Studies, Keith is fluent in Mandarin. He is also recognized as one of the leading authorities on the football industry in China and has appeared in numerous media commenting on the state of the game.

In 2009 Keith is hoping for world peace and economic recovery and in 2010 that England win the World Cup!

Top

Michael Wester - General Manager

True Run Media

A native of Boston, Michael Wester has spent 13 of the past 17 years in greater China - five years in Taipei and eight years in Beijing. He studied journalism and Mandarin Chinese at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and has an MBA from Babson College.

Since 2001 he has been the General Manager of Beijing-based True Run Media, the producers of the Immersion Guides series of Beijing guidebooks; the arts and entertainment monthly the Beijinger; and the family-oriented monthly Beijing Kids.

Between juggling work and family life (as the proud father of a 22-month-old daughter), Wester is actively involved as a founding member of the Beijing Chapter of the Entrepreneurs' Organization, a global network of more than 7,000 business owners in 38 countries.

Top

David Ben Kay - General Manager

Yuanfen New Media Art Space

Over the nearly 40 years that David Kay has had an interest in China, both he and China have experienced sea changes. David has been consistently focused on China from a night class in Chinese in 1971 while in high school in Denver, Colorado, threw formal academic training at Brown University (AB, 1976), UC Berkeley, the Stanford Center in Taipei (1977-1980), Thunderbird School of International Management (MBA 1981) and then UCLA Law School (JD, 1986). David has been in Beijing for the past 20 years and was in Hongkong for the three years immediately prior to that. With 15 years as a corporate lawyer, David assisted over 250 companies set up China businesses and manage issues from a wide range of industries: aviation, automotive, energy, consumer products, finance, pharmaceuticals, high technology, media and communications. Among David's largest and most interesting clients was Microsoft and in 2003, he had that rare opportunity for a lawyer in private practice to go "in-house"into a company he had known so well from the outside. From 2003 to 2005 David was Microsoft China's General Counsel, heading up the Law and Corporate Affairs Group; in addition to managing all of Microsoft's commercial and IPR related work, he was also in charge of the company's government relations as well as their corporate social responsibility efforts in China. In 2005, David took on a position Steve Ballmer created called the "Piracy Czar"(aka General Manager, Genuine Software Initiative). David was Microsoft's spokesman and "evangelist"for innovation and IPR protection. David is now exercising his own entrepreneurial urges having converted his loft in 798 into a new media art gallery: Yuanfen 缘分新媒体艺术空间. David is the owner, manager, curator and "gallerist."He's currently holding the fourth exhibit since opening. He continues to work on forming strategic alliances which he hopes will ultimately result in the establishment of a media R&D facility along the lines of MIT's Media Lab or Renseselaer Polytechnic's Impact. He is also working on developing a line of Yuanfen branded "new media fashion."

China Daily recentlly wrote a feature article about David's Yuanfen gallery. Click here to read the article

Top

Paul Sack - General Manager and Co-Founder

E-Comricson

Mr. Sack's company, E-Comricson is an engineering services company in the field of mobile telecommunications.

Having come to China four years ago, Paul has built a successful business from zero to over 250 engineers today. Despite the current economic downturn, Paul remains very positive of the company's outlook with the ambition to double its company size in 2009. Despite such impressive growth, E-com started with a rather modest capital outlay with the source coming from the savings of the two partners. The company operates on zero gearing and remains completely private.

Prior to setting up his own company, Paul served at various positions with Swedish telecommunication giant, Ericsson. During his tenure with Ericsson, Paul was in-charge of portfolio development and services marketing. Just as what IBM and HP had gone through in the 80's, Ericsson was transforming from a hardware manufacturer to service-based company. Paul was one of the few pioneers in championing services and had contributed much to the success of Ericsson services business. Among many achievements, he was responsible for developing and marketing the first Spare Parts Management Service in Asia Pacific for the largest mobile operator in Taiwan, when he spent a year based in Taipei.

Paul also spent five years in Jakarta during the Asian monetary crisis. During the difficult days, he helped the Indonesian customers to cut cost and reduced OPEX through Ericsson Network Support and Outsourcing services.

Paul was overseeing the Southeast Asian Services sales based in Kuala Lumpur for two years before he decided to venture out on his own. He has won numerous awards and recognitions as outstanding contributor to Ericsson.

Paul holds a MBA from Strathclyde Business School, Glasgow and studied his undergraduate in the States. Paul was born and raised in Malaysia and he speaks five languages and two Chinese dialects.

Top

Sarah Cooper - Career and Lifestyle Coach

Cows From My Window

Sarah coaches people who want to start a business or find work which allows them to follow their passions, express their creativity or help people or society in some way.

No stranger to career exploration and change herself, Sarah originally worked as a solicitor in a large commercial London law firm. Realising she wanted to make a more direct difference to people's lives, she moved to the voluntary sector. Sarah held senior marketing roles at the UK's largest cancer research charity and the British Red Cross, where she scoped and implemented a large-scale change project, making major contributions to the organisation's re-branding and long-term corporate strategy.

Three years ago Sarah fulfilled a long-held dream of living overseas by moving to Beijing. She re-trained as a coach and started her own career and lifestyle coaching practice Cows From My Window. Her disparate client base has included senior managers, journalists, stay at home mums, teachers, NGO workers and scientists, as well as fellow disillusioned lawyers!

As well as maintaining her own practice, Sarah is a resident career change expert for Careershifters, a UK-based career transition resource and online community, and a consultant for INSPIRED, a life and career transition support service for expat partners in China. Sarah also co-founded and is President of VIVA, Beijing Professional Women's Network, as well as co-founding Mumtrepreneurs, a Beijing support group for mothers with their own businesses.

Outside of work, Sarah enjoys spending time with her three year old daughter, Elsa, chronicling their experiences and misadventures in the long-running Beijing Kids' column Me, Myself and Elsa.

Top

Ori Elraviv - CEO & Founder

ShouJi Mobile Entertainment

ShouJi Mobile Entertainment is a mobile game production house creating advanced 3D/2D mobile applications, as well providing services for porting and testing mobile games for world-wide markets. Established as Dragon Ports two and a half years ago, the Company is now running an operation of more than 70 engineers, after successfully completing a merger with Spiced Bits to create the largest mobile game outsourcing house in China.

In parallel to founding Dragon Ports, Ori has teamed with Eric Schmidt to re-establish China Entrepreneurs with the vision of creating a platform to foster ideas and expand the movement of entrepreneurship in China. Together Eric and Ori has created a series of events and a strong community base, which Eric has now taken further with the more recent CE Start Up Series.

Prior to founding Dragon Ports, Ori headed business development and marketing efforts for a number of service providers in the telecoms/IT industries in China. In his last position, Ori served as VP business development, China, for GDS International, a UK based media publisher & conference organizer, securing the involvement of several of the leading executives in the four Chinese telecom operators in the company's “NGT China" conference series.

Ori has lived in China since 2003, and currently resides in Beijing with his wife Dana and their two sons Liron and Eyal. Ori holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Management and Far East Studies from the University of Tel-Aviv, which he completed with honors. In his free time, Ori regularly plays basketball, and enjoys reading & scuba diving.

Top

Ira Lawrence Cohen - Executive Vice President

Universal Ideas Consultant

Ira Cohen is the recipient of the China Staff-Euro Money Group Human Resources 2000, "Special Award for Outstanding Contribution to HR in China and Hong Kong". As Executive Vice-President of Universal Ideas Consultants Corporation, he leads a management consultancy firm with a focused specialization in the marketing, market research, coordination and business development for training initiatives from seminars to comprehensive management of MBA programs.

A veteran in education, training and development projects related to China from 1985 thru 2008, Ira has worked as a Professor at Jiangxi Normal University; managed bilateral International Business Management programs; recognized for strengthening the institutional capacity of a number of China's technical/vocational institutions in curriculum development; presiding over a significant number of consultative conferences; former Director of Rutgers IEMBA-China programs; founder, consultant, entrepreneur on behalf of Universal Ideas.

Mr. Cohen is a thought leader in Business Driven Action Learning, bridge facilitator between western and Asian management practices, proven administrator and decision-maker in the Chinese business environment.

He is widely recognized as the publisher of the 'UI Training Services in China Directory'. Mr. Cohen holds a BA and MA in Communication Arts, a Postgraduate Diploma in International Business Management, and an MBA from Rutgers University; currently completing his PhD in the field of entrepreneurism. He has lived and worked in the UK, Holland, Canada, the US and been a resident of Beijing for the past eighteen years.

In 2004, Ira became the first North American to be trained and licensed in China to fly private helicopters, a license which is recognized worldwide.

Top

Alex Lin - CEO and Founder

Chinavalue.net

(Alex) Mr. Lin Yong Qing is a widely regarded, leading international business and information technology authority, and founder and CEO of ChinaValue.Net business-new media.

Alex brings an extensive history of accomplishment and successes to his many ventures. Previously, in a period of seven years in China , as Intel's senior executive, he built and managed the world's largest IT sales channel. Moreover, as Deputy General Manager and VP of Marketing, he supported the growth of a “TOP 3" PC maker in China , TsingHua TongFang Computer Ltd.

Alex was the first local MBA (XiaMen University) with Intel China, and is currently the first global EMBA in China from the prestigious TRIUM program jointly sponsored by the London School of Economics and Political Science, New York University Stern School of Business, and the HEC School of Management Paris.

Alex is advisor for several top global organizations of business forums, such as World Economics Forum (Davos); Ambrosetti (Politics & Business) ; Agrion of Global Energy Issues.Alex is advisor of top business schools in China. Such as Beijing University, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology. He also brings his rich experience to Academy of Peter Drucker as a lecturer of Chinese entrepreneurship.

Top

Ferry Rebergen - Marketing Manager

Beijing Hutong School

Mr. Rebergen came to Beijing in April 2006 for an internship as Technical Translator German/English – Dutch at Mukade Technical Documentation Ltd. This internship was arranged by Hutong School and sponsored by Mukade.

Short after completion of this internship the Beijing Hutong School took a chance and hired Ferry as the new Sales Manager. The main task was getting more students to attend the Hutong School Programs, and within 3 months the Sales had risen with 40% to a level which he has maintained until promoted to Marketing Manager.

In the period as Sales Manager Ferry also performed some marketing and PR tasks such as attending networking events, meetings with possible partner companies and the organisation of the successful two-monthly International Interns & Young Professionals Evening.

In July 2008 Ferry took on the new position as Marketing Manager with great enthusiasm. As Marketing Manager he is now responsible of the website innovation and maintenance, search engine optimisation, all company, agents and other organisations' contacts, and all promotion efforts inside and outside of Beijing.

In his free time Ferry is the team leader of The Flying Dutchmen, the Dutch football team in Beijing, which not only requires passionate involvement, but also organisational and accounting skills.

Top

Wendy Wu - CEO

New Leaders

Ms. Wu is currently the Chief Organizational Behavior Consultant & CEO of New Leaders. In the past 9 years, she has been focusing on Succession Planning, Talent Audit & Management, Re-Organization Strategy, Evaluating Talent Investment, amount other areas. During this time, Ms Wu has consulted hundreds of senior executives in local and multinational corporations in China and North America

"Chief Organizational Behavior Consultant & CEO of New Leaders"
"Chief Representative, 6 Seconds China"
"Advertising and Marketing & Communications, F.I.T., State University of New York"

Top

Jack Perkowski - Founder and Chairman

ASIMCO Technologies

Upon graduation from Yale and the Harvard Business School, Jack Perkowski spent eighteen years on Wall Street, rising to Head of Investment Banking at PaineWebber. Well before others recognized the significant role that China would play in the global economy, he spent three years investigating opportunities in Asia and China, leading to the founding in 1994 of ASIMCO Technologies, one of the most important players in China's automotive components industry. Headquartered in Beijing, with 17 factories and 12,000 employees throughout the country, ASIMCO is a unique foreign-invested company that was established specifically to serve the China market. The Company has gained a reputation for developing local management and integrating a broad based China operation into the global economy. ASIMCO has twice been named one of the "Ten Best Employers in China," ranking third in the most recent survey conducted by Hewitt Associates and 21st Century Business Herald.

Widely recognized as an expert on doing business in China, Jack has authored Managing the Dragon: How I'm Building a Billion Dollar Business in China, as well as numerous articles on China, its economy and developing a business in the country. He is a frequent speaker on all matters relating to China and provides timely insights into ongoing developments in the country on http://www.managingthedragon.com. In 2008, he was named by China Auto News as one of "30 Outstanding Entrepreneurs in China's Auto Components Industry Over the 30 Years of Economic Reform," the only foreigner to receive such distinction.

Top

Frank Fan - CEO & Founder

International Center for Veterinary Services

Prior to starting his animal health care provider business (International Center for Veterinary Services) in Beijing, Xing Frank Fan spent more than 8 years as an entrepreneur in China before going to US. He also spent 4 years working as a business advisor in financial industry in New York where he successfully helped and private investors to select investment target companies, and managed investment for private investors.

He was one of the selected panel speakers for Asia Harvard Business Conference in year 2004, on the topic of labor issue in China economy growth. He also taught Corp-Finance, and Micro-Economic at State University of New York as an adjunct professor. He received his MBA at Columbia Business School.

Top

Mark Pinner

Public Affairs Consultant

Mr. Pinner is just about to begin a new job with Lenovo. Mark is a communications professional with over five years’ experience focusing on public affairs, government relations, and strategic communications. He has advised MNCs, industry associations and government clients in a range of fields covering the automotive, energy, consumer goods, and education sectors.

Mark began his communications career in the UK Parliament as a political aide, where he was responsible for advising the current opposition party on parliamentary debates, legislation and responses to current events. He joined the Party’s Foreign Affairs Team to participate in official visits to Beijing and Ulan Bator.

Mark has spent most of his working career alternating between Beijing and London, which also includes roles as a tax accountant and an English teacher. He has now lived in Beijing for nearly six years, and speaks and reads fluent Mandarin Chinese.

He is a founder and organizer of Pub PR, a Beijing discussion and networking forum that brings together people passionate about communications to share candid, real-world stories and lessons from today's industry.

In his spare time he enjoys participating in public speaking club Toastmasters International, organising the Beijing Go Club (for the game known in China as Wei Qi).

He holds a BSc degree in Natural Sciences and an MA degree in East Asian International Relations, both from the University of Durham in the UK.

Top

Gregory Sy - Lawyer

Grandall Legal Group (Beijing)

Gregory Sy is Of Counsel with Grandall Legal Group, responsible for the international section of the national firm, representing both domestic and foreign clients in international business transactions and new investment structuring. More specifically, Gregory practices in the areas of Mergers & Acquisitions, Franchise, Foreign Direct Investment (inbound & outbound), and International Transactions. Though his clients range from large multinationals to small start-ups, Mr. Sy has developed a particular expertise in assisting small and medium-sized companies in the Chinese market.

Gregory has lived in China for nearly 5 years. He holds a number of directorships in China and Hong Kong, including Xian Aussie Gold Cleaning Technologies Co., Ltd., Beijing Five-Star Sports Consulting Co., Ltd., and Syvex Limited.

Mr. Sy publishes extensively on China-related issues, including acting as Editor for various Martindale -Hubbell/Lexis-Nexis Law digests, and articles for China Law & Practice, Asia Legal Business, and various other publications.

Mr. Sy holds an LL.B. from the University of Victoria, Canada, and is admitted to the New York State Bar. Prior to practicing law, Gregory was involved in a number of start-ups, ranging from Internet to franchising in personal services.

Top

Bertrand GM Petton - General Manager

Capital Club Beijing

Mr. Petton was appointed to manage the Capital Club Beijing in January 2006. The Capital Club is the oldest and most prestigious private business club in Beijing. Since its opening in 1994, the Capital Club has earned its place in the Beijing business community as the choice venue for encouraging and enhancing Chinese and international commerce and industry.

Bertrand came to Beijing in January 2006 from Southern California where he managed the company’s most successful Country Club in the country’s largest gated Community. Bertrand has managed Private Clubs on 3 continents and is considered by his peers as a “Relationships Building Champion”. He has catered for and won the affection of Royalty and many of the Word’s Business elite in a previous career as private butler in the UK and the USA and has been able to transpose the “Relationship Building” of private service to the profession of Private Club Manager.

Bertrand was born and raised in his family owned hospitality business, began his career as a Chef in France, and has learned his “Relationship Building” trade in the UK, the USA, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, Portugal, France and taught it to Hotel and Cruise Management BA’s and MBA’s at Nova University, FA, USA in 1992/1993.

Bertrand now enjoys building new relationships in China and his experience serves him well to cater to Beijing and China’s business leaders.

The first relationship he built three weeks after his arrival to Beijing was with Joan, a Harvard LS Beijing girl, member of the New York and Beijing Bar Associations. They married in August 2007.

Top

Campbell Thompson - Managing Director

The Wine Republic

Campbell Thompson is a founding partner of The Wine Republic – a China-based importer and distributor of fine wines from around the world. We’re a wine company with a difference – we’re one of the few wine companies in China to ship 100% of our wines in refrigerated containers (so as to avoid the wine being damaged by excessive heat), and we have a keen focus on the world’s leading ‘cool climate’ wine regions. The Wine Republic offers a portfolio of more than 120 wines from 25 suppliers in 5 countries.

Campbell has worked in China’s rapidly evolving wine business for more than 5 years, and has been involved in educating consumers and trade personnel about wine. He’s also attended a large number of wine tastings and dinners – clearly one of the perks of the job.

From 1999 to 2002 Campbell served as the Executive Director of the China-Australia Chamber of Commerce in Beijing, where worked with a wide range of Australian businesses active in the China market.

Campbell has lived and worked in Beijing for more than 10 years, having first visited China in 1994. His management experience encompasses marketing, sales, strategy and general management.

He’s a big fan of the wines of Burgundy and the Barossa, Beijing’s live music scene, and home cooked Sichuan food.

Top

Jeremy Wegerer - Managing Director

reallyenglish Education Technology in Beijing

Jeremy leads reallyenglish’s business in China with overall responsibility for offices in Beijing and Shanghai. Reallyenglish provides online language training solutions to both multinational and SME corporate clients, and licenses its technology and content to major publishers, universities and private language schools. Jeremy currently divides his time between sales and business development activities and general management. Since joining reallyenglish in 2007, Jeremy has significantly expanded the company’s revenue and customer base, doubling both income and the number of staff in the space of eighteen months.

Jeremy’s involvement in China goes back over 11 years, working primarily with SMEs bringing new technologies to traditional segments like international trade, training and education. He has worked extensively in both front- and back-office roles, from business development and general management of local offices to leading product development efforts and managing offshore software development teams. He has extensive experience in software project management following the Capability Maturity Model, developing software and technology solutions for both domestic and US clients. Prior to coming to China in 1997, Jeremy worked as an accountant and financial analyst for a major US consumer credit agency.

Fluent in both spoken and written Mandarin Chinese, Jeremy taught undergraduate Chinese language courses at the University of Colorado while earning an M.A. in Classical Chinese Literature. He holds a B.S. in Accountancy from Northern Illinois University and a CPA certificate. When not in the office, Jeremy spends his time fishing and climbing mountains in the US and China.

Top

Alastair White - Partner

Abacare Group Ltd.

Alastair’s first degree, from the University of London, was in Computer Science. After working within the IT industry for a number of years he left to start his own IT business which won a number of large contracts with companies such as Smith Kline Beechams (as it was then), Boots, Ernst and Young and KP Foods.

One of his passions is working within the church and to that end he left his company and went back to college to do another degree though this time in Theology. He spent much of his spare time running and building up different groups within the church such as the young people’s group, music group’s and counselling group’s and has been keen to not only help but develop people’s abilities within those area’s.

At the same time, he has developed his sales skills working for a number of home improvements companies over the years such as Mobin Kitchens (UK) and Warmroof (UK). While these were interesting times, he saw a greater potential in the financial/insurance field and having studied hard he sat professional exams in the UK for Financial Investing and Insurance related products where he has been active for the last few years working as a self employed consultant.

He has been in China for just over a year and as a partner with the Abacare group he is responsible, together with the team under him, for developing and expanding the English speaking side of his company.

As a company that focuses on the expatriate market, he is uniquely positioned to help people through the maze of products available to them and deliver a strong people oriented approach to meeting their insurance and investment needs.

Top

Mikeal D. Murphy - CEO

The IQAir Store

Having come to Beijing in December of 2003, Mike is the current CEO of The IQAir Store—China. With offices in Beijing and Shanghai and a small but effective sales force, Mike’s team has been responsible for the sales, service and distribution of IQAir products within mainland China. Having secured the rights to the product, Mike and his team have approached the market in some very unconventional ways. For their efforts, they have been rewarded with becoming the second most productive international sales group and are soon set to become number one.

Mike, along with his wife, moved to Beijing to start both a family and to try their hand in business. After a year of teaching English, a December of selling and delivering Christmas trees and a summer in the hot sun selling BBQ’s from a tent in an empty parking lot, they had enough money to parlay into Villa Lifestyles—an outdoor living store. While they achieved success with this idea, the seasonal nature of their business forced them to look beyond their original concept. By 2006 they had a solid customer base to draw from and made the fortunate decision to pursue the concept of adding an air purifier to their product range. In December of 2006, they began to sell IQAir products and quickly realized they no longer had one business, but two.

Two kids later, Mike now sits at the head of both Villa Lifestyles and The IQAir Store. With their success at launching, supporting and above all else—selling—Mike and his company have been able to plant products like Weber BBQ, IQAir, the Mosquito Magnet and Beachcomber Hot Tubs in China. He regularly receives calls from other medium-sized enterprises that would like to have him represent their products. His belief in “customer first and quality always” gives assurance to both his vendors and to his clients that they will get his very best.

Top

Elyse Ribbons - General Manager

Cheeky Monkey Theater

Elyse grew up mostly in Detroit, Michigan (also partly in Orlando, FL) and is currently a citizen of North Carolina but is a resident of Beijing, China. Having worked at CCTV, Tsinghua University, the American Embassy, Associated Press, Eastline Media and Tianjin TV, Elyse has become something of a "Gypsy Extraordinaire" but has always maintained close ties to the arts.

As creator of Cheeky Monkey Theater Productions, she has produced four shows thus far, the most recent of which, "Green Eyes on Chinese" has received great reviews and is currently planning a national tour. The most notorious production, "I Heart Beijing", has won also critical acclaim for being one of the few bridges of the cultural gap between Asia and the West (South China Morning Post).

Currently she is working on the "ShiFen Theater Festival", which is a public festival of all sorts of performance arts, from the traditional Peking Opera, to Modern Dance/Interpretive Dance and Performance Art, to traditional comedies and plays Chinese, French and English. Coming up this spring is the new Chinglish comedy, "Kung Pao Shakespeare".

In her free time, Elyse is a professional blogger and freelance journalist du jour, as well as a photographer and the organizer of ChocoJing (Beijing's Chocolate Appreciation Society). Elyse's online presence is amazing, even to her, and she wonders how she ever found the time to make the 1,400+ friends she has on Facebook.

Top

Sophia Wang - Marketing Consultant

Sophia Wang is a senior executive in China’s IT service industry with diverse experience in both multi-national companies and Chinese domestic companies, she is a thought leader in this industry and a pioneer to utilize some of the most creative digital marketing tool to improve corporate branding and business bottom line. She is the secretary general of CEIBS Outsourcing Service Industry Alumni Association.

Previously Ms. Wang was the Vice President of Beyondsoft Group, heading Beyondsoft's marketing and corporate business development. She joined Beyondsoft as the General Manager of the localization service business unit. During her one-year tenure in that position, Ms. Wang played a critical role in bringing numerous new business opportunities to Beyondsoft. Since 2006, she has been in charge of M&A for Beyondsoft and from the beginning of 2007 she has also been responsible for the management of corporate marketing.

Prior to joining Beyondsoft, Ms. Wang acquired over nine years of diverse experience at IBM China. She joined IBM as a technical professional, and later served as the Business Development Manager for the manufacturing function of IBM Greater China Group, where she was heavily involved in many of IBM's corporate investment and joint venture management activities in China. Her last position at IBM China was Global Resource Development Manager. Ms. Wang maintains an extensive network of contacts in China's outsourcing industry thanks to her unique experience in evaluating, developing, and managing IT service outsourcing vendors in China.

Ms. Wang holds a Bachelor's Degree in BME from Tsinghua University and an EMBA degree from CEIBS University.

Top

Steven_Schwankert - Founder and General Manager

SinoScuba

A native of New Jersey, Steven Schwankert founded SinoScuba, Beijing's first professional dive operator, in 2003. Since then he has led the exploration of a submerged Ming Dynasty city in a lake in eastern China, and last summer dived an underwater section of the Great Wall. He is currently finishing a book about a groundbreaking underwater discovery made off the Chinese coast, due out next year from Hong Kong University Press.

Top

Mirko Wormuth - Managing Director

TWICE Fashion Accessorie

Mirko is the founder of TWICE, a chain of fashion accessories retail stores. He co-founded TWICE with his wife Tina in 2006 and started rolling out stores in Beijing in February 2007. They currently operate more than 20 stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Dalian. In 2008, he began developing TWICE as a franchise business and is at present runing four franchises in places as far as Yinchuan and Hohhot. As founder Mirko is mainly responsible for strategic issues, business development and fundraising.

Mirko’s experience in China stretches back over 15 years studying at Nanjing University in 1994 to working as an associate lawyer for Freshfields in their Beijing and Hong Kong offices. His legal work mainly evolved around foreign direct investment by mid-sized German companies seeking investment opportunities in mainland China.

Before TWICE, Mirko co-founded and ran an office furniture sourcing company supplying large European DIY chains such as OBI and Bauhaus. He subsequently sold his stake to the remaining partners and began focussing on TWICE.

Mirko is a fluent Mandarin speaker and has in his early career published a number of articles on Chinese law. In 2001 he published a book in Germany on China’s new draft bankruptcy law.

Mirko obtained his law degree and P.h.D from Hamburg University Law School and holds a Master degree from Harvard Law School. He was admitted to the New York Bar.

Top

Robin Adams - General Manager

Yi Ming Consulting

Robin Adams has deep and rich experience helping, creating and building businesses, and elevating those who run them. His extensive experience in three SME start-up businesses has helped him amass a broad skill set and a proven track record in international business.

Born and raised in the US, but having spent the past 20 years living and working in Hong Kong and China, Mr. Adams successfully blends a diverse resume, rich personal history, and extensive education.

Since arriving in Hong Kong more than 20 years ago, Mr. Adams has been closely involved with the establishment, management and profitable sale of three successful entrepreneurial businesses operating in Asia across borders.  His experience relative to these enterprises ranged from the development of business plans, marketing and sales strategies, and leadership competencies. Mr. Adams single-handedly hired, managed, developed and motivated staff to achieve the real business goals of these ventures in order that they could be built from scratch into solid and viable ventures subsequently sold at a profit.

Leveraging his experience, Mr. Adams has been very successful in serving senior-level leaders as an Executive Coach. As such, Mr. Adams helps enable middle and upper management staff to efficiently and effectively respond to the rigors imposed on them by the increasingly competitive global marketplace.

Mr. Adams is a member of Toastmasters International.  He has started two community clubs in Beijing and has achieved the highest level of recognition in both leadership and public speaking: Distinguished Toastmaster.

Top