Xianzhe (Kobe) Chen, Head of Site, Swire Cold Chain Logistics
Graduated in 2014, Kobe obtained his bachelor and master degrees in Shanghai Jiao Tong University, as well as an engineering degree in France from Ecole des Mines. All of the 3 degrees are in mechanical engineering.
Since 2011, Kobe had shown great passion to pursue professional achievements and work in cross-cultural environment as a student. During his 2 years' experience in France, he worked in Procter & Gamble as an energy conservation project manager in Paris, followed by a mechanical designer job in Softbank Robotics, participated in the design of 2 humanoid robots - NAO and Pepper. After returning to China in 2012, he was sent to SIEMENS to take charge of the mechanical engineering team in a development project for a medical testing device.
In September 2014, Kobe joined Swire Group as a Management Trainee, and was seconded to Swire Cold Chain Logistics in Shanghai to begin his career.
In the first year, as Assistant to Director & General Manager, he took charge of several engineering and procurement projects. He compiled a facility management manual for all cold storage plants of Swire in China to implement, and led the tender process for procurement projects valuing over 10Mn.
Eager to embrace more challenges, Kobe applied to join the business development department in his second year. He started with Sales Executive and was promoted to Assistant Solution Manager within a year. During his time as sales, he acquired 2 international key accounts (both became company's national top 14 customers), and successfully led cross-functional teams and coordinated internal resources in strategic projects, such as a 10-year-partnership project an MNC supermarket, a 50-year-site investment feasibility study, etc. Moreover, by the time he moved to a new post in 2017, he had accomplished the yearly sales revenue target in only 8 months.
Kobe's performance exceeded management's expectation, and upon graduation from the trainee program, he was promoted to assume the role of site manager, managing 7 departments of about 60 FTE and 50 outsourced workers through a fast growing period. As the head of site, his responsibilities include internal operations improvement, profit and loss management, customer facing and government relationship, among which Kobe's maturity and interpersonal skills ensured his effective handling of various tasks and challenges. Under his leadership, the site, while having reduced the stock and outbound discrepancy by 40%, has hit its revenue target and profit target of H1 2018, which were 60% and 30% more than last year respectively.
With proven professional achievements and leadership abilities, Kobe is stepping into his 5th year of career development and is still a young individual with great potentials. He is constantly learning and working to improve (he's taking management accounting courses recently). In the longer term, he hopes to continue his career development as an all-round general manager.
Binxin Li, Partner, FenXun Partners Shanghai Office
Binxin Li is a partner in FenXun Partners' Shanghai office. As an experienced intellectual property practitioner with an advanced scientific education and solid legal training, Binxin focuses on IP litigation and dispute resolution, IP transaction, privacy and strategy counseling.
Practice focus
Binxin oversees his clients' business operations and commercial growth in China and overseas, delivering practical and comprehensive solutions that utilize his clients' IP assets as well as advising on the prevention of potential legal risks. He advises multinational and domestic companies in the pharmaceutical, chemical, mechanical, telecommunication and entertainment industries on complex IP issues related to IP enforcement, IP filing, IP portfolio management and technology transfers.
Representative clients, cases or matters
Advised several leading pharmaceutical companies on patent infringement and invalidation as well as related regulatory issues.
Representing a manufacturing company in a patent infringement lawsuit where the Patent Reexamination Board's invalidation decision is successfully partially overruled in the infringement judgement.
Prior to joining FenXun Partners, Binxin handled the following matters:
Represented a Fortune 100 US company in a process patent infringement lawsuit in China, and successfully obtained a preliminary injunction and favorable results for the client.
Represented a world-leading LED company in a series of patent infringement and invalidation cases in China.
Represented a US company in successfully obtaining Customs protection for its process patent.
Represented a world-leading chemical company in a series of cases involving trade secret misappropriation and patent disputes.
Represented several technology companies in unfair competition cases.
Defended a major dairy company in a domain name dispute involving a domain name valued at over USD 600,000 before WIPO, and successfully won the domain name, which is valued at nearly RMB 4 million.
Counseled a leading US entertainment company on its IP transactions in a major project in China.
Advised several major industrial associations on providing comments on China IP legislation proposals.
Publications, presentations and articles
Author, "Court rules on enablement in Apple Siri case," Managing IP Magazine, July 2015
Co-Author, "Anti-counterfeiting 2015 - A Global Guide," World Trademark Review, 2015
Author, "Pharmaceutical Trademarks 2015/2016: A Global Guide" (China Section), World Trademark Review, 2015
Author, "What rule of law roadmap means for patents," Managing IP Magazine, December 2014
Author, "China Supreme People's Court Defines the Scope of Amendment to a Patent Application," Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, Vol. 7 No. 8, 2012
Lecturer, "IP Protection for Pharmaceutical R&D," Asian Pharma R&D Leaders Summit, 2018
Lecturer, "How to secure a win in patent litigation," China IP Roundtable, 2018
Lecturer, "Joy and Pain of IP Enforcement," 6th Annual U.S. - China IP Summit, 2017
Lecturer, "International Technology Transfer Program," 2015
Education and admission
University of California at Berkeley (LLM) (2014)
University of Toronto (MS) (2008)
Peking University (BS) (2006)
People's Republic of China (2011)
China Intellectual Property Office (2009)
Alex Lin, Head, Merchandising Greater China Levi's Brand, Levi Strauss & Co.
Alex Lin has lead teams and been a "first" mover for most of her career. Her passion lies with consumers having spent most of her recent career establishing retail brand presence for some of the world's best known brands.
Currently, Alex heads merchandising for the iconic Levi's Brand Greater China (Ecommerce/Retail, China/HK/Taiwan). In the last 8 months she has worked collaboratively to change the way the brand thinks about its accessibility and aspiration by redefining its price strategy, product development agility, and consumer assortment segmentation. As a strategy to build aspiration she is working to bring in Levi's Authorized Vintage to China, which would be the first time a brand brings vintage to China officially and in a large scale (confidential information). She is also defining the first ever Levi's Retail Flagship Product Experience in China. Additionally, she is spearheading the brand's sustainability within China starting first with its employees. Within her first year on the job she was recognized with a global excellence award for her work on product agility by the Africa, Middle East, and Asia regional President.
Prior to Levi's she served as the Merchandise Development Director at Shanghai Disney Resort where she was an opening team member. With her team she played an integral role in setting up the Merchandise business from establishing the product development/design, merchandise marketing, store experience, and related teams. Her task was to translate the meaning of "tangible memories" to a China consumer new to the Disney Park experience. Successful in this task, her accomplishments include:
She started her career at Gap Inc. where she had experiences working for the Old Navy brand in San Francisco, CA and Gap brand during its launch in China in 2011. During the 2007 recession she capitalized on the brands accessibility and brought the Women's Accessories business to double digit growth within one year through chasing new product and inventory. At that time she broke the infamous Old Navy Flip Flop door buster sale record (over 6 million units in one day).
Shuqi Luo, Senior Associate Consultant, L.E.K Consulting
Shuqi Luo joined L.E.K. Consulting in 2015 right after graduating with Merit from London School of Economics, the alma mater of 34 past or present heads of countries, as well as 18 Nobel Laureates.
Shuqi Luo has demonstrated a strong capability to achieve and succeed professionally in her career with L.E.K. Consulting. In 2015, she won L.E.K.'s 'Global Insights with Impact Award', an annual celebration of L.E.K.'s most influential project across 20 global offices. The winning project, a five-year strategic planning for one of the largest engineering consulting firms in China, was to impact China's billions of infrastructure investment in the 13th Five-Year plan and the everyday lives of millions of people. In 2016, Shuqi became the author of the cover-featured article 'Tiered Healthcare System-China's long and arduous journey', on the June Issue of Medical Observer, one of the most influential journal in China's healthcare industry. The tiered healthcare system policy was set to restructure and reform China's entire healthcare provision and was one of the fundamental pillar of China's ongoing healthcare reform. Under guidance, Shuqi completed intensive research on the policy and wrote an article on the implications and far-reaching impacts of the tiered healthcare system reform. In 2017, Shuqi led the APAC study to support a deal value of c.3bn RMB acquisition, a high profile deal that made headlines on Wall Street Journal and Reuters and forged world's leading industrial conglomerate. Shuqi Luo has been promoted three times through to Senior Associate Consultant.
In addition to her professional achievements, Shuqi Luo also actively participated in volunteering and community service. In 2016, She joined Educating Girls of Rural China, a charity that focuses on providing education and career development opportunities for girls from rural areas. Through 2 years of service on the mentorship program, she was able to help girls from rural areas to gain insights into the work and life of female working professionals. She is also a leading member of L.E.K.'s women's network, an intra-company committee to help foster a working environment of gender equality.
Shuqi Luo has demonstrated her ability to achieve in L.E.K. Consulting. She is now on a 6-month intra-company exchange program and working in L.E.K.'s Los Angeles office. She not only works hard but also contributes to a wider community. As a female young professional, she firmly believes her capability to be a future leader.
Leon Qiu, General Manager in China Region, BI Worldwide
Leon Qiu, who joined in BIW China in May 2012 as the BD Manager. Only half a year later, he was announced to be the Client Service Director of BIW China. At the same time, he developed the first local client, ABI in 2013. Today, ABI has been the biggest local client of BIW China under Leon's smart leadership. Before he joined in BIW China, he was taking the responsibility of the account manager in the TNT company.
In July 2017, Leon got a big promotion to be the General Manager of BIW China. Mr. Qiu has over 10 years of experiences in the consultancy of B2B business development and account management within the automotive, finance and retail sectors. Now at BIW, Mr. Qiu is in charge of China market, he aims to help our clients achieve better business performance, as well as management efficiency.
Leon leaded the whole team to win the Grogan of Asia Reward in 2016, the official accreditation of the Incentive, Conference & Event Society APAC in 2017, and the "Rewards & Recognition" Gold Award of the Human Resource Director Award in 2018.
Leon is fascinated by BIW's goals and services, which highly focuses on delivering measurable results within the solutions provided. He excels at business intelligence, organizational behaviors and organizational assessment.
James Philip Stovall IV, Managing Director, Nicobar Group
Initially coming to China through the National Flagship Program to perfect his Chinese in 2014, JP's professional development has advanced in strides after the completion of his studies. During his internship at AmCham Shanghai's Trade & Investment Center (at the time called SME Center) in 2015, JP showed great promise and impressed colleagues and clients alike with his professionalism and ambitious nature. During his internship JP was instrumental in helping create the industrial parks section, among other parts of the website, today a major part of TIC's mission.
After graduating JP accepted an entry-level role at Nicobar Group, a boutique nuclear energy consultancy. Over the years, with much tenacity and attention to business growth, he has worked his way up the ranks and is currently the Managing Director & Partner at their Shanghai office. In a niche, limited market, he's been able to guide the company through internal and external challenges with grace and the company has turned into growth mode once again.
His resolve, ability to overcome obstacles and steer the company to it's current state are truly the hallmarks of a great leader.
Landin Shan, Project Manager of Shanghai Market, Shanghai United Family Hospital & Clinics
Landin exemplifies the potential of a future leader and will continue to be a trail blazer in healthcare. His ability to work with multidisciplinary and diverse teams from all parts of the organization and drive improvements while building trust are traits all leaders should embrace.
Landin obtained Bachelor Degree of Physical Education from East China Normal University and his Master Degree - Master of Science (Management) from University College Dublin, Ireland. In continuing his professional growth he is nearing completion of his green belt in LEAN Six Sigma. He has had rich experience in managing operations and coordinating with government departments since 2002. Between 2005-2013 he worked for a premier Traditional Chinese Medicine healthcare organization in Singapore, as Operations & Administration Manager focusing on tracking and processing operational goals, market research, planning and organizing events etc. in country wide.
After returning to Shanghai, Landin joined Shanghai United Family Healthcare as Medical Records Manager In Apr 2014, and in the following year, he was assigned as Medical Record Manager & Allied Service Project Coordinator. In Dec 2016, Landin took the position of Project Manager of Shanghai Market focusing on operational projects in Shanghai market wide, as well as being the Interim Manager of Government Relations Department.
Landin was certified as the Most Supportive Manager in United Family Healthcare Young Leader Development Program in both year 2014 and 2015; and in 2015, Landin initiated and completed the project – 'Effective Team Building', and won the third prize in Internal Project Competition for Asian Hospital Management Awards in United Family Healthcare wide in 2015.
In 2017, with the establishment of Project Management Office (PMO) which is directly reporting to the General Manager of Shanghai Market, the mission statement of PMO includes:
1. Provide effective prioritization and accurate visibility of project management resources to support strategic Shanghai Market expansion building projects.
2. Practice Lean Six Sigma techniques using a cohesive teamwork effort in focusing on continual quality improvement events to improve performance in a patient service-oriented environment.
3. Perform as a special project integrator to unify, consolidate, and coordinate department activities crucial to project completion, management of stakeholder expectations, and meeting operational requirements.
The projects in 2018 that the PMO is currently assisting cover the important areas including:
1. Hospital relocation-no easy task to project manage a busy currently operating hospital to a new site in December 2018.
2. Staff satisfaction-using best practice evidenced based data driven initiatives to improve employee engagement throughout the Shanghai market staff
3. Patient satisfaction
4. LEAN-Six Sigma projects across Shanghai market facilities
David Shi, Senior Director, Head of Project Development Service East & Central China, Cushman & Wakefield
Qualifications
• Masters in Business Management, Massey University, New Zealand
• Masters in Business Administration, Asia International City University, Macau
• Master of Corporate Real Estate, CoreNet (MCR)
• Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (MRICS)
• Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology
When young, David liked playing with building blocks and constructing things. Growing up, he gradually developed his interest into a hobby, and soon realized he had a talent. He was meant for the real estate and construction industry.
David is a registered National Senior Civil Engineer & Quantity Surveyor. He is also a member of Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, CoreNet and IFMA. Additionally, David is a committee member of the Green Build China Program Working Group and a member of the Standing Committee at REARD, a renowned design award in China.
Work Experience
2010 – 2012
LHN Group
David has three years overseas experience as Project Head working with LHN Group (Singapore) prior to joining Cushman & Wakefield. As Project Head at LHN Group, David was responsible for managing overall development for projects. During his time in Singapore and China, David was exposed to various real estate business environments which helped him to develop a familiarity with local practices as well as international standards and procedures.
2012 – present
Cushman & Wakefield
David is the Head of Project Management and Building Consultancy, East and Central China at Cushman & Wakefield. He is an expert in project management. With more than 15 years of experience, David now specializes in corporate real estate services, retail store roll-out, industrial workshops, corporate headquarters, educational projects and mix-used property development projects in China and overseas.
David was awarded Cushman & Wakefield's Best Building Consultant in 2012/2013. He is a competent consultant who is well versed in the full lifecycle approach and project delivery skills in a wide range of projects and multicultural environments.
Key Clients
Nike , Mastercard, UTC, AMD, BOCOM, Nexperia, Metro, Merlin, SAP, CCB Investment, Covidien, JIC, Amgen, BD, Roche, Alibaba, Booking.com
Tom (Zhicheng) Tang, CEO, Hangzhou Egaga Tech Co., Ltd.
Tom Tang Zhicheng, the founder and CEO of Egaga Technology, as a Global Shaper (Curator of Hangzhou Hub), graduated from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He founded IEEC and PIE Program during his time in Hong Kong.
Back to China in 2015, Tom established Hangzhou Egaga Technology and led his team to enter the intelligent self-service industry, which got 20 million RMB as series Pre-A financing, valued as 300 million RMB as a fast-growing enterprise. Egaga won the 1st Prize of the National Startups Championship initiated by Citic Group in 2018.
Now the products have been applied successfully to various of hotel groups, which makes Egaga a competitive enterprise. Egaga is now focusing on the hotel industry, committed to creating a new system for hotels to improve the efficiency and user experience. The products include Chic Chek E-minibar, Hotel Check-in Machine and related software and hardware.
Egaga builds up strategic cooperation with Tencent, Industrial Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Ping An Bank, Hainan Airline Group, China Unicom and 900e Trip, etc.
As the Curator of Global Shapers Community Hangzhou Hub, Tom built up bridges for foreign students in Hangzhou, universities, associations and municipal government. Tom leads shapers in Hangzhou to initiate many projects for social good, which strive for the human rights and community benefits with a sustainable model. Tom launched the Youth Future Conference with Hangzhou Government, which invited around 500 youth elites and a dozen communities from more than 90 countries, including the Hult Prize Foundation, Startup Grind, Impact Hub, Pheonix Risen, Lean In China, and Global Shapers Community hubs, as the closing ceremony of The 2nd Qian Tang River International Culture Festival.
Dow (Xiangdao) Wang, CEO-Shanghai Daqi Network Technology Co., Ltd
Dow is the founder and CEO of MoSeeker, Inc., the No.1 AI-based mobile social recruiting solution provider. Dow led the company to finish 3 rounds of fundraising with total amount US$ 25 MM from both financial and strategic investors. Major investors including Recruit Holdings (the largest Japanese Internet Company, and the parent company of Indeed.com), Infinity Venture Partners, Daniel Yang (SAIF) and Zhu Li (InnoAngel).
Prior to starting MoSeeker, Dow worked for Boehringer Ingelheim as Senior Marketing Manager. From 2010-2012, Dow oversaw the employer branding and university partnership at Baidu. Dow was responsible for recruitment marketing and digital marketing at IBM and Philips previously. Dow started his early career with Alcatel-Lucent Global HQ in taking Global MT Program based out of Gurgaon, India.
Dow is a member of Asia America Multi-Technology Association (AAMA), member of Shanghai Young Entrepreneurs' Association (SYEA), member of Shanghai Informatization Youth Talent Association (SIYTA), alumni of CEIBS, CKGSB and Qingteng University by Tencent. All above associations are the most renowned high-tech community in China with top-tier entrepreneurs and investors.
His past experience demonstrates he is diverse and never afraid of taking any new challenges. He is originally from Shanghai.
Hugo Wong, Managing Director, CEO, ZIDI Investments & Han World Family Office
Hugo has been the Premier Division Wealth Manager for HSBC, has an extensive history in banking / finance / wealth management; including recipient of the Hong Kong Banking Institute Gold Award for Financial Planning Excellence, the Hong Kong Government Youth Excellence Award, The Hong Kong daily financial times outstanding planner award. Additionally, various media outlets have contacted and covered Hugo over the years, including a feature length segment on Pudong Financial(http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTQwMjY3OTY4OA==.html) Feature reports in the Investment times, China Relay, been elected two years running as a speaker and presenter for the Global Asset Allocation Focus and Real Estate Investment and REIT conference.
Currently, he is CEO of two different firms simultaneously. He is the CEO of Han World Family Office and managing director of ZIDI investments; an innovative fintech firm in Shanghai that has spurred innovation through acquiring legal approval to use Real Estate assets, rolled up into unique financial instruments that distribute strong yield, government level security fixed income streams.
Huayun (Jessie) Xue, General Manager of Pinghu Plant, Cargill Starches Sweeteners & Texturizers China, Cargill
Jessie was appointed General Manager of Pinghu plant of Cargill Starches Sweeteners & Texturizers China in May of 2015. She managed P&L of this plant, and took responsibility in both commercial and plant operations. During the past 3 years, she turned around the business from net loss of $3M to $4.5M net profit, despite a highly competitive and over-supply market environment and rising raw material cost. She demonstrated strong leadership in building collaboration across all functions, and she also had a passion for developing team and talent. She was considered a great coach and genuine friend of her supervisees. In Cargill, Jessie is also a champion for innovation and changes. She was able to foster a culture of innovation in the Pinghu plant and spearheaded many key projects and initiatives, ranging from developing new customer, channel and products, to leading changes in improving internal processes for more transparency and efficiency. During her time in Pinghu, Jessie built a strong connection with Pinghu government and engaged with local key stakeholders professionally and productively. She was just nominated as candidate for "Friend of Donghu", a top prize awarded by Pinghu Municipal Government to business leaders who made major contributions to Pinghu economy and community development.
In 2013, Jessie joined Cargill in Strategy & Business Development (SBD) as a Project Manager. During the 2 years with SBD, Jessie worked with Cargill's various business units on their strategies, as well as a few corporate development projects.
Prior to Cargill, She worked with Bain & Company since 2000 after receiving her Bachelor of Law degree from Fudan University in Shanghai. In her 6 years with Bain, she grew from an analyst to senior consultant, and worked on various industries such as consumer products and industrial. She also had rich experience in market entry, growth strategy and M&A. She gained her MBA from the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania during 2008-2010.
Cathy Yang, Director of Talent Acquisition – China, Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts
At the prime of her career, Cathy is the current Director of Talent Acquisition at the Shangri-la Hotels and Resorts in China. Prior to that, she spent 7 years as a Talent Acquisition Manager in Intercontinental Hotels Group, tasked with granting the hotel access to the brightest talents in the hospitality industry.
Cathy's key position in one of the largest hotel chains in the world requires her to ensure that the recruitment process in the company runs efficiently in a competitive environment. Her previous vast experience in the hospitality industry proves useful in helping the hotel to acquire, build and retain the best talents around.One of the most remarkable achievements in her professional career involves developing the Gamified Assessment Tool, that allows fellow hotel recruiters to increase efficiency when scouting for talents. The tool also helps the hotel to increase its brand awareness amongst the public.This revolutionary tool allowed recruiters to attract young applicants through the online platform, providing the necessary boost to the growth of the local hospitality industry.
At Shangri-la, Cathy's passion as a human resource professional sees her carrying out multiple projects geared to boost the hiring efficiency of the hotel. Her efforts are not in vain as Shangri-la went on the bag the honor of the Best Employer Of Tourism & Hospitality Industry in 2017.
Her leadership skills are not limited to the technicality of project executions. Cathy proves to be a people person, as she plays an important role in the leadership management team despite being the youngest member.Her remarkable people skills prove to be handy as she is tasked to manage 26 key stakeholders that include expats across 5 sub-regions in China. Her depth of experience in the industry and social skills allow her to create a cohesive team despite cultural differences. She would organize team building activities to help expats to blend into the local culture with ease.
A true leader is well respected both on and off his or her organization. Cathy proves to be a popular figure amongst her friends, colleagues and fellow industry candidates. She is a much sought-after mentor when it comes to giving advice on developing a career in the hospitality industry.
Her professional achievements, friendly personality and a penchant of helping others eventually attracted invitations to deliver talks at educational institutions. One such experience was when she was invited as a "One Day Professor" to share her experience at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
In a challenging industry, she realizes the importance of having a broad professional network. She constantly organizes Alumni gatherings that would have participants turning up from across China. That speaks highly of her reputation and influence.Being a human resource professional is particularly challenging as it involves integrating systems and processes with emotional skills to ensure that hired talents performed to their full potential. Having achieved a respectable position in this field speaks highly of Cathy's quality as a genuine leader.
Hongfei Zheng, Director Greater China Corporate Strategy & Development, Cargill
Hongfei Joined Cargill in 2017 as Director Corporate Strategy & Development (CSD) Greater China. In the past one year, she led the CSD Shanghai team to accomplish various strategy projects, including Cargill China 2022 strategy, Cargill Animal Nutrition China strategies, Cargill Edible Oil China strategy, and CAP China New Retail/ Ecommerce Strategy, etc. She is the thought partner for Business Unit Managing Directors in China with regard to strategy, strategic planning, marketing & commercial excellence and capabilities.
Hongfei is also a member of Cargill China Leadership Council and an active member of Women in Agriculture Association APAC.
Prior to Cargill, Hongfei worked for Hilti Ltd. (a leading European construction technology and engineering company). She started in Hilti APAC as Marketing Director in 2013. Later on, she took lead of Oil & Gas and Chemicals Business Unit in 2015, where she led a team of over 30 people to double the revenue and triple the profit of that business in 2 years.
Prior to Hilti, Hongfei had worked for Bain & Company as a Strategy Consultant for over 7 years in China, US and France. She worked with multinational companies and private equity firms on corporate strategy, growth strategy, go to market strategy, operational improvement as well as Merger & Acquisitions.
Hongfei received her MBA from INSEAD. She holds Master and Bachelor Degree of International Trade and Economics from Shanghai Jiaotong University in China and Master of Engineering from Ecole Centrale de Lyon in France.
Yinan (Amanda) Zheng, Principal, China Impact Ventures
Amanda Zheng is Principal of China Impact Ventures (CIV), an impact investment fund focusing on energy innovations, sustainable mobility, and smart agriculture, with the vision to leverage China's innovations to impact the entire developing world. CIV is a fertile ground to nurture disruptive energy startups led by Chinese entrepreneurs graduated from MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Berkeley, Tsinghua, and other top-tier universities around the globe.
Amanda is a critical founding member of China Impact Ventures which was transformed and upgraded from China Energy Incubator (CEI), an initiative co-founded by Transist Impact Labs and Shell Foundation; and she was the lead manager of CEI while serving Transist Impact Labs as Director. Transist Impact Labs is a pioneering impact investing firm having portfolio in China, the US, and Israel.
Amanda started her career at Morgan Stanley IBD in Hong Kong. En route to realizing her passion and aspiration to develop China's impact investing eco-system, she served at multiple impact investment organizations in East Asia. Amanda holds a Master of Public Policy degree from Harvard Kennedy School and was awarded the Dubin Emerging Leaders Fellowship from the Center of Public Leadership of the Kennedy School.
Ziga Drev, Co-Founder & COO, OriginTrail
Ziga Drev is Co-Founder and COO of OriginTrail (https://origintrail.io), a blockchain company developing the blockchain-powered data exchange protocol for interconnected supply chains. He is an authority on using the blockchain technology and GS1 standards for data integrity in global supply chains. Ziga is heading OriginTrail's operations in China where he established the partnership with Shanghai's Bits x Bites foodtech accelerator.
Existing applications of the OriginTrail protocol include supply chain visibility for GMO-free dairy products, premium poultry and fresh vegetables for major European food producers, preventing counterfeiting in wine, blockchain-based consensus checks for efficient supply chain management for logistics center, data integrity for laboratory information management systems from Australia and Vietnam, and partnership with EVRYTHNG IoT smart product platform to deliver verifiable supply chain traceability and product authenticity for consumer product brands. The project with Yimishiji online organic food marketplace received the Innovation Spark 2017 Award from the Walmart Food Safety Collaboration Center in Beijing (http://bit.ly/WFSCC-Award). This pilot project showcases product visibility through the supply chain and connecting data from Yimishiji's suppliers based on EPCIS data structure. The showcase is available at http://yimi-pilot.origintrail.io/
Coming from a family deeply involved in farming, food production and sales, Ziga Drev is well in touch with problems unfair practices in food system caused to different stakeholders. After pursuing his MBA at University of Ljubljana and majoring in finance, he chose an entrepreneurship path instead of the corporate one with a strong belief it is there he can make the biggest impact.
Since co-founding OriginTrail, he was instrumental in introducing GS1 standards of EPCIS to business and technological dimensions of the service, which has improved scalability of the service across the food industry. To introduce full supply chain transparency, he helped build relationship with stakeholders in food industry internationally, from Europe and USA, to making first introduction of the OriginTrail technology to importers and retailers in China. Other than being focused on food, Ziga is passionate about discovering ways to leverage disruption blockchain has started in finance industry to catalyse a change for good in global supply chain systems.
Chris Eckhardt, Co-Founder of Airline Education Group, Co-Founder of Fusion Holdings Group
After completing graduate school in the US where he met his Chinese business partner, Chris moved to Nanjing in 2012 to begin his vision for bringing together US and Chinese culture through education and later through the food and beverage industry.
What began in the early days of his first company built through daily flyering on the streets and cold calling students interested in studying abroad has grown into an upscale market platform that now serves more than 2000 clients per year in study abroad preparation, agency placement services, cultural training, corporate training and international high school programs across more than 6 cities in Jiangsu, Anhui and Jiangxi Provinces. Their services now connect top institutions in both the US and China.
In order to more deeply integrate and have an impact on both locals and expats in the Nanjing community, Chris co-founded Fusion Holdings Group, which owns and operates four bar and restaurant venues including the first full whisky bar in Nanjing, the (once) largest American style craft beer in China with 40 taps, the most visited underground rock & roll dive bar in Nanjing, and a Spanish themed bistro that brings together the European community. Chris hopes in the future to continue to grow and leverage the platforms built to accelerate internationalization of Tier 2 and 3 cities across the eastern seaboard of China through enhancing education as well as entertainment opportunities in the years to come.
Eric M Oetting, Founder & CEO, Planet O
Mr. Eric Oetting is an established entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience pioneering and developing businesses in a variety of areas including, hospitality, asset-based financing, e-commerce, and location based entertainment.
Since 2005 Eric has been committed to the development of the Chinese entertainment and consumer industries. Most recently Eric has acquired a global strategic and investment partner (Immochan / CEETRUS) for the development of his newly conceived Location-Based-Entertainment concept, Planet O. Prior to establishing Planet O, Eric partnered with and developed a series of businesses in China including: the establishment of ROCKART Asia, an expansion of world renowned ROCKARTuk theming specialists, Big E Entertainment Centers (five cities across China), Gourmet Week China, the De Refter Belgian Bar & Brasserie, Warehouse No. 9 (local market sports and entertainment complex with three Shanghai locations), and the Dynasty Mini Golf theme park concept. He has also served as a consultant to the Shanghai, Jing'an Government, as well as advisor and business coach to several other start-ups.
Eric holds a degree in Organizational Leadership & Supervision with a focus on international business from Purdue University. He has lived in Shanghai since 2008 and is fluent in English and conversational in Chinese Mandarin.
Aurélien Rigart, VP, IT Consultis
From construction and planning of nuclear power plants to working in consultancy and then to writing a book about construction management; Aurelien was dedicated to a brilliant career as a Civil Engineer and Construction Manager. However, he decided to apply his construction skills and knowledge to start his own company in the very vibrant city of Shanghai. Along with his brother and a friend, Aurelien left France and embarked on an entrepreneurship adventure to create together what later became a leading creative digital agency in Asia.
Together, our three founders have self funded and created a place where we foster creative greatness and inspire talents. Today, Aurelien continues to lead the company as a place where great design, high quality projects and a strong sense of ethics could come together. This is how his vision of a creative digital agency named IT Consultis came to life.
7 years since the creation of IT Consultis, Aurelien continues to support the company and its 70+ talented employees in their Shanghai, Singapore, and Ho Chi Minh City offices. While acting as the VP of the company, Aurelien has instilled a strong commitment to research and creativity in the works that IT Consultis do for all their clients, with a strong focus on bringing only the best ROI to his clients. In response, IT Consultis has received numerous positive feedbacks from past clients such as Budweiser, Zara, Leica, AmCham and L'Oréal. Under Aurelien's leadership, IT Consultis continues to exhibit tremendous potential in company growth with more than 50 per cent year on year growth.
Aurelien is in charge of the business development and expansion of the company, leading the strategy, sales, marketing and HR departments. He has founded and been managing several successful ventures across from tech to F&B industry. He is also Co owner of Urban Thai Group. His accomplishments was recognized in his 2015 nomination by the French Chamber of Commerce for Young Leader of the Year in China.
In addition, Aurelien is a skilled presenter and routinely invited to speak about Digital, e-commerce, entrepreneurship, talking to students, entrepreneurs, and directors of large multinational groups such as Boulanger, Leroy Merlin, Chambers of Commerce and many more.
Aurelien invests a lot of his time in both the French Tech as well as Entrepreneur Organization, where he acts on the Board of Directors, with the goal of sharing knowledge and network with people to accelerate their business. Aurelien is a big fan of the scaling up methodology and has strong objective and commitment with the other partners of ITC to make it become the leading digital tech agency in APAC in the next 3 years.
On top of this Aurelien is always keen to invest time with different associations and NGOs such as UFE or IPWS, Shanghai Young Bakers in order to help them with their digital needs and communication.
Liang Sun, Founder and CEO, Snackeroo Ltd/ Generate Ltd
Liang has been the Founder and Owner of Generate Ltd., a managed network of independent sales associates that serves medium-sized European companies generating sales and extending market reach in China, and it also facilitates blue chip Chinese companies on their expansion in Europe. In addition, Generate has its own trading company which specialises in creating and managing distribution networks through independent proven sales performers based on success only.
Generate is experienced in the environmental, new technology, new materials, new process, information and communication technology, food and other high-growth sectors.
As Generate grow, requested by his Chinese and European clients, Liang is currently in the process of setting up a new trading company in Brussels, Belgium – Generate Bvba., for business development, project delivery, and liaison with Generate's representatives in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Frankfurt and Zurich.
Born and raised in Shanghai, Liang is English- Mandarin Chinese bilingual, and he holds master degrees holder from Fordham University in New York, Antwerp Management School and Shanghai Maritime University. He has been a Corporate Member at the Benelux Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai; Mentor Support – Shanghai Jiaotong University International MBA Program; Chairman, Antwerp Management School Alumni Shanghai Chapter; and Member - Shanghai Overseas Returned Scholars Association.
Erik Walenza, CEO, IoT ONE
Erik Walenza is the CEO of IoT ONE, the Chair of the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) Smart Factory Task Group (SFTG), and the Shanghai Director of Startup Grind. IoT ONE is the leading source of information and insight regarding Industrial Internet of Things vendors and technologies. Today more than 2,200 companies feature their solutions on the IoT ONE platform. And dozens of technology end users work with IoT ONE to develop innovative ways to integrate IoT technologies into their product portfolios and operations. IoT ONE was incorporated in Hong Kong in 2016 and Kunshan in 2018, and it is the only Industrial Internet of Things analyst with a global scope with headquarters in Shanghai.
As Chair of the IIC SFTG, Erik works with IIC members to reduce risk for early adopters of Industrial IoT technologies in manufacturing. He works closely with other member companies to address technology adoption bottlenecks. And through Startup Grind, Erik supports the development of Shanghai's innovation ecosystem. He has interviewed over 40 CEOs, venture capital partners, and domain experts in Shanghai, and together with a team of 10 volunteers he has built one of Shanghai's largest networks of entrepreneurs and investors. Erik regularly advises early stage entrepreneurs and provides introductions to help small teams leverage external resources to drive their growth.
Marina Kalnitski, Senior Director, Head of Project Development Service East & Central China, Taicang Inclusion Factory
Marina is a social activist focusing on the empowerment of individuals with disabilities through education, skills development, and occupational therapy. Marina's longtime passion and goals in life are to show that people with disabilities deserve an equal and respectful place in our society.
Marina has been active in promoting this ambitious goal be providing people with disabilities the support and platform to exhibit their skill using employment as a tool for re-integration into society.
For the past three years, Marina is managing a pioneering Social project China-wide; The Taicang Inclusion Factory. The Inclusion project provides real and meaningful vocational training and employment for people with intellectual and mental disabilities. A month Marina's latest achievements:
Alongside all these great achievements, Marina released that training people with disabilities is only one side of the challenge; to have them truly integrated, will require a change within the mainstream society, towards one which has more acceptance and tolerance for those who are different.
Marina has therefore begun facilitating unique awareness-raising seminars among middle management aff members in multi-national companies, with the aim to prepare the ground for their companies becoming an 'Inclusive operation'.
At that point, it was clear that initiating such a fundamental mindset change in the society is not 'a one-person role', to accomplish the task you must have partners working with you.
Marina has therefore initiated and currently leading the Social Inclusion Academy [SIA] - a full three months training program for the certification of Social Workers whom will sport the integration of challenged individuals into china's workforce and consequently into the Chinese society.
The Social Inclusion Academy is currently conducting yearly training for students from the Nanjing Special Education University, working in cooperation with Tongji University, East China Normal University, and many more supporters, for the professional training of young Chinese students, who will help turn a dream into a reality. [more info on the Academy could be found here - http://social-inclusion-academy.com]
It is worth mentioning that in order to create a program at the highest level, Marina has decided to pursue deep understanding of the relevant theoretical knowledge, which will enhance her practical expertise; and is therefore graduation these days her Ed. M in Diversity and Equity in Education from University of Illinois Urbana Champaign.
That is Marina in a Nut-shell a super dedicated social entrepreneur, which has a proven social impact behind her, and a bright future ahead, as she continues to influence more and more lives in her quest to make this a better world – for all of us.