Thara thrives at the intersection of law, strategy, and dispute resolution. She is an experienced commercial disputes lawyer who has acted as counsel, both led and unled, on complex, high stakes matters involving novel points of law before all levels of the Singapore courts, as well as in international and domestic arbitrations across a range of industries. A mooting champion, she was appointed Young Amicus Curiae by the Singapore High Court, where she assisted the Court in determining sentencing benchmarks under new legislative provisions.

Thara is currently Vice President at the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR), the international division of the American Arbitration Association (AAA). In this role, she leads the development and global promotion of ADR services, overseeing operations across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Oceania. She is responsible for strategic growth initiatives and for the recruitment and management of the ICDR’s International Panel of Arbitrators and Mediators.

Beyond her institutional role, Thara contributes to the development of arbitration practice and policy through her work on advisory and editorial boards, as well as through regular speaking engagements and publications. Her work focuses on the evolving interface between dispute resolution and cross-border commerce.

Thara holds an LL.M. from University College London, where she captained the Willem C. Vis Moot team, and an LL.B. from the University of Bristol. She is an Advocate and Solicitor of the Singapore courts.

Lin Wang focuses on the convergence of international dispute resolution, public policy, and cross-border investment. She currently serves as Director of ADR Services (Greater China) at the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR), the international division of the American Arbitration Association (AAA). In this role, she manages international arbitration cases involving parties from multiple jurisdictions and works closely with legal, business, and institutional stakeholders to support the development of international arbitration and ADR services across the Greater China market.

Prior to joining the ICDR, Lin worked as a financial journalist covering global economic policy, international investment, and China’s engagement with the global economy. Her reporting and research focused on public policy, international law, and cross-border commerce, and she is also the author of a published book on the Belt and Road Initiative.

Lin holds a PhD from Tsinghua University and was a Schwarzman Scholar. Her academic research examined the evolving role of states in investor-state dispute settlement, with particular attention to the balancing of state’s sovereignty and investor’s property rights in international investment arbitration.

Yan Zhang is a Partner of US law firm Sidley Austin and co-head of the Firm’s Litigation Group in Hong Kong. She has extensive experience resolving cross-border commercial disputes across industries including private equity, life sciences, technology and financial services. Dually qualified in NY and HK, she brings over a decade of M&A and PE transactional experience with a further decade in dispute resolution, enabling her to deliver strategic, lifecycle-aligned counsel. She also sits as arbitrator. Consistently ranked by Chambers, Legal 500 and Benchmark Litigation, clients praise her as “one of the most outstanding dispute resolution lawyers” who has “remarkable efficiency and proposing actionable solutions.” She is a graduate of Columbia Law School and Zhejiang University.

Dan Tan is the principal of Dan Tan Law, a boutique law firm based in New York, San Francisco, and Singapore, that has been repeatedly ranked amongst the top 100 of all arbitration practices in the world (Global Arbitration Review 100, 2012 to 2025). Dan has over two decades of international arbitration and litigation experience at some of the largest international law firms. He previously practiced with Latham & Watkins and O’Melveny & Myers in New York representing clients in high-value international disputes.

Dan’s practice focuses on international litigation and arbitration. He has acted in litigation matters in courts all over the world, and in arbitrations under various institutional rules (including AAA, ICC, LCIA, Swiss Rules, BANI, SIAC) seated in major arbitration venues (New York, California, London, Paris, Geneva, Zurich, Indonesia, Brazil, and Singapore). These cases involve disputes stemming from joint venture and partnership agreements, distributor and supply agreements, IP agreements, license agreements, share purchase and option agreements, construction and oil & gas contracts. He has sat as arbitrator (chair, sole, party-appointed, and emergency arbitrator) in more than 40 international arbitrations. Chambers commends his “experience sitting as arbitrator in complex disputes”.

Dan was Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School (teaching international arbitration) for 17 years, and Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School for 10 years (teaching international arbitration and international investment law). He was previously adjunct faculty at the Singapore Management University School of Law, and Lecturer in Law at Oxford University (teaching contract law). He writes prolifically in his field and has published articles in leading academic journals that have been excerpted in casebooks, cited in prominent textbooks, commentaries and by US Federal courts, and have been called “ground-breaking thinking.”

Anton A. Ware is a partner at Arnold & Porter and a leading international arbitration lawyer with more than 20 years of experience. He acts as counsel in complex and high-stakes commercial and investment treaty arbitration proceedings worldwide, focusing on the Asia Pacific region. Anton also regularly sits as arbitrator in international arbitration cases and is listed on the panel of arbitrators of all major arbitral institutions in Asia.

Anton has extensive experience in disputes arising from cross-border investments, public-private partnerships, energy and infrastructure projects, technology and intellectual property licensing, M&A transactions, joint ventures, concessions, and private equity investments. He regularly represents clients in disputes under major institutional rules including AAA-ICDR, ICC, HKIAC, SIAC, CIETAC, JAMS, and ICSID and advises clients on all aspects of avoiding and resolving China-related disputes. Clients describe Anton as “exceptional in understanding the most complex legal and financial matters involved in an investment dispute” (Chambers Global, 2026) and “smart, detailed, innovative and tenacious”, with a “strong ... ability to read the sentiments of the arbitrators” and “impressive first-class lawyering” (Chambers Global 2025).

Mr. Di Yao is Head of Legal in Google’s Shanghai office and Chair of AmCham Shanghai's Legal Committee.

Before Google, Di worked as Head of Legal and Business Development - APAC for GoPro and Managing Associate at King & Wood Mallesons.

Di graduated from SISU Law School and received his Master of Laws in Stanford Law School and a Master of Humanitarian Law jointly by Law School of Peking University and Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.

Cheng Wang is the Chairman of AmCham Shanghai Legal Committee and the General Counsel of Express (Hangzhou) Technology Company Limited, a joint venture of American Express in China. Cheng heads the Legal Department of Express Company and oversees all legal matters in its business operations. Prior to joining Express Company, Cheng was the Head of Legal for Greater China of an international investment bank. Under his leadership, the Legal and Compliance Department of the investment bank won the Asia Legal Business Investment Bank In-House Team of the Year for three consecutive years and was included in the GC Powerlist China 2019 by The Legal 500. Cheng holds an LL.M. degree from the University of Michigan Law School and an LL.B. degree from the Law School of Shanghai University of International Business and Economics. He is admitted to the bar of the State of New York and qualified as a lawyer in China. He is a member of the Special Committee of the Shanghai Bar Association. He also co-authored a legal text book on international business law.