Carrie Zhang is a partner in our Consumer Products and Digital practices, based in Shanghai.

Her client engagements focus on B2C consumer and marketing excellence, route-to-market, coverage model, marketing acceleration, and digital commerce acceleration. Most recently, she has worked with clients in the food and beverage, beauty and cosmetics, and general merchandise sectors.

Her foremost work has included the China acceleration for one of the world's most successful insurgent consumer products companies.

She has also led diligence efforts for various Private Equity clients.

Prior to joining us, she spent two years as a risk management specialist for Morgan Stanley.

Carrie holds an MBA, with distinction, from INSEAD and a B.Eng from Nanyang Technological University.

Mr. Lu is the Chief Executive Officer of Tim Hortons China (Tims China), responsible for the company's overall strategy and management in China.

Mr. Lu led the establishment of Tim Hortons China in 2018, a joint venture between Restaurant Brands International Inc. (RBI) and Cartesian Capital Group, helping the company establish its senior management team with local professionals. Later on under his leadership, Tims China opened its first coffee shop in Shanghai in February 2019 and began trading on Nasdaq under the symbol “THCH” on September 2022.

Prior to his tenure at Tims China, Mr. Lu served as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for Burger King China from 2012 to 2018, helping Burger King China grow from 56 to more than 1,000 stores in six years. He has extensive experience in finance, operations and management in chain restaurant industry.

From 2008 to 2012, he served as the China representative of the world's leading private equity fund, Cartesian Capital group. Prior to that, he worked for General Electric Company from 1999 to 2005 as a finance trainee, Six sigma black belt master and product manager for the Asia Pacific Region.

Mr. Lu holds an MBA from Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth (one of the Ivy league schools) and a bachelor's degree in international finance from Shanghai Jiaotong University. He now lives in Shanghai.

Eric Baden is a German entrepreneur who has lived and worked in China since 1998.

In 2016, he founded Coffee Commune in Hong Kong together with two private investors from the United States and Canada who support his vision to craft great coffee from seed to cup and strive to transform poor coffee farming communities through equipping, investing, and direct trade.

Coffee Commune has subsidiaries in China and Germany, growing, processing, trading, roasting, and serving high quality coffees. Our strength is the systematic and passionate development of quality coffees that meet the taste and budget of the Chinese consumers.

An American with over 25 years of experience managing consumer businesses, Mr. Minoie began his career in the U.S. food & beverage industry before moving to China in 1999. He co-founded Element Fresh in 2001 and grew the brand into a successful chain of 40 restaurants before stepping away in 2018. He continues to serve as a consultant and advisor to numerous businesses in the retail and consumer sectors, as well as assisting business owners with growth strategies, fundraising, and deal structuring.

Mr. Minoie holds a joint MBA degree from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He is a core member of AmCham Shanghai's Food, Agriculture & Beverage Committee and is a frequent guest lecturer with international business schools.