Sean Stein is a senior advisor in Covington’s Public Policy Practice Group. Prior to joining Covington, Sean served as the U.S. Consul General in Shanghai. He has over twenty years of diplomatic experience in Asia and has served in leadership positions in China, Washington, and the region. His insights informed policy making at the highest levels in Washington and he assisted dozens of U.S., Chinese, and international firms to develop strategies, manage risk, and identify opportunities for growth in response to the changing U.S.-China relationship.

Sean, a non-lawyer, is a key resource to businesses on issues related to political risk, public affairs, problem solving, and communications. He regularly assists companies facing acute or long-term issues to resolve them, often through discussions with U.S. and Chinese government officials. He is well placed to provide strategic advice to U.S. and international clients on issues relating to securing market access and protecting investments in China, assessing risk, navigating trade controls, sanctions, and supply chain restrictions, and resolving disputes and regulatory investigations.

Tiger Shan is an advisor to executives in Government, Public Services, and TMT sectors for Strategy & China, PwC’s strategy consulting group. He is the lead partner of Strategy & China. Tiger has worked closely with local governments and their investment arms in Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta, and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei regions. In the public service sector he focuses on energy, transportation, and infrastructure, advising on strategy, governance, investment, globalization, digitalization, and innovation-driven transformation. Within TMT, he provides strategy implementation, organizational transformation, and operational improvement services for telecom operators, culture and media companies, smart terminal/ hardware manufacturers, Internet-based service providers, and emerging players in big data, AI, and IoT.

Fred Freire is the Asia President for Kraft Heinz, where he leads the company’s businesses across the region including China, India and Southeast Asia. Previously he was the Chief Transformation Officer for emerging markets. Prior to joining Kraft Heinz, Fred held a variety of positions at Ab InBev, most recently as the country/business unit head in China and Korea. A 25-year veteran of the FMCG beverage and food industries, he has experience in operations, sales, marketing, new product development, business expansion, distribution, public relations and digital capabilities. Fred holds a degree in electrical engineering, a master’s degree in production engineering, and he has attended several business management and marketing courses at universities in Brazil, Europe and the US.

Allan Gabor is the President, Merck China and Managing Director, Merck Electronics China. As President of Merck China, he is responsible for developing and driving growth strategies in China. Prior to this role, he was the President of Asia Pacific for the biopharma business of the Merck Group. Before joining Merck, he spent 25 years at Pfizer in leadership roles including Chairman and General Manager for China, and Regional President for North Asia, Russia, India, Turkey and Eastern Europe. He holds a BA in Communications from the College of Wooster and pursued further education at the University of Tennessee and Harvard Business School. Mr. Gabor has been awarded the Magnolia (Baiyulan) Award twice by the Shanghai municipal government.

Bei Zhong is the APAC General Manager of Parker LORD, a division of Parker Hannafin. Prior to joining the company, where she has been for nearly 10 years, she spent eight years at GE Industrial Solutions as marketing director and later sales general manager. She has a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Zhejiang University of Technology and an MBA from Shanghai Jiaotong University.