Jeffrey S. Lehman is the founding vice chancellor of NYU Shanghai, the first “Sino-American Joint University.” He has previously been founding dean of the Peking University School of Transnational Law, president of Cornell University, dean of the University of Michigan Law School, a tenured professor of law and public policy at the University of Michigan, a practicing lawyer in Washington, D.C., and a law clerk to Chief Judge Frank Coffin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and to Associate Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court.

He has served on the boards of many global organizations that share his commitments in the fields of higher education, law, and technology. In the business world, he has served as an independent director on the boards of Infosys, Ltd., and Starr Property & Casualty Insurance (China) Co., Ltd. In the not-for-profit world, he has served as board chair of Internet 2, as president of the American Law Deans Association, and as a trustee of both Access Health International and the Skadden Fellowship Foundation. In the world of government service, he has served as a member of the U.S. delegation to the China-U.S. Legal Experts Dialogue and as a member of the Planning Committee for President Clinton’s 1999 “Call to Action” to the legal profession. His honors include the Friendship Award from the People’s Republic of China, the Gold Magnolia Award from the City of Shanghai, and the National Equal Justice Award from the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. In 2018, China named him one of the 40 most influential foreign experts during the country’s 40-year period of reform and opening up.

Jeffrey is currently AmCham Shanghai Board member.

Dr. Denis Fred Simon is executive vice chancellor at Duke Kunshan University and Professor of China Business and Technology at Duke's Fuqua School of Business.

Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Simon has more than four decades of experience studying business, competition, innovation and technology strategy in China. In 2006, he was awarded the China National Friendship Award by Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing.

Prior to Duke, Simon’s career included academic appointments as senior adviser on China and global affairs in the Office of the President at Arizona State University; vice-provost for international affairs at the University of Oregon; and professor of international affairs at Penn State University’s School of International Affairs. He was founding provost and vice-president for academic affairs of the Levin Graduate Institute of International Relations and Commerce under the State University of New York in New York City.

Simon is the author and co-author of several books including Corporate Strategies Towards the Pacific Rim; Techno-Security in an Age of Globalization; China’s Emerging Technological Edge: Assessing the Role of High-End Talent; and Innovation in China: Challenging the Global Science & Technology System.