In almost 30 years consulted hundreds of MNCs and local enterprises on entry and growth strategies, M&As, alliances, and corporate transformation.


Created China’s management consulting industry in early 1990’s.


Board member of three large Chinese SOEs.


Special policy advisor to Shanghai government and Member of Strategic Development Commission of Hong Kong Government.


Author of over 150 articles and four books, including award-winning The China Strategy and China’s Disruptors.

Shilpi is a Transformation and Global Growth Leader and her roles include executive positions in Product development, P&L management, Global commercialization at General Electric, Unilever, Delphi, General Motors, and SPX . Her 20+ year business career has been focused on growing and diversifying companies in adjacent markets and developing portfolios with innovative ideas, helping to shape concepts into viable products and launching them successfully in the global markets, along with being a change agent during critical transition period in legacy industries (Automotive, Telecom, and Industrials). Transitioning and innovating corporate culture to match the dynamic market requirements and enhancing staff capabilities in a continuous growth mindset to deliver P&L results has been her core competency through out her career. Shilpi has worked and lived in USA, India, Japan, Kenya, Ghana, Mexico and now in China.

Shilpi Biswas joined American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, as Vice President, as of May 2017. Shilpi’s previous role was General Manager, Product Management, for GE Lighting, USA. In her role Shilpi was responsible for providing strategic direction and P&L leadership to drive profitable growth and global share across all Consumer Lamp technologies.

Inspiration, Aspiration and Transformation are her core values. She is a Believer that ‘If you can See it, you can Be It”.

Claire Chen, the Co-Founder and COO of Clobotics, oversees overall marketing strategy, general business operations and HR related activities, etc. for the company. Clobotics is a
computer vison technology based company focusing on providing an end to end solution for enterprise customers, the coverage including but not limited to wind energy, telco, retail. Clobotics is a company headquartered in Shanghai, China, has a branch office in Beijing and a R&D center in Seattle, WA, USA.

Prior to Clobotics, Claire served as the VP of Business Development of EHang. And at the same time, responsible for the overall business of North America region for the later part of her assignment.

Claire spent her most important ten years of career with Microsoft Corporations. She worked as the director of business operations at Cloud and Enterprises Division, and was accountable for landing Windows Azure and Office 365 business in China.

Claire graduated from Shanghai International Studies University, majored in International Accounting. Prior to Microsoft, she worked as the Corporate IT manager in Philips (China) investment Co., Ltd.

T. T. Chen is an Operating Partner with Taplow Group. T. T. works with several private equity firms on helping their businesses in China/Asia in roles such as interim general manager, executive coach or problem solver. T. T. has over 25 years of operations and technical experience in multinational companies, including 12 years of start-up and building industrial and consumer businesses for Avery Dennison in China and Asia. T. T. also has 3 years of experience working with private equity industry.

Jay serves as vice president, Corporate Development, Johnson Controls Asia Pacific. He is responsible for leading M&A strategy and industry partnerships for the region, including new investment opportunities and expanded partnerships. Based at the company’s corporate headquarters in Shanghai, China, Jay works with Johnson Controls strategic partners, leaders and key stakeholders to deliver profitable growth for the company. His many years of experience in strategic investment planning and JV partnerships serve to amplify the company’s business development strategies and government partnerships.

Prior to joining Johnson Controls, Jay served as Group Vice President and General Manager of Asia for Dura Automotive Systems, LLC., and Regional President of Visteon
Corporation’s Thermal Business where he led the development and implementation of an Asia Pacific regional strategy and oversaw regional M&A activities. Jay has also held various operations and leadership positions at Eaton Corporation, GE, Praxair Co., and portfolio companies in The Blackstone Group.

Jay holds a B.S. in Engineering Mechanics from Shanghai Jiatong University, a M.S. in Fluid Mechanics from the University of Minnesota and a MBA from St. Thomas University in Minnesota.

Mr Arthur Fong, Vice President of the Industrial Business Group in 3M China and Hong Kong, has more than 24 years of progressive experience managing global, regional and local businesses in a science-based innovation company. Since November 2016, Mr Fong has been based in Shanghai, China and heading 3M China’s Industrial Business Group – one of the company’s largest business groups with annual sales revenue of more than $1.5B. The 3M Industrial Business Group offers solutions that transform multiple industries, from automotive, electronics and household appliances to commercial/residential construction and eCommerce.

Prior to his current appointment, Mr Fong was Managing Director of 3M Singapore from July 2012 to November 2016, where he steered the company to record growth rates. A firm believer in the importance of deepening customer intimacy and learning from customers, Mr Fong established the 3M Singapore Customer Technical Centre as a gateway to customer-inspired innovation. He also focuses on developing talent and a high performance work culture, and spearheaded the Globalized Leaders program to expose employees to different 3M businesses, functions and geographies. Last but not least, he expanded the company’s corporate giving efforts with the annual 3M Step-Up Challenge @ South East, a program that benefits the needy community in Singapore.

Mr Fong joined 3M in 1993 as a technical service engineer, before taking on increasing responsibilities across multiple functions – R&D, sales, marketing, business development and global business management. His 3M career has spanned across different geographies – Singapore, Southeast Asia, Asia-Pacific and Global – and diverse businesses – industrial, electronics, consumer and government.

Mr Fong holds a Bachelor Degree with Honours in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bristol, United Kingdom.

George has over 30 years of professional experience in management consulting, private equity investment, corporate, as well as product development, engineering and manufacturing. As the managing director and general manager, George leads AlixPartners China business with responsibilities ranging from client development and project execution to staffing and office management. Over the past two years, he has helped a global fortune 100 company to redefine the business strategy for its consumer goods group and restructure that group’s China business through operations wind‐down and closure. He is currently helping a large Chinese company to address liquidity issues through better
cash management and debt restructuring.

Prior to joining AlixPartners, George was the co‐founder and managing partner of a boutique off‐shore private equity fund focusing exclusively on investments in China. His responsibilities included deal side activities as well as post‐deal portfolio management. Before his seven years in the private equity, George was the head of worldwide strategy & acquisitions and a member of the management committee for Alstom Power for four years, where he led the successful acquisition of a large listed Chinese power equipment company. Prior to that, George was an associate principal at McKinsey & Company for six years, advising CEOs and COOs of many leading multinational and Chinese domestic
companies on various strategic and operational issues.

George received his MBA from Carnegie Mellon University and M.S. in Materials Science from the Pennsylvania State University. He also has a bachelor of science in Materials Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

James Greener chairs the Asia Transformation and Turnaround Association, (“ATTA”) the premier professional body in Asia serving corporate transformation specialists and their clientele: transnational corporations and SMEs, investors and lenders, government organisations and voluntary bodies. ATTA’s mission is the advancement of practitioner expertise and advocacy of our profession.

Before moving to China in 1994 James worked for 8 years in Asian capital markets in London. Since then he has been in project management roles, focusing on transformation of manufacturing sites value chains of industrial enterprises, especially automotive suppliers in light metals, electronics and e-drive. From 1999 to 2003 he worked on restructuring, integration and transformation projects in China ranging from industrial state enterprises, through traditional joint-ventures to private equity backed high tech.

Next he led BMW Supplier Development in Greater China for five years building up a supply base of the complete range of components and technologies, both localization and for export. From 2010 to 2012 he led Daimler Van Interior at Fujian Benz. Since then he has applied his value stream redesign and industrial transformation methodology to automotive, industrial and consumer goods including refrigerators, LCD panels and pumps.

He lives in Shanghai with his family. James speaks Chinese and German, teaches leadership of change for a North American university and writes on the Industrial Revolution.

Sarah Köchling is the Managing Principal of Blossom, a strategic insights, innovation and design consultancy that supports clients to get to breakthrough consumer, market and industry insights and collaboratively transform them into impact at all levels of their organizations. With over 25 years of experience in China and Asia, including brand management roles at Procter & Gamble China and J&J International, leading innovation practices at agencies What If and Dragon Rouge and advising several China startups, Sarah is an experienced consultant who offers her clients an optimal balance of best-practice experience and entrepreneurial savvy. Over the years she and her team have applied their considerable skills across a broad range of consumer and business to business categories for both Fortune 100 firms and local companies.

A frequent speaker on innovation and market trends, Sarah is also an active community volunteer; she is co-founder and co-chair of the Women's Executive Network (WEN) for AmCham Shanghai and was elected to the AmCham's Board of Governors for the 2017-2019 term. She also serves as a board advisor and mentor for several local SMEs and for Chinaccelerator, has been a member of the steering committee for TEDxShanghai Women for the past several years, and after co-founding and leading the Wellesley Club of Shanghai, now serves as a board advisor.

As a lean innovation coach and executive leadership trainer with China experience of over 13 years, Nishtha designs, facilitates and delivers open source agile learning and digital innovation acceleration capabilities for corporate workplaces with the purpose to infuse start-up, learn-by-doing, experiment, 'fail fast-build-right' and intrapreneur culture.

At CollabCentral, she run organisational digital capability assessment; problem framing and strategic visioning; open innovation, corporate intrapreneurship, new business/new service design go-to-market, lean start-up and growth hacking programs. Delivered in collaboration with brand owners, internal stakeholders, industry innovation leaders, tech companies, creative boutiques and start up community with a truly agile, responsive, 'outside-in' approach. Program format ranges from 1:1 coaching, team strategy sessions, custom training workshops to prototyping hackathons and market learning/co-create expeditions - designed to meet desired impact. Client partners range from the Fortune 500 companies across different industries – Beauty, Lifestyle, F&B, FMCG, Health Tech, IoT, Retail and more.

Tobias is a market strategist with 15 years in automotive, engineering, operations, supply chain, and distribution. His expertise is global leadership and management of strategic key projects covering full product life cycle and in depth value chain. Tobias is MD of Staufen.Shanghai, a consultancy specialising in lean and best practice operations and value chain. Staufen partners with Fraunhofer Institute, the birthplace of "Industry 4.0", in implementing digital value chain design in Asia’s capital goods and electronics industries.

Caroline Pan joined Honeywell in February 2017 with more than 20 years’ experience across the global high-tech and automotive sectors. As Vice President of Strategy & Marketing for Global High Growth Regions, she is responsible for leading corporate strategy, marketing, and commercial excellence across Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe.

Previously, Caroline was a Global Vice President at the Hewlett-Packard Company, where she led Emerging Markets strategy and business development for HP's PC and Printing division. She joined HP after 11 years with Intel Corporation, where she held a variety of management roles such as Senior Director, China Strategy Office; and Chief of Staff for the Channel Platforms Group, which had a dual focus on Intel's distribution business and Emerging Markets growth. Caroline began her professional career as a design engineer at Digital Equipment Corporation and later at Ford Motor Company, where she worked on several of Ford's luxury vehicle models, including the manufacturing launch of the original 1997 Lincoln Navigator SUV.

In addition to her corporate career, Caroline is an angel investor, startup advisor, and former Chair of the Entrepreneurship Committee at the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai. She is a frequent public speaker and panelist at industry events and conferences across Asia and in Silicon Valley.

Caroline holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She has been based in China since 2005.

Annabelle Vultee is Chief Operating Officer, EF English Centers, a division of EF Education First. As COO, Annabelle oversees the strategic direction and day-to-day management of EF’s English training businesses for adults in our largest markets in Asia and key markets in Europe. Annabelle and her team are currently working on a project that leverages EF’s core assets to deliver a unique offering, which will improve the customer experience as well as EF’s operations for years to come.

Before accepting her current position in Shanghai, Ms. Vultee served as President of Smithsonian Student Travel (now Explore America), EF’s domestic student travel business for North American middle and high school students. During her tenure there, she was instrumental in doubling customer volume during a three-year period while dramatically improving customer satisfaction and repeat rates. Annabelle joined EF in 2010 as Director of Business Analysis and Strategy for EF Educational Tours, where she spearheaded a comprehensive market analysis in India to determine whether and how EF should expand in the South Asian nation. Earlier in her career she worked for The Coca-Cola Company in the Sales and Marketing Division in San Diego, Seattle and Honolulu, and for a high-end fractional aircraft ownership business as COO.

Stéphane Wilmet is the Chief Consumer Officer of L’Oréal China.
Stéphane has over 25 years of experience in the cosmetics industry across Europe, Asia and North America in sales, marketing and brand management.
American and French, he is passionate about China where he has lived in the early 80s as a student, and worked since the 90’s onward at different moments of China’s transformation.

Herbert served as the General Manager of MSA China from 2003 to 2011. He has built a strong team and led the organization in achieving a 10-fold sales growth and profitability. To support the sustainable growth in China, he has persuaded the board to invest in China and built a new Manufacturing & R&D Center in China in 2007. From 2011 to 2015, Herbert took an expanded role as Business Leader the Pacific Asia Region, responsible for China, S.E. Asia, Japan and S. Korea, and led the region in achieving 20+% growth per year in both revenue and profit. Herbert holds an MBA from Cornell University and a Bachelor degree in Engineering from CUHK.