Opening Greeting
The Honorable Kevin Rudd
Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Hon. Rudd is one of the foremost China experts and practitioners in the world. During his years in office as former Prime Minister of Australia, Hon. Rudd actively engaged in global and regional foreign policy leadership. He was a driving force in expanding the East Asia Summit (EAS) to include both the U.S. and Russia in 2010. On climate change, Mr. Rudd ratified the Kyoto Protocol in 2007, and legislated successfully in 2008 for a 20 percent mandatory renewable energy target for Australia. Also, he was a co-author on the report of the U.N. Secretary General’s 2012 High Level Panel on Global Sustainability, “Resilient People, Resilient Planet.” |
Keynote Speech: China as a Global Citizen
Chong-En Bai
Vice Dean of the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University and Monetary Policy, Dr. Bai holds great interests in topics that cover economic institutions, public economics, economic growth and development, corporate governance, and the Chinese economy. Given his background and his Ph.D. degrees in Mathematics and Economics from UCSD and Harvard University, Dr. Bai uses his expertise, serving as an adviser to The People’s Bank of China (China’s Central Bank). |
Fireside Chat with Liu Xiao Ling Tong
Jinlai Zhang
A renowned Chinese actor, Liu Xiao Ling Tong grew up in Shanghai in a family of performing artists. He gained international fame starring as the Monkey King (Sun Wukong) in the 1986 television series Journey to the West. Today, Liu Xiao Ling Tong continues to exert a strong influence globally, serving as honorary chairman of the Japan-China Friendship Association and French Culture Ambassador. Among others, in 2014, he was selected as a special representative at the Beijing Arts Forum hosted by China’s General Secretary Xi Jingping. Most recently, he received the 2015 Brand China Person of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award. |
Alan Chow (Moderator)
Alan Chow has been the executive director and artistic director of the Chinese American Arts Council since 1975. He was a regular guest on Channel 2, 5, 7 & 9 TB giving lectures and demonstrations on Chinese theater and performing Chinese theatrical, traditional and folk dances, and starred in a CBS prime time production of "Return of the Phoenix." In 1977, he directed and performed in a program of Chinese dances in the National Christmas Pageant of Peace at the White House, Washington, DC. |
Panel I: Sino-American Relations: The Present and The Future
Ann Lee
Ann Lee is an internationally recognized leading authority on China’s economic relations. She consults with policymakers from Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the U.S. about U.S.-China relations, international finance and trade, and China’s political economy. In addition to television and radio appearances on Bloomberg, CNN, CNBC, Fox Business, CCTV, the BBC, her op-eds have appeared in such publications as The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Businessweek, Forbes and China Newsweek. Professor Lee is also the author of “What the U.S Can Learn from China”, an award winning international bestseller. |
Jeffrey Rinde
With almost twenty-five years of global legal, corporate and investment banking experience, Jeffrey A. Rinde is the Managing Partner of CKR Law, specializing in the corporate, securities and other regulatory aspects of global business ventures across a diverse array of industries between companies in the U.S. and Europe with Asia. Prior to joining CKR, Mr. Rinde was Chief Representative of Blank Rome’s Shanghai office. Earlier in his career, he was the head of the corporate department of Hodgson Russ’ New York office and established the firm’s Asian practice. |
James B, Heimowitz
James Heimowitz is a well-known speaker, author and the President of China Institute. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on its Independent Economic Task Force on China, which is charged with delivering policy advice to the White House. After earning his MBA from the Wharton School, Mr. Heimowitz joined the Chase Manhattan Bank and led its successful re-entry to China. He also served as Managing Director for Corporate Strategy at Bankers Trust/Deutsche Bank and Manager of the Boston Consulting Group’s World Wide Asia Team. Prior to joining CI, Mr. Heimowitz spent nine years at Hill + Knowlton Strategies where he was CEO for Asia, and Chairman, China. |
Xiaobu Lu, PhD (Moderator) A Professor at Columbia University Professor, teaching Asian Politics, and Founding Director of Columbia Global Centers, Dr. Lu is dedicated in his research in finding new insights on topics which include political economy of transition from state socialism, political corruption and governance, and Chinese politics & society. |
Panel II: Business & Finance in China
Robert Whitelaw
Robert F. Whitelaw is the Edward C. Johnson 3d Professor of Entrepreneurial Finance at NYU Stern. He is also Chief Investment Strategist at IndexIQ, a pioneer and leading provider of index-based, liquid, alternative investments. Professor Whitelaw is increasingly recognized for his developing expertise on China's evolving financial system. His work on The Real Value of China's Stock Market has been presented at venues including the NBER, the People's Bank of China and the China Securities Regulatory Commission. |
Rebecca Wang
Rebecca is a corporate tax partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), with about 18 years of experiences in providing both China and the US tax and business advisory services. She has extensive experiences in setting up the tax efficient for cross borders transactions, overseas IPO, offshore real estate investments, advising on overseas trust/funds set-up. Rebecca is also a regular speaker on global tax planning arena for professional conferences and seminars and contributes frequently to professional publications on the subject. |
Marti Subrahmanyam
Marti G. Subrahmanyam is the Charles E. Merrill Professor of Finance, Economics and International Business at NYU Stern, He has served or continues to serve on the boards of several companies, including AION Fund L.P., ICICI Bank Ltd., ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd., Infosys Technologies Ltd., Nomura Asset Management Inc, and Premier European Capital Ltd. Professor Subrahmanyam has published numerous articles and books in the area of corporate finance, capital markets and international finance. |
Huining (Henry) Cao (Moderator)
Dr. Huining (Henry) Cao is a Professor of Finance, Chair of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB)'s Finance Department and serves as Academic Director of the school's Finance MBA. He earned a Ph.D. in finance in 1995 from the University of California at Los Angeles and a Ph.D. in pathology in 1991 from Yale University. Before joining CKGSB, he taught at the University of California at Berkeley, the University California at San Diego among many other great institutions. |
Panel III: Business Innovations in the Start-up Scene
Victor Yue Yuan
Victor Yue Yuan is the founder and chairman of Horizon Consulting Group and the CEO and founder of Pegasus, a Startup Management Service Institution that provides support to startups all over the country. He is also the President of Horizon Center of Youth Entrepreneurship for Society and was the anchor of “Brainstorming”, China’s most popular business-focused TV talk show. Dr. Yuan received his Master in Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School. With 20 years of experience in professional marketing, social research and policy analysis and management consulting, he has published more than 400 research papers, reports, books an translation works across various fields. |
Pierre DuPont
Pierre duPont is a partner at HPM Partners, LLC; he works with owners of businesses on their growth strategies, financing, liquidity, wealth management, estate planning and tax strategies; and for his multi-generational clients, he brings several lifetimes of dealing with family dynamics, trusts, business-ownership and family charters as a member of two large, historic and current business-owning families. He is also an angel investor in, and advisor to many small and mid-sized companies; and an entrepreneur, co-founding three software companies. |
Vincent Ponzo
Vincent Ponzo is the Senior Director of the Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center at Columbia Business School. Before joining Columbia Business School, he was the first general manager of General Assembly’s offline education business, with P&L responsibility and oversight of the curriculum, instruction, student, alumni, and outcomes products and teams. Vincent also previously spent time as the Executive Vice President of Partnerships at Kargo, served as the Vice President of Client Services for SelectMinds, and spent more than nine years at Fidelity Investments and Citigroup in roles ranging from Corporate Finance to Corporate Training. |
Sean Ding (Moderator)
As Co-Founder of The Dialogue Group / 道乐咨询集团, Mr. Ding aims to help his company grow into a top communications agency for Chinese businesses in the U.S. market. He and his team has worked on bridging the cultural gaps through creative channels and content, helping businesses develop their own internal capacity in communicate effectively in cross-cultural settings. |
Panel IV: The Changing Landscape in Chinese Art Market
Noah Kuperman
Noah Kupferman is the Director of Art, Law and Business at Christie’s Education. He previously served as Christie’s Co-Head of Chinese Works of Art in the Americas as well as Head of Christie’s Secured Art Lending in New York. Noah began his career at Sotheby’s as a specialist in the Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy Department in New York. Subsequently, he spent a number of years working in corporate and private banking with organizations including U.S. Trust, Merrill Lynch and Standard Chartered Bank. |
Lucia Chen
Lucia Chen serves as the President and Executive Director of the T.F. Chen Cultural Center, the Arts for Humanity Foundation, the New World Art Center (NYC, Beijing & Taipei), the Chen Foundation, and TLT & J Enterprises LLC, etc. With over forty years of experience in the international art and business worlds, as an art dealer, agent, advisor, curator, collector, licensor and investor, Lucia is one of the few successful Asian women in NYC in her field. She has written numerous articles concerning the international art market for various magazines |
Willem Molesworth
Willem Molesworth is the Associate Director of Klein Sun Gallery in New York. He graduated with a BA in Asian Studies from Bard College in 2012, during which he was granted funding to establish a liberal arts initiative in China. He continues to dedicate his time to supporting the non-profit arts, from his role as board member of a New York performance collaborative, to helming the annual residency program at Klein Sun Gallery. |
Bridget Goodbody
Bridget L. Goodbody, Ph.D., is the founder of Art Intelligence, the world's first and only mobile app builder especially designed for art and education professionals. She is also a former New York Times critic and art history professor with over thirty years experience working in the art world. She has taught at Columbia University, Rutgers University, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. |