Mr. Savio Kwan
Partner & CEO, A&K Consulting Ltd.

Savio Kwan was the President and Chief Operating Officer of Alibaba.com from 2001 to 2003 and served as Chief People Office for the year 2004 before stepping down from full-time executive duties and now serves in the capacity of Senior Advisor to the company. During his time at Alibaba.com Kwan saw the company transformed from an internet start-up with just over 150 staffs burning close to US$2M per month into one of the world’s biggest B2B Company with over 2,500 staffs generating over US$5M surplus cash per month.

Kwan, has 30 years of global management experience, including fifteen years at General Electric and four years as the Managing Director of the China operations of BTR plc, a UK-based Fortune 500 company. Kwan also served as a board member of the Asia Pacific Advisory Board of York International, a leading global air conditioning system provider and a unit of Johnson Control listed in the New York Stock Exchange.

Kwan's career includes 15 years of high-level management at General Electric where he had responsibilities for sales, marketing, operations, business development, and establishment of joint venture companies in Asia. Among his accomplishments at GE, Kwan grew the China Medical business from zero revenues to US$70 million revenues in less than 4 years.

At BTR, Kwan was Managing Director for the China operations of 8 manufacturing subsidiaries with some US$150M sales which he built through merger and acquisitions in the space of under three years.

In 2005 Kwan co-founded A & K Consulting with Malcolm Au.

Mr. Philip Dodd
Chairman, Made in China

Philip Dodd is an internationally recognised expert in the field of creative industries, who has been described recently as a " visionary Briton" by the Australian newspaper, Herald Sun. He has won many awards, including an award as one of the top five UK creative entrepreneurs (Elle Deco '99) and as one of the top 50 UK design gurus (Design Week magazine 2007). He is Chairman of Made In China, a company brokering cultural, commercial and educational deals between China and Europe.

He has worked extensively with national and city governments in the field of creative industries. He has recently contributed to the development of UK government policy on creative industries and in China is advisor to Beijing's Chaoyang District Government, the Beijing International Cultural and Creative Industries Expo and the Shanghai government on Shanghai eArts, the world's largest digital arts festival. His company is a founding partner of the International Creative Industries Alliance, Beijing.

He has not only worked at a policy level with the creative industries but has set up practical support networks which have gained global attention. In 2000 in the UK, he set up The Club, which attracted 500 of London's top creative businesses. This initiative has been copied as far afield as Holland and Taiwan, where he worked with the former culture minister there to develop creative industries.

He works for the BBC and is formerly director of London's Institute of Contemporary Arts, which Tony Blair described as a unique home of 'innovation and new ideas'

Dr.Paolo Volpin
Associate Professor of Finance, London Business School

Paolo Volpin is an associate professor of finance at the London Business School, a research affiliate of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), and a research associate of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI). He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University (2000). His research is in corporate finance, especially in the fields of international corporate finance and corporate governance. His main publications include “The Political Economy of Corporate Governance” with Marco Pagano, American Economic Review (2005), “Cross-Country Determinants of Mergers and Acquisitions” with Stefano Rossi, Journal of Financial Economics (2004), “Managers, Workers, and Corporate Control” with Marco Pagano, Journal of Finance (2005). The latter paper won the 2005 “Egon Zehnder International Prize” for best paper on company boards and their role in corporate governance in the ECGI Working Paper series.

Dr. Patrick Barwise
Emeritus Professor of Management and Marketing , London Business School

Patrick Barwise is Emeritus Professor of Management and Marketing at London Business School. He joined the School in 1976, having spent his early career with IBM. He has published and consulted widely on management, marketing, and media. His latest book Simply Better (HBS Press, 2004), co-authored with Seán Meehan, won the American Marketing Association’s 2005 Berry-AMA Prize for the best recent book in marketing. In 2004, he led an independent review for the UK government of the BBC’s digital television services. He is a Fellow of both the Marketing Society and the Sunningdale Institute, a virtual academy on public service management. He is also a Council member (and previous deputy chairman) of Which?, the UK’s leading consumer organization, and an experienced expert witness, having worked on commercial, tax, and competition cases in London, Brussels, Paris, and Washington. His main current project is another book with Seán Meehan, Customer Insights That Matter, to be published by HBS Press in 2009.

Mr. Klenn Yeo
Consultant, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Mr.Simon Heale
Chief Executive, China Now

Educated at Winchester College and Oriel College, Oxford, Simon is also a qualified Chartered Accountant. He has worked in a variety of senior positions for multi national companies in America and the Far East and joined the London Metal Exchange in London from Jardine Fleming Limited in Hong Kong where he was Chief Operating Officer. Simon Heale was Chief Executive of the London Metal Exchange from July 2001 to November 2006. Simon is now a non-Executive Director of The Morgan Crucible Company Ltd, Kazakhmys plc, Marex Financial, PZ Cussons and Panmure Gordon & Co Ltd. In January 2007, Simon was appointed Chief Executive of CHINA NOW, pulling together a nationwide festival that will showcase contemporary China through hundreds of diverse events in the run up to the Beijing Olympic Games. The CHINA NOW festival started on Chinese New Year 2008.

Mr. Yong Kai Wong
Attorney, Cadwalader

Mr. Rakesh Mathur
Chief Executive Officer, Webaroo Inc.

Mr. Paul Hammond
Development Manager, MSN International R&D, Microsoft

Mr. Chris McNally
Senior Associate, Booz Allen Hamilton

Mr. Ralph Rogers
China Business Adviser, China-Britain Business Council

Ms. Viviane Yan Qin
Strategy Manager, Accor Group

Viviane QIN is a strategy manager at Accor Group. She is in charge of strategic analysis and orientations, as well as of facilitating relationships with Asia.

Viviane is a Chinese originated French, she has abundant cross-cultural working experiences both in China and in France. Prior to joining Accor, Viviane was a consultant specialised in international strategies and public relationship with China. She advised companies of all kinds of sectors (from financial services to consumer products to industry) on their developments and operations in China and in France. She also advised Chinese and French cities on building up twin-city relationships during.

Viviane holds a MBA from ESCP-EAP (European School of Management in Paris) and a Phd. in management sciences. She has published several articles in China and in France and co-written a book named “West meets Asia: towards a global management” (in French). She was also a co-lecturer on intercultural management in universities in France and in China during 2005 and 2007.

Mr. Nick Keppel-Palmer
Senior Consultant, Wolff Olins

Nick works out of the London office of Wolff Olins, advising organizations on identifying and realizing opportunities for big, new growth. He focuses mainly on developing business strategy and change management, using brand as a catalyst for change both internally and externally. Most of his work concentrates on what the organization does – and how – rather than how it communicates. Nick works globally – including recent spells in Japan, Saudi Arabia and in Mongolia where he has been creating new brands for the Mongolia’s agricultural sector – with the specific aim of improving the living conditions of nomadic herdsmen. In addition Nick leads Wolff Olins’ efforts in building sustainable business. Wolff Olins is a brand consultancy with offices in London and New York.

Annabel Koh Wilson
Managing Director, Bon-Bons Joaillerie

Annabel is Managing Director of Bon-Bons Joaillerie. She is a qualified gemologist who is dedicated to the design, manufacture and sourcing of fine jewellery using only materials and craftsmanship of the highest quality. The company offers a bespoke high jewellery and sourcing service as well as ready to wear fine jewellery. Bon-Bons Joaillerie operates exclusively on a non-retail basis and deals directly with an extensive network of private clients. The client base spans Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the US.

Annabel is involved in all aspects of the business, from sourcing and buying to design, client sales and identifying and realising opportunities for the company’s growth. She is based in London but travels extensively to Asia, the US and continental Europe.

Prior to establishing Bon-Bons Joaillerie, Annabel worked for a number of years in advertising and brand management. She holds a BA from University of California, Berkeley, an MBA from London Business School, and a Graduate Gemologist (G.G.) degree from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA).