2017 SPEAKERS
London Business School China Business Forum has been known to attract high-profile thought leaders from business, academia and politics to address changing dynamics in the UK and China
This year we are bringing you top voices from...
(Stay tuned for more speaker information!)
Speech Speakers
ZHU Qin
Deputy Head of Mission @ Chinese Embassy in the UK
Minister ZHU Qin began his diplomatic career in 1993. He served several positions in China and abroad, including Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in the United States, Minister Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in the South Africa, Deputy Director-General of the Department of European Affairs of Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He became Minister and Deputy Head of Mission of the Chinese Embassy in the UK in September, 2016.
ZHENG Dongshan
Senior Vice President @ China General Nuclear Power Group
Mr. ZHENG Dongshan is a member of the Party Leadership Group and Senior Vice President of CGN from 2008. CGN is the largest nuclear power operator in China, and the largest nuclear power constructor worldwide. CGN focuses on the development of clean energies such as nuclear power, nuclear fuel, wind power, and solar power. In 2016, led by CGN and EDF, China, UK and France signed a final deal for the construction of The Hinkley Point C (HPC) nuclear power plant. The plant has an estimated construction costs of £24.5 billion and is considered the flagship product of the “golden era” of China-UK cooperation.
CHEN Meifang
International Business @ Alibaba Group
Mei Chen joined Alibaba Group to focus on helping European companies expand to Asia and develop new revenue streams. In her role, Mei is capitalizing on her extensive experience in working with Fortune 500 companies in EMEA and the US in business development, sales and people management. Alibaba Group is the largest online and mobile commerce company in the world in terms of gross merchandise volume. Founded in 1999, the company provides the fundamental technology infrastructure and marketing reach to help businesses leverage the power of the Internet to establish an online presence and conduct commerce with hundreds of millions of consumers and other businesses.
Martin Brandenburg
Director of Europe @ DJI
Martin Brandenburg is the European Director of DJI. Since joining in 2015, he has helped DJI build the European business, which is now the second largest after the US. With a global market share of over 70%, DJI is the world’s largest drone company whose products are revolutionizing entire industries including filmmaking, construction and agriculture in over 100 countries. Headquartered in Shenzhen, it counts over 6,000 employees with offices all over the world.
ZHOU Yuan
Managing Director @ CreditEase Asset Management
Ms. Zhou is the Managing Director of CreditEase Asset Management and the Founder and CEO of CreditEase Leasing. Ms. Zhou has 23 years of experience in financial services and has worked as senior executives at leading financial institutions, including Bank of China, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, IFC, and Baring PE Asia, etc. Founded in 2008, CreditEase is now a leading FinTech company in China, specializing in small business and consumer lending and wealth management for high net worth and mass affluent investors. Its majority owned subsidiary Yirendai is the first stock from China’s P2P sector to be listed in the New York Stock Exchange.
Susanne Chishti
CEO & Founder @ FINTECH Circle
Susanne is the Editor of the global Bestseller “The Fintech Book” and the CEO of FINTECH Circle, a global Fintech Network of more than 60,000 members and Europe’s first Angel Network focused on FinTech investments. She was awarded the “City Innovator - Inspirational Woman” 2016, was featured in the European Digital Financial Services ‘Power 50’ and is one of the top 15 Fintech UK twitter influencers. She is also a mentor, judge and coach at organizations such as Cambridge Judge Business School Accelerator, Fintech Startupbootcamp and Barclays Techstars Accelerators, and has a 14 years’ experience across Deutsche Bank, Lloyds and Morgan Stanley in London and Hong Kong.
Panel 1 - Macro: The Golden Era?
Richard Fu
Head of Asia & Pacific @ Amalgamated Metal Trading Limited
Mr. Fu is the Head of Asia & Pacific for Amalgamated Metal Trading Ltd., a ring dealing member of the London Metal Exchange founded in 1877. Mr. Fu has more than 20 years of experience in commodities management and trading in China, South Korea and the UK and has been frequently interviewed by global media such as Bloomberg and CNBC regarding commodities and Chinese economy. Mr. Fu obtained an MBA from Cass Business School in the UK and a Bachelor of Economics and International Trade from University of International Business & Economics in Beijing, China.
HUO Rongrong
Global Head of China & RMB Business, Capital Financing, Global Banking & Markets @ HSBC
Ms Huo is accountable for driving Global Banking and Markets’ overall China and RMB internationalisation strategy, revenue growth, product innovation and wider strategic client execution across primary market activities. She is currently leading Global Sustainable Financing initiatives for the Group across multi products. In the last 10 years with HSBC, Ms Huo has a diverse range of experience from front-line relationship management to global strategy work. In 2016 and 2015, Ms Huo was recognised by Financial News as one of the 100 most influential women in finance and was 2015 winner of the Chinese Business Leaders Banking Award.
David Wilder
Principal, China @ Financial Times Confidential Research
David Wilder is Principal, China for FT Confidential Research, with over a decade of experience covering the Chinese and Asian capital markets. He speaks Mandarin and was most recently Senior China Editor for Market News International based inBeijing. FT Confidential Research is an independent research service from the Financial Times. It provides in-depth analysis into China and Asian countries through a network of on-the-ground researchers who collect original, proprietary and unbiased information for investors and corporates.
Aman Wang
Partner & Head of UK-China Business @ KPMG LLP
Aman leads the development for all China related opportunities and relations on behalf of KPMG UK, assisting both British and Chinese clients in their cross-border investment and trade activities. Aman and his UK-China Business team work across all sectors with a focus on Infrastructure, Energy & Resources, and Financial Services. In the opposite direction, Aman helps UK business with their China strategies, establishing JVs and partnerships, and managing their existing businesses in China.
George S. Yip (Moderator)
Professor @ Imperial College London
Professor of Marketing and Strategy at Imperial College Business School. Previous academic positions include Professor of Strategy and Co-Director of the Centre on China Innovation at China Europe International Business School, and London Business School (Professor of Strategy and International Management and Associate Dean, MBA). Author of China’s Next Strategic Advantage: From Imitation to Innovation, Strategic Transformation, Managing Global Customers, Asian Advantage, and Total Global Strategy. BA and MA in economics, Cambridge University; MBA and doctorate, Harvard Business School.
Panel 2 - Investment: Cross-Border Expedition
Kaho Ha
Senior Director @ Fosun Property
Kaho Ha is a Senior Director at Fosun Property, covering all real estate investments and asset management activities for the €2 billion Fosun Property portfolio in Europe. Founded in 1992, Fosun International is a world-class investment group listed in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange consisting of four business engines: insurance, industrial operations, investment and asset management and currently ranking 63rd on China’s Fortune 500 listing in terms of profit. Kaho actively covers markets including France, Spain, Greece, Russia and Eastern Europe and his investment experience includes the £ 297m acquisition of Thomas More Square in London and the €345m acquisition of Palazzo Broggi in Milan.
Alexander S.W. Jarvis
Founder and Chairman @ Blackbridge Cross Borders
Alexander Jarvis is the Founder and Chairman of Blackbridge Cross Borders, a leading investment firm specializing in football, sports, and real estate based in the UK and China. He is the first entrepreneur to set up a football focused investment company to assist Chinese investors in acquiring European football clubs, sports conglomerates and football agencies. Blackbridge’s sports division’s clients span across Europe, most notably in the English Premier League. Blackbridge was the advisor for Suning’s acquisition of Inter Milan. It also offered advisory service for other leading Chinese companies, such as Wanda, Vanke, Fosun, CITIC, China Life Insurance and Hainan Airlines.
Gordon Luo
CEO @ Huawei Technology (UK & Ireland)
Gordon Luo joined Huawei UK and Ireland in October 2013 and took up the role of Chief Executive Officer in February 2014. Huawei is the world’s largest telecom equipment maker, whose products and services are used in more than 170 countries and regions, serving over one-third of the world’s population. Prior to moving to the UK, Gordon was CEO of Huawei Nordic region for 2 years, leading a team that delivered strong growth while growing into new areas such as service, enterprise and consumer devices.
WANG Huabin
Chief Corporate Banking Officer @ Bank of China (UK)
Mr. Wang is the Chief Corporate Banking Officer, Deputy General Manager and Executive Committee member of Bank of China (UK). He oversees the corporate finance unit, which includes departments of corporate banking, EMEA Syndication Centre, Trade Finance and Financial Institution as well as leading the International RMB business development. Before coming to London, he worked in the Bank of China Head office for more than 10 years, where he used to be Head of Trade Finance Section of Corporate Banking Department.
ZHAI Endong
Director, Investment Banking / Cross Border M&A @ DC Advisory
Endong is a Director in the Asia Access team at DC Advisory in London where he is responsible for originating and executing cross-border deals between China and Europe, completing 14 transactions in 2016. Endong has co-led high profile transactions with Chinese investors such as Sailing Capital, Midea Group and Andon Healthcare. Endong has extensive experience in the entire M&A deal cycle and before joining DC he worked at Deloitte London Corporate Finance and has also been involved in the Geely acquisition of Volvo.
Prashant Rao (Moderator)
Deputy Europe Business Editor @ The New York Times
Prashant Rao is the Deputy Europe Business Editor for The New York Times. A graduate of the London School of Economics, he has previously worked for Bloomberg News and Agence France-Presse, and reported from Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Turkey, China, France, and the UK.
Panel 3 - Innovation: Drivers For Growth
Hussein Kanji
Partner @ Hoxton Ventures
Hussein is the Founding Partner of Hoxton Venture, a London-based $40m early stage technology venture capital firm. He is also an angel investor in Bea’s of Bloomsbury, GoCardless, Halo Neuroscience, Popxo, Signpost and Yieldify. He has occasionally assisted the UK government with technology policy, and regularly appears on BBC, Bloomberg, CNN and Sky News. Hussein was rated as one of “The 100 most influential technology investors in Europe” by The Telegraph. Hoxton Ventures has investments across continents, in the UK, Germany, Sweden, the US, Canada, and India. It has invested in famous start-ups such as Deliveroo, Yieldify and Darktrace.
Karen Winton
Managing Partner @ Nest VC (UK)
Karen joined Nest in April 2015 when she opened the firm’s first overseas office in London. Nest invests in entrepreneurs and supports each stage of their journey, empowering startups on their mission to solve big challenges. Karen is currently building Nest brand and service offering to the UK, providing a range of programs for entrepreneurs and corporations while connecting people, ideas and resources using Nest network in Asia. Prior to Nest, Karen was CMO of Invest Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Government organisation for investment promotion and was instrumental in the launch of the successful StartmeupHK initiative that led hundreds of founders from overseas to scale their businesses from Hong Kong.
Elson Zhou
Co-Founder & CFO @ Cocoon Networks
Elson is the Co-founder and CFO at Cocoon Networks. Established in 2014, Cocoon Networks is a cross-border innovative platform providing incubator / accelerator, equity investment, IP management and financial advisory services to start-ups and high-growth companies. It has 6 offices in China and the UK, with global partners of ChinaEquity, TransferWise, Alibaba Cloud, Uber, Deliveroo, Tech City, etc. Elson graduated from Birmingham University with First Class Degree and has a wealth of experience in luxury and fashion products investment and management skills. Before founding Cocoon Networks, Elson was the Co-Founder and CEO at British Chinese Young Entrepreneur Association.
Linda Yueh (Moderator)
Adjunct Professor of Economics @ London Business School
Dr. Yueh is a Fellow in Economics at Oxford, Adjunct Professor of Economics at LBS, and Visiting Professor of Economics at Peking University. She is a widely published author and the Editor of the Routledge Economic Growth and Development book series and her next book will be published by Viking/Random House. She is a radio presenter for BBC Radio 4 and the World Service, and fronted BBC TV series, such as The New Middle Class, Next Billionaires, and Working Lives.
Panel 4 - FinTech Revolution
Bohumil Vosalik
Investment Professional @ HgCapital
Bohumil Vosalik is an investment executive at HgCapital where he focuses on investments in enterprise software and FinTech companies in Europe and the US. HgCapital is a sector expert private equity investor that manages £9 billion for investments in expanding segments of the TMT and Services sectors. Last year, Bohumil spent several months in various cities in China and Hong Kong, meeting executives of the technology ecosystem to identify investment opportunities. Bohumil joined HgCapital from Silver Lake Partners where he focused on investments in a variety of technology sectors including enterprise software, consumer marketplaces, FinTech and cybersecurity. Silver Lake Partners invested in Alibaba and C-trip, among others.
Marie Steinthaler
Head of New Products @ ZOPA
Marie heads up new product development at ZOPA, developing and launching new consumer finance products to drive growth. She has spent 10 years growing technology start-ups and developing a Swiss army knife of skills in the process, as well as an in-depth understanding of consumer web, media, Fintech, and mobile applications.
Nasir Zubairi
CEO @ The Luxembourg House of Financial Technology
Nasir is CEO of Luxembourg House of Financial Technology, a public/private sector foundation set up to drive FinTech innovation in Luxembourg. He is a mentor at Level 39, built multiple Fintech businesses across verticals, and advised the boards of leading financial institutions, central banks and governments. In 2014, Nasir has been included in the “Top 40 innovators shaping the future of financial services” by The Wall Street Journal. Nasir has worked in Financial Services for nearly 20 years, having spent 13 years working at RBS, ICAP, HSBC and EBS, and is an Honorary Research Fellow at UCL.
Adizah Tejani (Moderator)
Director of Marketing EMEA @ Token
Adizah is a product focused technology executive with experience in digital technologies since 2009. She is currently the Director of Marketing EMEA at Token, an open banking company from San Francisco. She was part of the founding team of Level39, a London based Fintech accelerator set up by the Canary Wharf Group. Adizah has worked with a number of industry leaders such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft, IBM, JP Morgan, UBS, Thomson Reuters and Accenture and in 2016 she was named one of the top 100 women in London by City A.M.
Panel 5 - AI Resurgence
Ruhul Amin
Co-Founder @ Onfido
Ruhul Amin is the CTO and co-founder of Onfido, prior to which he was a Risk IT analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ. Onfido uses machine learning to deliver next-generation identity verification, helping businesses remotely onboard more users while reducing dropout and fraud. Founded in 2012, Onfido has grown to a team of 145, received over $30m in investment and works with over 1,500 companies globally.
Nicholas Ibery
Partner @ Richmond Partners, Healthcare & Infrastructure Investment Group
Nick is a health and infrastructure specialist investor who has held a range of leadership roles. Nick was actively involved in the UK Government’s recent pro-market healthcare reforms. He has held a range of roles at the Department of Health with the Government’s the Strategy Unit and the Medical Directorate. He has been a Senior Advisor to Novartis AG, Senior Advisor to Bupa Group Plc. and 3i Plc.’s Global Healthcare Private Equity practice. Nick was recently invited to join the Prime Ministers Independent Review in Mental Health in the UK led by Lord Stevenson. He is also a Council Member and Honorary Treasurer the New Technology in Medicine Council, the Royal Society of Medicine.
Filippo Sanesi
Head of Research & Partner Management @ Startupbootcamp InsurTech
Filippo Sanesi is Head of Research and Partner Management at Startupbootcamp InsurTech. He is responsible for the international scouting process of the best InsurTech startups, research of new trends, relationship and communication between startups and corporate partners. Startupbootcamp is a global family of 18 accelerator programs in 12 cities around the world and one of the leading accelerators in Europe, connecting startups with a network of 3,300 mentors and 140 companies encompassing more than 10 industries during a 3-month period. He holds an International MBA and has experience in a variety of different business areas, such as international marketing, business development, business strategies, and startups’ growth hacking techniques.
Mahdi Shariff
SVP & Chief Strategy Officer @ Sunteng
Mahdi Shariff is the Chief Strategy Officer in Sunteng, a leading programmatic marketing and advertising technology company recently featured in the “G20 Digital Disruption Report”. Working with world class partners including Google, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, Sunteng helps both global and local companies and agencies unlock opportunities in China through effective data-driven digital marketing. Mahdi is also a UK Angel investor and leads UK TMT companies in EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year Program. Mahdi has been included in Forbes Asia’s “30 under 30” and has prior experience in investment banking in London (UK), focusing on mergers & acquisitions in the Technology, Media and Telecoms (TMT) sector.
Dickie Liang-Hong Ke (Moderator)
Founding Partner and CEO @ NetAdd Technology
Dickie is the Founding Partner and CEO of NetAdd Technology and is an accomplished technology executive and entrepreneur with over 25 years of advisory and global management experience in FinTech and InsurTech, E-commerce, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data Analytics, Cloud Computing, and IoT. He has held executive-level leadership roles at Microsoft, Ericsson Business Consulting, Nokia, and HSBC. He is an intrapreneur and a corporate-innovator, and in the past also managed functions such as strategy, business development, product management, and software engineering.