Past Conferences

Zhou Xiaochuan has served as the Governor of the People’s Bank of China from 2002 to 2018. Zhou spent his career working in China’s leading trade and finance organizations. He served as the vice-governor of the People’s Bank of China and governor of the China Construction Bank. In 2000 he was appointed as the Chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission. Zhou was a member of the 16th and 17th CPC Central Committees. He graduated from Beijing Chemical Engineering Institute with a bachelor’s degree in 1975 and Tsinghua University with a Doctorate Degree in 1985.

Li Zhaoxing was a member of the 11th NPC Standing Committee and has served as the Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China. He graduated from Peking University. From 1985 to 2007, he has served on important posts such as the deputy director-general, director-general, and spokesperson of Department of Information, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Vice Minister of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to the United States of America, and Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China.

Kevin Rudd, Australia’s 26th Prime Minister, held office from 3 December 2007 to 24 June 2010, and for 11 weeks in 2013. While attending Australian National University, he majored in Chinese language and Chinese history, and became proficient in Mandarin. In February 2014, he was named a Senior Fellow with John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, leading a major research effort on Sino-US relations at Harvard’s Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs.

Henry M. Paulson, Jr., is a businessman, China expert, conservationist and author. He is the founder and chairman of the Paulson Institute, and co- chairman of the Latin American Conservation Council of The Nature Conservancy. Paulson served as the 74th Secretary of the Treasury under President George W. Bush, from July 2006 to January 2009. Prior to that, he had a thirty-two year career at Goldman Sachs, serving as chairman and chief executive officer beginning in 1999. Earlier in his career, he was a member of the White House Domestic Council as well as a staff assistant at the Pentagon. Today, he serves as chairman of the Paulson Institute at the University of Chicago, which aims to advance sustainable economic growth, a cleaner environment and cross-border investments in the United States and China. A “think and do” tank founded in 2011, the Institute’s work is comprised of programs, advocacy and research with partners around the globe. A lifelong conservationist, Paulson was Chairman of The Nature Conservancy Board of Directors and, prior to that, founded and co-chaired the organization’s Asia-Pacific Council. In 2011, he founded and continues to co-chair the Latin American Conservation Council, comprised of global business and political leaders. He also co-chaired the Risky Business Project from 2013-2017, a non-partisan initiative that quantified and publicized the economic risks of climate change in the United States. In his best-selling book, On the Brink, Paulson describes his experiences as Treasury Secretary fending off the near-collapse of the U.S. economy during the Great Recession. His most recent best-seller, Dealing with China, details his career working with scores of China’s top political and business leaders and witnessing the evolution of China’s state-controlled capitalism. Paulson graduated from Dartmouth College in 1968 and received an M.B.A. from Harvard University in 1970. He and his wife, Wendy, have two children and four grandchildren.

Jack Ma is a Chinese business magnate who is the founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group, a family of successful Internet-based businesses. He is the first mainland Chinese entrepreneur to appear on the cover of Forbes. In 2014, he was ranked as the 30th most powerful person in the world in an annual ranking published by Forbes. In 2015, Asian Award honored him with the Entrepreneur of the Year award. In 2010, Ma was selected by Forbes Asia as one of Asia’s Heroes of Philanthropy for his contribution to disaster relief and poverty.

Mr. Chen Dongsheng is the founder and chairman of Taikang Life Insurance Corp., Ltd, a Beijing-based, China-incorporated life insurance company that is the ninth largest life insurer by premium income in China. Founded in 1996, Taikang Life Insurance now has end-of-year total assets totaling 350 billion yuan and 35 branches throughout China. Mr. Chen is also the founder of China Guardian Auction Company and serves as its President. He has been a Director at Mountain China Resorts Holdings of China Auction Association.

Ray Dalio is the founder, co-CIO and co-Chairman of Bridgewater Associates and the author of Principles, a New York Times #1 Bestseller and Amazon #1 Business Book of 2017. Bridgewater is a leading global asset manager and largest hedge fund in the world with more than $160 billion in assets under management. The firm has been named the 5th most important private company in the U.S., according to Fortune Magazine, and has made more money for its clients than any other hedge fund, according to LCH Investments. As a global macro investor, Ray has become a valued advisor to policy makers throughout the world leading him to be named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME Magazine and described as the Steve Jobs of investing by CIO Magazine and Wired. Ray and China have an extensive relationship and he has been intimately involved in its economic and philanthropic development since first visiting the country in 1984.

Stephen Schwarzman is an American business magnate and financier. He is the chairman and CEO of the Blackstone Group, a global private equity firm he established in 1985 with former US Secretary of Commerce Pete Peterson. The business, which later expanded into leveraged buyouts, now manages over $350 billion in assets and trades on the New York Stock Exchange after a $4 billion initial public offering in 2007. As an active philanthropist, he has pledged or given away $350 million to support his alma mater, Yale, Chinese university Tsinghua, and the New York Public Library.

Lei Jun is a renowned Chinese technology entrepreneur and angel investor. Mr. Lei founded Xiaomi Corporation in 2010, assuming the position of Chairman and CEO. He is also Chairman and co-founder of Kingsoft Corporation, which successfully went public in 2007. In addition, Mr. Lei also founded Joyo.com, which was sold to Amazon in 2004. In 2011, Mr. Lei founded Shunwei Ventures and is currently its Founding Partner and Chairman. Shunwei focuses on mobile internet, IOT and rural internet investment opportunities. As an angel investor, Mr. Lei has helped build over 20 companies such as  Duowan (YY), UCweb, and Lakala etc., of which YY was listed on NASDAQ at the end of 2012. Mr.Lei has succinctly summarized his Internet way of thinking into “Focus, Perfection, Speed and Word of Mouth”.  Equipped with this powerful philosophy, Xiaomi led by Mr. Lei is disrupting and reshaping a lot of industries, including smartphones, set top boxes, televisions, and routers. At the same time, he has invested in many Xiaomi ecosystem companies in an effort to promote and drive the New “Made In China” movement.

Fred is a respected economist whose research interests include macroeconomics, international finance and capital markets. He served at the International Monetary Fund, and he has advised the Chinese government on financial reform, SOE restructuring, and macroeconomic policies. In addition to holding several corporate directorships, Fred is Chairman of the Nature Conservatory’s China Board, a Trustee of the Yale-China Association, a director of the China Medical Board, a member of the Advisory Committees for Harvard University, the Stanford Center for International Development, and the Jerome A. Chazen Institute of International Business at Columbia University. Fred is also a co-director of the National Center for Economic Research at Tsinghua University.