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IF15 Speaker biosSpecialist speakers (as of 29 July 2015)

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Welcome to the 22nd Annual CLSA Investors’ Forum

Nicolas Cage Actor and producer

Nicolas Cage will join us over lunch for an intimate conversation on filmmaking to human rights to Oliver Stone’s upcoming movie Snowden in which he appears next. From his achieving landmarks of critical success to his mega-fame trajectory in both action and independent films, Cage is one of the most prolific actors of all time, equally known for his poignant portrayals in both drama and comedy.

He has starred in worldwide box office successes including five collaborations with producer Jerry Bruckheimer including The Rock, Con Air and Gone in 60 Seconds. His memorable performance as an alcoholic drinking himself to death in the drama, Leaving Las Vegas, earned him an Academy Award as well as Golden Globe and Best Actor awards from numerous critic circles. Cage further solidified his leading man status when he received Academy Award, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) nominations for his dual role as twin brothers 'Charlie' and 'Donald Kaufman' in Spike Jonze's quirky comedy, Adaptation.

Cage’s portrayal of a tormented Vietnam vet in Birdy galvanised his reputation as a serious actor. He then received a Best Actor Golden Globe nomination for his role as Cher's lover in Moonstruck. Other honours include a Golden Globe nomination for his role in Honeymoon in Vegas, the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award from the Montreal World Film Festival in 1996, the first-ever Distinguished Decade in Film Award at ShoWest in 2001, and a prestigious American Cinematheque honour in 2001. He has appeared in or provided a character voice in some 82 films.

In 2013, Cage renewed his appointment as a Goodwill Ambassador for Global Justice for the United Nations, committing to a second tenure of two years. In 2009, he travelled to Africa to undertake a mission with the UN’s Office of Drugs and Crime in Gulu, Uganda, Mombasa, Kenya and Nairobi, Kenya. There, he met with child soldiers, gang members, inmates, Kenyan judges and magistrates to help stop human trafficking, child slavery and kidnapping. Cage is also a Luminary for Amnesty International.

14-18 September 2015 Grand Hyatt Hong Kong

IF15 Speaker bios Specialist speakers


Ben Saunders Polar explorer

Ben Saunders is a polar explorer and a record-breaking long-distance skier. Since 2001, Saunders has skied more than 6,000km (3,730 miles or 142 marathons) in polar regions. He is one of three in history - and the youngest by more than 10 years - to ski solo to the North Pole and holds the record for the longest solo Arctic journey by a Briton and for the longest-ever polar journey on foot.

In February 2014, he completed a remarkable 1,800-mile journey on foot from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back retracing for the first time in full Captain Scott’s ill-fated Terra Nova route. (www.scottexpedition.com)

Saunders is passionate about sharing his adventures and over the years has developed innovative communications technology that allows him to share writing, photography and film live from his expeditions.

Born in 1977, he grew up in Devon, was educated at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and lives in London. He is passionate about the great outdoors and spent four months walking and climbing in the Nepalese Himalayas aged 19, going on to work as an instructor at the John Ridgway School of Adventure in the Scottish Highlands, once billed as ‘the toughest management training school in the world’.

When he's not pulling a sledge, Saunders divides his time between planning and training for his next expedition, and earning a crust as one of the UK's leading motivational speakers. He is an ambassador for The Prince's Trust, a patron of the British Exploring Society, an honorary member of the Cordon Rouge Club, a global ambassador for Land Rover, an ambassador for Intel and a fellow of the British American Project. He supports the Duke of Edinburgh's Award and the Orchid Cancer Appeal.

Matthieu Ricard President of Karuna-Shechen, Altruism

Matthieu Ricard is a Buddhist monk who left a career in cellular genetics to study Buddhism in the Himalayas more than 45 years ago. He is an internationally bestselling author and an active participant in the scientific research of the effects of meditation on the brain. He lives in Nepal and devotes most of his time to 140 humanitarian projects in Tibet, Nepal and India.

Ricard is the author of The Monk and the Philosopher, a dialogue with his father Jean-François Revel, and recently Altruism: The Power of Compassion to Change Yourself and the World. He has also published several photography books.



Michael Clifton Minister (Commercial) National Manager China, Senior Trade Commissioner Beijing, Australian Government

Michael Clifton has enjoyed a diverse and varied career including trade and defence appointments in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Osaka, Shanghai and the Middle East. Fluent in Mandarin and Japanese, his career highlights include postings to Hong Kong, three years at the Australian Embassy in Tokyo and four years as senior trade commissioner and consul general in Osaka. He served as an advisor to the Minister for Trade and chief of staff to the Minister for Regional Australia, regional development and local government.

In December 2011, Clifton was appointed as the Australian Trade Commission’s National Manager (China) and Senior Trade Commissioner, Shanghai. In September 2014, He moved to Beijing where he continues to serve as National Manager (China) and Senior Trade Commissioner, Beijing.

Clifton holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the University of New South Wales, Australia.

Fred Burke Managing Partner, Baker & McKenzie

Recognised as one of Vietnam’s most prominent lawyers, Fred Burke has extensive experience in international trade, WTO and customs, M&A, foreign investment & securities, banking & finance, international employment, real estate, construction, taxation and dispute resolution. Having served in Baker & McKenzie's offices in New York, Shanghai and Hong Kong, Burke moved to Vietnam in 1991.

Bill Hayton Writer and reporter, BBC

Bill Hayton is the author of The South China Sea: the struggle for power in Asia, published by Yale in 2014, and named as one of The Economist magazine's books of the year. His first book, Vietnam: rising dragon, was published in 2010 to excellent reviews. He was previously the BBC's reporter in Vietnam and spent 2013 on secondment as a media reform advisor in Myanmar. He currently works for BBC World News TV in London.



Dave McCaughan Marketing Thought Leader and Storyteller, Bibliosexual

Dave McCaughan has spent the past three decades in Asia Pacific in senior management roles with McCann, one of the world’s largest advertising and communication firms.

He joined McCann in 1986 in his native Sydney where he built the strategic planning function and since 1995 has been based in Bangkok, Hong Kong and Tokyo leading regional strategy and communication campaign development for clients including Coca-Cola , MasterCard, Nestle, Cathay Pacific, Sunstar, Hitachi, Johnson & Johnson.

McCaughan has worked on the implications of media changes, how society is influenced by them and then influences them in turn. Amazingly still seen as an Asian thought leader on youth marketing, he is also leading key initiatives into understanding ageing markets in Asia.

In 2015, McCaughan initiated Bibliosexual, a consultancy that brings together his long-term passion for understanding the interaction of people and media with brands and stories. He describes a bibliosexual as ‘someone who understands the relationship between form and content and that for different people, one may be more relevant than the other’.

Michael Brosowski Founder, Blue Dragon Children's Foundation

Michael Brosowski AM is the founder of Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation in Vietnam. He grew up in Sydney and went to secondary school in rural northwest New South Wales. Living in considerable hardship, first in the city and later on an isolated farm, he experienced firsthand the deprivations and social stigma associated with unemployment and poverty.

After completing an arts/education degree at the University of New South Wales, Brosowski worked as an English and ESL teacher for four years before returning to his alma mater to work in the Gifted Education Centre while studying for a Master of Education degree.

In 2002, he moved to Vietnam and established Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation in response to the overwhelming needs of street children in Hanoi. With no experience or funding, the early days were extremely difficult, but with help from local people who shared his concern for child welfare, Blue Dragon soon began to take on a life of its own.

The foundation now serves the needs of more than 1,600 disadvantaged children in Vietnam, including victims of trafficking and crime, street children and those with disabilities, offering case-based social-work interventions, and grassroots legal advocacy services.



Mark Blyth Professor of International Political Economy, Brown University

Mark Blyth is the Eastman Professor of Political Economy at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. His research focuses on how uncertainty and randomness impact complex systems, particularly economic systems, and why people continue to believe stupid economic ideas despite buckets of evidence to the contrary.

Blyth is the author of several books, including Great Transformations: Economic Ideas and Institutional Change in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2002); Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea (Oxford University Press 2013); and most recently, with Matthias Matthijs, The Future of the Euro (Oxford University Press, 2015).

James Garriss Historical Climatological Analyst, Browning Media

James Garriss began his career with The Browning Media as a youngster, photocopying jetstream maps from the stacks of various university libraries. As the third generation in the Browning business, he is helping to lead a new direction in historical climatology, bringing a fresh economic perspective to the company. With an academic background in international trade, he is a writer, editor and researcher, helping to present accurate climatological projections for a myriad of US and international agricultural, financial, insurance and energy companies.

Peng Wensheng Global Chief Economist & Head of Research, CITIC Securities

Dr Peng Wensheng is managing director, global chief economist and head of research at CITIC Securities. Previous positions include managing director and chief economist for China International Capital Corporation (CICC), managing director and head of China research at Barclays Capital, head of economic research and mainland China affairs at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and an economist for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC.

Peng received a bachelor degree in economics from Nankai University, and continued to study at the postgraduate school of the People’s Bank of China. He received a master’s degree in banking and finance and a PhD in economics at University of Birmingham in the UK. Peng is adjunct professor at Tsinghua University and Nankai University. He was voted No.1 and No.2 for his China macroeconomic research by Asiamoney and Institutional Investors consecutively in 2013 and 2014.

Peng has written numerous papers in international academic journals. He published Seek new economic balance in China” (in Chinese) in April 2013, co-authored Business Cycles: Theory and Evidence with Andy Mullineux and David Dickinson in 1993 and co-edited Currency Internationalization: Global Experience and Implications for the Renminbi with Chang Shu and Palgrave Macmillan in 2009.



Qin Peijing Strategy team analyst, CITIC Securities

Dr Qin Peijing received his PhD in economics from Fudan University, where he edited the Security Investment and Analysis textbook as an undergraduate. As a senior research strategist at CITICS, he focuses on China’s macro economy and A-share market. Sell-side analysts nominated Qin's team for New Fortune and Crystal Ball awards in 2013 and 2014. He is the coauthor of Trilogy of the Crisis - The Big Picture.

Robert D Kaplan Senior Fellow, Center for a New American Security

Robert Kaplan is the bestselling author of 15 books on foreign affairs and travel including Asia’s Cauldron, The Revenge of Geography, Monsoon, Balkan Ghosts, and Eastward to Tartary. He is a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security in Washington and a contributing editor at The Atlantic, where his work has appeared for three decades. He was chief geopolitical analyst at Stratfor, a visiting professor at the US Naval Academy, and a member of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board, appointed by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Foreign Policy magazine twice named him one of the world’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers”.

Bill Stoops CIO, Dragon Capital Group

Bill Stoops graduated from Brown University in 1978 and has worked in emerging markets since 1980, starting in Hong Kong where he was a journalist and political risk consultant. In 1983, Stoops joined Schroder Securities as an analyst on conglomerates. He moved to Seoul in 1985 with Citicorp to open Korea's first brokerage rep office. In 1989, Stoops was recruited by Baring Securities in London to run its North Asian equity sales team. Four years later, he was transferred to New York to establish the company’s new emerging markets sales desk. Stoops went on to specialise in Emerging Europe, and in this capacity also worked for Deutsche Bank and HSBC over 1998-2006. He then moved to Vietnam as a director of Dragon Capital with responsibility for research and capital markets and was appointed CIO in 2009.

Dominic Scriven CEO, Dragon Capital Group

Dominic Scriven is an active advocate of financial market development and governance, and is a director of various public companies in Vietnam. In 1994, he founded Dragon Capital, focusing on investment management, capital markets and microfinance. Educated at Winchester and a graduate of Exeter University, his 30 years of investing range from London to Hong Kong, but concentrated on Vietnam.

Scriven was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2006 and the Labour Medal by the Vietnamese president in 2014. A Vietnamese speaker, his interests range from art, propaganda, and philately to biodiversity and reduction of illegal wildlife trade.



Edward Snowden Former intelligence officer, CIA

Edward Snowden is a former intelligence officer who served the CIA, National Security Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency for nearly a decade as a technology and cybersecurity expert. In 2013, he lifted the lid on the “post-9/11 US eavesdropping industry” revealing that the NSA was seizing the private records of tens of millions of individuals who had not been suspected of any wrongdoing, resulting in the most significant reforms to US surveillance policy since 1978. He has received awards for courage, integrity, and public service, and was named the top global thinker of 2013 by Foreign Policy magazine. Today he works on methods of enforcing human rights through the application and development of new technologies. He joined the board of Freedom of the Press Foundation in February 2014.

Shane Snow Chief Creative Officer, Contently

Author of bestseller SMARTCUTS: How Hackers, Innovators, and Icons Accelerate Success, Shane Snow is an award-winning entrepreneur and journalist, declared a “Wunderkind" by The New York Times, a “Digital Maverick” by Details Magazine, and his work ‘insanely addicting” by GQ.

Snow is the chief creative officer of Contently, a technology company he co-founded in 2010 with the mission of creating a better media world. Contently has helped more than 50,000 freelance journalists build better careers, and provides publishing tools and creative talent for Fortune 500 companies from American Express to GE to Coca-Cola.

Snow’s writing has appeared in Wired Magazine, The New Yorker, The Washington Post and Time. He was named one of Forbes’ "30 Under 30," BusinessInsider’s "Coolest People In Tech” and Folio’s "15 Under 30 Magazine Innovators". He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and a recipient of Columbia University’s 2014 Innovator Award for furthering the cause of journalism.

Dan Ariely Professor of Psychology & Behavioral Economics, Duke University

Despite our best intentions, why do we promise to skip the chocolate cake, only to find ourselves drooling our way into temptation when the dessert tray rolls around? Or why the more we have, the more we want?

Dan Ariely, the famed professor of psychology and behavioural economics at Duke University, explains it to us and examines the forces that influence our often irrational behaviour.

Ariely is dedicated to helping people fundamentally rethink what makes them tick. His illuminating and often amusing observations have reached millions through his bestselling books, Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality and The Honest Truth About Dishonesty. His most recent book, Irrationally Yours, was published in May 2015. He is a founding member of



the Center for Advanced Hindsight and co-creator of the documentary film, (Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies.

In 2013, Bloomberg recognised Ariely as one of top-50 most influential thinkers. He also has a bi-weekly advice column in The Wall Street Journal called Ask Ariely.

Tobias Bland CEO, Enhanced Investment Products

Tobias Bland founded Enhanced Investment Products (EIP) in Hong Kong in 2002. The firm believes in the separation of alpha and beta. EIP runs three hedge fund strategies, eight enhanced fund strategies and has eight exchange-traded funds listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. EIP is one of only two locally grown ETF managers located in Hong Kong. Bland was previously head of proprietary trading at Jardine Fleming. He is a patron of Hope for Children and has lived in Hong Kong for 23 years.

Chet Lyons Founder and Principal, Energy Strategies Group

Chet Lyons is the founder and Principal of Energy Strategies Group (ESG), a Boston-based firm that develops grid-scale energy storage projects and provides strategic advice to battery manufacturers, utilities, project developers and investors in the energy-storage industry.

Lyons has more than 30 years of experience in the development and successful commercialisation of advanced energy technologies. His research, writing and speaking engagements have made him a respected authority in the storage industry. He has held senior positions at DNV Energy & Sustainability, Beacon Power, American Superconductor, Evergreen Solar, Energy Resource Associates and Johnson Controls. He holds an undergraduate degree in environmental studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from Boston University’s Graduate School of Management.

Alex Lightman Chairman, Everblaze

Inventor Alex Lightman is the recipient of the first Economist Readers’ Award for the innovation most likely to radically change the world over 2011 to 2020 for his work on 4G wireless. The award-winning entrepreneur is the author of Brave New Unwired World, and other books related to the technology and financial markets. His next book Food Security via Clean Energy: The Declining Role of Fossil Fuels will be published in 3Q15. He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and attended graduate school at Harvard.



Fereidun Fesharaki Chairman, FACTS Global Energy

Dr Fereidun Fesharaki is founder and chairman of FACTS Global Energy, an international energy consultancy group, and is recognised for pioneering oil & gas market analysis and Asia Pacific/Middle East energy-market studies since the early 1980s.

Since 1991, Fesharaki has been a member of the International Advisory Board of JX Holdings, Japan’s largest oil company. In 1993, he was the president of the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE), the key professional organisation representing over 3,900 energy economists in more than 85 countries. Appointed to the National Petroleum Council in 2008 by the US Secretary of Energy, Fesharaki was re-appointed by US Secretary of Energy Moniz in 2014. Since 2009, he has been a member of the Dubai Mercantile Exchange board. Most recently, he was appointed as Honorary Advisor by CNPC Research Institute of Economics and Technologies in Beijing.

Born in Iran, Fesharaki received his PhD in economics from the University of Surrey and then completed a visiting fellowship at Harvard University's Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

Jean-Claude Trichet Former President, European Central Bank 2003-11

Former European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet is one of the world’s most respected bankers. He is currently chairman of the Group of 30, chairman of the Board of Directors of Bruegel, chairman of the European Group of the Trilateral Commission, and honorary governor of the Bank of France. He was president of the European Central Bank from 2003 to 2011.

Trichet was instrumental in the implementation of the French strategy of “competitive disinflation” in the 1980s and 1990s. He was chairman of the European Monetary Committee from 1992 until his appointment as governor of the Banque de France in 1993.

He has received numerous awards, including the 2011 International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen for his contribution to European unity and also received the 2011 Global Economy Prize from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. He has been awarded honorary doctorates by the universities of Stirling, Montreal, Liege, Tel Aviv, Bologne and Sofia.

Mike Nowlin Deputy Country Director, Hagar Cambodia

Mike Nowlin has a deep understanding of mental illness, trauma and the complexities of case management in roles both in the USA and Asia, with more than 15 years’ experience in child and family protection and mental health services. He joined Hagar Cambodia in early 2014 as program manager for case management and has since become deputy country director. He previously worked for Ohio’s largest public child protection agency where he was associate director of performance improvement. He has an MS in social administration from Case Western Reserve University and a BA in psychology and sociology from Hope College. He is a licensed independent social worker with supervision designation in the US state of Ohio.



Lant Pritchett Professor, Harvard Kennedy School

Economist Lant Pritchett is professor of the Practice of International Development at Harvard Kennedy School. He worked for the World Bank for 15 years, in Indonesia between 1998-2000 and India over 2004-07, and has published research on a range of topics, including economic growth, trade, education, infrastructure, service delivery and government capability.

Ellen Langer Professor of Psychology, Harvard University

Dr Ellen Langer is a social psychologist and the first female professor to gain tenure in the Psychology Department at Harvard University. She is the author of 11 books and more than 200 research articles written for general and academic readers on mindfulness. Her best-selling books include: Mindfulness; The Power of Mindful Learning; On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful Creativity; and Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility. Her most recent book, the Wiley Mindfulness Handbook, is an anthology integrating leading researchers’ work derived from Langer’s western scientific theoretical base of mindfulness and research on eastern meditation.

Langer has written extensively on the illusion of control, mindful ageing, stress, decision-making, and health. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship the World Congress Award, the NYU Alumni Achievement Award and the Staats Award for Unifying Psychology.

Charles Li Chief Executive, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing

Charles Li has served as chief executive of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEx) since 2010 and has orchestrated some of the most significant strategic initiatives in HKEx’s history, including the expansion into fixed income, currency and commodities through the acquisition of the London Metal Exchange in 2012 and the launch of OTC Clear in 2013, as well as enhanced mutual market access with mainland China through Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect.

Li’s career in financial services spans more than 20 years. Before joining HKEx, he was chairman of JPMorgan Chase China, and prior to that, president of Merrill Lynch China. Previously, Li practised law in New York with Davis Polk & Wardwell and Brown & Wood.

Before moving to the USA to study, he worked as an offshore oil worker in the North China Sea, and as a newspaper editor-reporter for China Daily from 1984-86.

Li obtained a BA in English literature from Xiamen University of China in 1984, an MA in journalism from the University of Alabama in 1988, and a Juris Doctor from Columbia University School of Law in 1991.



Horace Dediu Director, Independent Consultant

Declared "King of Apple Analysts" by Fortune, Horace Dediu has set the standard for open, public access to deep industry analysis.

The founder of the market intelligence site Asymco.com and director of the Fellows Program at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, he has been quoted by numerous media outlets, including Bloomberg, Financial Times, The Economist and Forbes, and presents a weekly podcast on technology strategy called the Critical Path.

Previously, Dediu spent more than eight years analysing mobile software, platforms and markets at Nokia, and founded two start-ups. He is a member of the Forum for Growth and Innovation at the Harvard Business School. He has a MS in electrical engineering from Tufts University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

David Roche President & Global Strategist, Independent Strategy

David Roche is president and global strategist at Independent Strategy, which he founded in 1994.

Well known for his original and provocative ideas, he has forecast some of the major turning points in global investments, such as the demise of the Soviet Bloc and the subsequent fall of the Berlin Wall, and the sharp monetary tightening which heralded the financial reversal in world bond markets in 1994. His was the lonely voice early in 1997 to predict the development of the Asian crisis.

Until 1994, Roche was head of research and global strategist at Morgan Stanley. He holds an MA from Trinity College Dublin and an MBA with the highest distinction from Insead. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst and has a diploma in accounting and finance from the UK's Association of Certified Accountants. Roche contributes regularly to the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and other top financial publications, and is also a regular commentator on the BBC, CNN and CNBC television networks.

Roche's pioneering work on liquidity and the credit crunch is discussed at length in his book New Monetarism. The next chapter in the crisis - the sovereign debt explosion - was predicted in his second book Sovereign DisCredit. His third book, DemoCrisis, looks at how the current crisis and its aftermath are rooted in the flawed structures of Western democracies and the failure of most emerging markets to create the sort of societies and political systems that would allow them to escape the middle-income trap.



Mike Forde Founder and CEO, Ingenio Management

A leading authority on elite talent and high performance, Mike Forde is widely recognised for driving innovation and cutting-edge methods in managing world-class champions. His pioneering practices have become a benchmark for leading teams across the globe.

Aside from his long association with the English Premier League, Forde has advised on building high-performance cultures and talent management across a range of global sports and teams, including the 2014 NBA champions San Antonio Spurs, 2014 European champions Real Madrid and two-time Tour de France winners Team Sky Cycling.

Under his tenure as director of football operations and executive club director for Chelsea Football Club from 2007 to 2013, the team won the UEFA Champions League, Europa League, Premier League title and three FA Cups.

He is also a former performance director for the Bolton Wanderers Football Club. He holds a BSc in sport science from Liverpool John Moores University, and a MSc in psychology and sport from San Diego State University.

Nathan Eagle CEO, Jana Mobile

Nathan Eagle is CEO and cofounder of Jana, a Boston-based startup that was one of 2014's fastest-growing technology companies. Through Jana's mCent app, smartphone users can access content without incurring any data charges. Free internet connectivity is made possible through technology integrations with 237 mobile-operator partners. mCent members and clients, including Twitter, Amazon and Tencent, have benefited from nearly 500 terabytes of app usage driven by Jana's platform. The company has raised US$40m from investors who share its mission of making the internet free.



Avinash Persaud Chairman, Intelligence Capital Ltd and Elara Capital

Avinash Persaud’s career spans finance, policy and academia. The former JPMorgan, UBS and State Street executive was routinely ranked in the top-three among currency analysts in Institutional Investor surveys. Today, he holds a number of senior nonexecutive positions in the sector.

Persaud wrote the World Bank’s policy brief on macro-prudential tools. He originated the theory of liquidity black holes and his idea of “mark-to-funding” accounting was published in the Banque de France’s 2010 Financial Stability Review. He coauthored The Fundamental Principles of Financial Regulation, one of the most cited reports on financial regulation. He has served on the UN Commission and the Pew Task Force to the US Senate Banking Committee and penned over a dozen op-eds for the Financial Times, most recently on the how regulators are turning safe assets into risky ones (June 2015) and why “bail-ins” will prove fools' gold (October 2013).

He is emeritus professor of Gresham College and executive fellow at the London Business School. In 2009, Prospect magazine assembled a panel of experts to draw up a list of leading public intellectuals of the financial crisis and decide on the most important. The panel gave Persaud the silver award for studying the dangerous interaction between firms’ herding behaviour and new risk-management techniques.

Frank Luntz Founder, Luntz Global

“The Nostradamus of pollsters” Frank Luntz has become so influential that Barack Obama prior to his 2008 US presidential win said, ‘When Frank Luntz invites you to talk to his focus group, you talk to his focus group’.

Luntz has written, supervised and conducted more than 2,000 surveys, focus groups, ad tests, and dial sessions across four continents over the past decade. He has become the go-to consultant when Fortune 100 companies need communication and language guidance to navigate the economic climate and connect more closely with consumers.

The “Instant Response” focus group technique he pioneered has been profiled on 60 Minutes, Good Morning America and on the award-winning PBS show Frontline. He also served as a consultant to the award-winning NBC hit show The West Wing.

He is the author of The New York Times best seller, Words that Work: It’s Not What You Say it’s What People Hear and What Americans Really Want . . . Really.

Luntz graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with honours in history and political science, and was awarded a Thouron Fellowship. He received his doctorate in politics at the age of 25 from Oxford University.



Ce'sar A. Hidalgo Director, Macro Connections

Physicist César Hidalgo creates colourful visual “maps” based on mathematical models to illuminate mountains of difficult-to-grasp data and complex systems - invaluable tools for policymakers and businesses.

Focusing on factors that nurture economic growth and prosperity, Hidalgo gathers and studies information that includes the products that countries create, what they import, what they export, national values, and cultural characteristics. His findings generate ideas and predictions for future economic success and prosperity for countries and regions.

Several of Hidalgo’s projects have drawn global recognition for their novelty and usefulness, including the Pantheon Project on historical cultural production, mapping linguistic connections using more that 2.2 million book translations, over 500 million tweets and all language editions of Wikipedia.

Hidalgo is the author of Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies (June 2015), which combines the seemingly disparate fields of economic development and physics to present a new rubric for economic growth. He is also coauthor of The Atlas of Economic Complexity: Mapping Paths to Prosperity (MIT Press).

Marc Faber Editor and Publisher, Marc Faber Ltd

Swiss-born expatriate Dr Marc Faber is well known for his contrarian investment approach, publishing a widely read monthly investment newsletter, The Gloom Boom & Doom report, which highlights unusual investment opportunities. Faber is the author of several books, including Tomorrow’s Gold - Asia’s Age of Discovery which was first published in 2002 and highlights future investment opportunities around the world. The book was for several weeks on Amazon’s bestseller list and has been translated into Japanese, Korean, Thai and German. He is also a regular contributor to several leading financial publications around the world.

Faber studied economics at the University of Zurich and, at the age of 24, obtained a PhD in economics magna cum laude. Between 1970 and 1978, he worked for White Weld & Company in New York, Zurich and Hong Kong. Since 1973, he has lived in Hong Kong. From 1978 to February 1990, he was the managing director of Drexel Burnham Lambert (HK). In June 1990, he set up Marc Faber Ltd, which acts as an investment advisor, fund manager and broker/dealer.



Donald Sadoway Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Donald Sadoway is the John F Elliott professor of materials chemistry in the department of materials science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The author of more than 150 scientific papers, he obtained his PhD in chemical metallurgy from the University of Toronto and holds 21 US patents. His research focuses on developing rechargeable batteries for grid-level storage and carbon-free production of metals.

Sadoway is the founder of two companies, Ambri and Boston Electrometallurgical. His renowned TED talk is a narrative about inventing inventors as much as it about inventing technology. In 2012, he was named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Nathan LeBrasseur Professor, Mayo Clinic

Nathan LeBrasseur is an associate professor and the co-chair of research in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and a leader in the Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Ageing at the Mayo Clinic. He conducts translational "bench-to-bedside" research to identify ways to improve physical performance, metabolism and resiliency in the face of ageing and disease. His research has been published in leading journals including Nature and the New England Journal of Medicine. In 2014, he received the Glenn Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Ageing, and was recognised as a health scholar at the 2015 Aspen Ideas Festival.

Nguyen Duc Tai Chairman and co-founder, Mobile World Joint Stock Company

Nguyen Duc Tai is the cofounder of Mobile World, one of Vietnam’s most successful retail chains. It is the largest and fastest-growing retailer of mobile phones in Vietnam, with 30% market share. The company’s consumer-electric retail segment aims to be No.1 in FMCG over the next five years.



Christopher Ryan Managing Director and Head of Asia Pacific, MSCI

Christopher Ryan has more than 30 years' experience in financial services and investment management. As head of MSCI Asia Pacific since 2012, he is responsible for business in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Japan, Southeast Asia and Australia.

Previously, Ryan was managing director at Citibank Global Transaction Services providing advice to investment management, securities and sovereign-wealth-fund clients around the world.

Ryan was head of Asia for Fidelity International and CEO of ING Investment first foreign joint-venture fund management company and ING’s investment management business in Asia Pacific across 11 countries. He also sat on ING’s Global Leadership Council from 2003 to 2007. He has a Bachelor of Business from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

Robert Reoch Director, New College Capital

Robert Reoch has 27 years’ experience in banking, finance, corporate advisory, investment advisory and funds management. The bulk of his banking career was spent at JPMorgan where he worked in corporate advisory and took a pioneering role in the development of the credit-derivatives market.

In 2001, he set up a risk-advisory partnership and by the start of the global credit crisis was a frequent financial market commentator. He advises in the structured-credit arena with audiences including the House of Lords Economic Select Committee, the EU Parliament CRD Forum and the BBC.

Since 2007, Reoch has worked with a high-net-worth advisory group providing investment advisory and fund management services. He helped finance and launch a peer-to-peer lending platform that year and has been active in that sector ever since. For the past three years, he has managed a fund that lends via peer-to-peer platforms.

Thomas Hegghammer Director of terrorism research, Norwegian Defence Research Establishment

Thomas Hegghammer is a leading academic specialist on violent Islamism and the author of several books, including the prize-winning Jihad in Saudi Arabia. He has testified in the US Congress, the British Parliament and the Canadian Senate, and has served as an expert witness in several terrorism trials in the UK and the USA. He has written op-eds for the New York Times and al-Sharq al-Awsat and appeared on CNN's Amanpour and AC360 shows. Trained in Middle East studies and Arabic at Oxford University and Sciences-Po Paris, he has held fellowships at Harvard, Princeton, New York, and Stanford Universities. He is currently working on a history of jihadism for Penguin Press.



Paul Gillis Professor, Peking University's Guanghua School of Management

Paul Gillis is professor of practice at the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University. A leading expert on accounting and auditing issues in China, he is frequently quoted in the international press.

Before joining Peking University, Gillis was a partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers in the USA, Singapore, and China. He is a former member of the Standing Advisory Group of the Public Company Accounting Over-sight Board and has testified before the US China Security and Economic Commission.

The International Financial Law Review named Gillis market reformer of the year in 2012. His first book, The Big Four and the Development of the Accounting Profession in China, was published by Emerald in 2014.

Brad Templeton Networks and Computing Chair, Singularity University

Brad Templeton is Chair for computing at Singularity University and a leading commentator on self-driving cars. He was a consultant on Google’s team designing a driverless car and lectures and blogs about the emerging technology of automated transport. He is a director and former chair of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the world's leading online rights group. He founded ClariNet in 1989, one of the first internet-based businesses.

Harsha de Silva Deputy Minister of Policy Planning and Economic Affairs, Sri Lankan Government

Harsha de Silva started out as chief economist and treasurer of DFCC Bank moving on to co-found what is today Sri Lanka’s largest market and social research agency, Nielsen Lanka. Since selling his stake in the company, he has consulted the World Bank, ADB, UNDP and many other multilateral agencies and the think tank LIRNEasia. He was also a visiting faculty member at the Universities of Sri Jayawardenepura and Moratuwa for several years and has published widely on economics in information and communication technology. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Missouri and participated in an executive programme at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an Eisenhower Fellow.



Tony Seba Lecturer, Stanford University

Silicon Valley entrepreneur and renowned author Tony Seba lectures in entrepreneurship, disruption, and clean energy at Stanford University.

His work focuses on market disruption and the exponential technology trends and product/business-model innovations that are on the cusp of disrupting the world’s major industries.

His latest book, Clean Disruption of Energy and Transportation - How Silicon Valley Will Make Oil, Nuclear, Natural Gas, Coal, Electric Utilities and Conventional Cars Obsolete by 2030 is a best-seller. Previous books include Solar Trillions - 7 Market and Investment Opportunities in the Emerging Clean-Energy Economy and Winners Take All - 9 Fundamental Rules of High Tech Strategy.

Seba is an advisor to policymakers, investors, and corporations around the world. He holds an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a BS in computer science and engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Richard Baldwin Professor of Economics, The Graduate Institute, Geneva

Richard Baldwin has been professor of international economics at the Graduate Institute, Geneva since 1991, policy director of CEPR since 2006, editor-in-chief of Vox since founding it in June 2007, and an elected member of the Council of the European Economic Association. He was senior staff economist for the President's Council of Economic Advisors in the Bush Administration (1990-91) following Uruguay Round, NAFTA and EAI negotiations as well as numerous US-Japan trade issues including the SII talks and the Semiconductor Agreement renewal. He was co-managing editor of the journal Economic Policy from 2000 to 2005, and programme director of CEPR’s International Trade programme from 1991 to 2001.

The author of numerous books and articles, his research interests include international trade, globalisation, regionalism and European integration. He has worked as a consultant for the numerous governments, the European Commission, OECD, World Bank, EFTA and USAID.

He wrote his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the guidance of Paul Krugman, with whom he has co-authored a half dozen articles. He holds an MSc from the London School of Economics and a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Turku School of Economics and Business in 2005.



Mike Power Journalist, The Guardian

Mike Power is a British freelance investigative journalist specialising in drugs and technology. His book Drugs 2.0 was published in 2013 in the UK, and 2014 in the USA and Germany, and documented a new digital frontline in the war on drugs. It was the first book to document how users and dealers have outmanoeuvred law enforcement and created a global, online black market in narcotics.

His reports around the emergence of so-called “legal highs” - recreational drugs manufactured in Chinese laboratories that are legal in most countries - have prompted complex policy debates in the UK and beyond. His indepth research into the Dark Web, Tor, Bitcoin and cryptomarkets predicted accurately the explosive growth in digital drug dealing that we have witnessed in the past three years.

His "Drugs Unlimited" report for Matter.com documented an undercover mission to produce and import to the UK a new, legal drug, using only a laptop, and won the 2014 British Science Writers Association's prize for the best investigative journalism.

Power offers colourful reportage and research on this topic, from undercover infiltration of clandestine labs in Shanghai, to treks through Colombian coca fields, and frank debate with cryptomarket drug dealers, and argues the case for a wide-ranging and radical rethink of all drug laws in the digital age.

Power has reported extensively from Panama and Colombia for Reuters, and his clients include The Guardian, Mixmag, Matter.com, Deutsche Welle, The Mail On Sunday, The Sunday Herald, Lonely Planet, Dazed & Confused, Granta, The London Evening Standard and many more.

Clio Cresswell Senior Lecturer in Mathematics, The University of Sydney

With a high-level career at one of Australia's premier educational institutions, the University of Sydney, Clio Cresswell is one of the country's funniest and most entertaining scholars. She focuses on big brain topics, ranging from mathematics and sex to the ability of humans to embrace positive change.

Cresswell's specialty is connecting themes between apparently unconnected subjects. It is this sophisticated approach that has earned her notable kudos as an MC, keynote and essayist. She features regularly on television, radio and press, with celebrity interviews, serious book reviews, not-so-serious radio, relationship advice and expert panel appearances. Her internationally acclaimed book Mathematics and Sex has been translated into numerous languages.

Diversity has been a constant theme in Cresswell's life. Born in England, she spent her early childhood on a Greek island and was schooled in the south of France where she studied visual art. At 18, she moved to Australia where she discovered the joys of mathematics. Cresswell pursued the field at the University of New South Wales, going on to win the University Medal and complete a PhD. Today, she resides in the USA, where she continues to write.



Eric Whitacre Composer-in-residence, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University

Grammy-winning American composer and conductor Eric Whitacre is the creator of the “Virtual Choir,” a digital project that combines thousands of videos into a single stunning choral performance. The choir transcends geography, class, and background, and is a testament to the power of leadership and technology to foster creativity and connection. Explaining how the drive to create can be harnessed in professional contexts, Whitacre shares strategies that allow leaders to unlock creative inspiration in their teams.

Whitacre’s original Virtual Choir video received over four million hits on YouTube and won plaudits for both its emotional power and technical accomplishment. The most recent instalment in the series, Virtual Choir 4: Fly to Paradise, features 8,409 videos from 5,905 singers representing 101 countries. It premiered in 2013 at Buckingham Palace as part of the Coronation Festival’s gala performances.

Whitacre attended the world famous Julliard School, which led to him writing for the London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, Chanticleer, Julian Lloyd Webber and the Philharmonia Orchestra, Berlin Rundfunkchor and The King’s Singers, among others. His musical, Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings, won both the ASCAP Harold Arlen Award and the Richard Rodgers Award and earned 10 nominations at the Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Awards. As a conductor, he has performed all over the world.

In 2012, Whitacre’s album, Light & Gold, won a Grammy for best choral performance. His current album, Water Night, reached No.1 in the classical iTunes chart on the day it was released.

Sam Gellman General Manager, Uber

Sam Gellman has played a lead role in Uber's expansion internationally. He spent 2012 building Uber's Europe presence, running the launch of the company’s global headquarters in Amsterdam and leading the London launch.

In 2013, he moved to Asia as Uber's head of Asia expansion. He initially ran operations in Singapore and has since led the company's buildout into 25 cities across Asia, from New Zealand, across China to Japan. He is currently the general manager for Uber in Hong Kong.

Prior to working at Uber, Gellman worked at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong for six years, running the Asia Derivative Research product. He is a Stanford University graduate with a major in International Relations and a minor in Computer Science.

Jody Ranck CEO, Unison Health

Jody Ranck has more than 25 years’ experience in global health and has held leadership roles in a number of think tanks, global health organisations and startups. He has authored two books on digital health (Disruptive Cooperation, forthcoming in 2016) and consults with both large technology companies as well as early stage startups. He holds a doctorate in health policy and administration from the University of California, Berkeley.



Julian Savulescu Director, University of Oxford

Professor Julian Savulescu is a leader in medical and practical ethics, with degrees in medicine, neuroscience and bioethics. He holds the Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford and is the director of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics within the faculty of philosophy as well as the director of the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics, which is one of three strategic centres in biomedical ethics in the UK funded by the Wellcome Trust. He is also director of the Institute for Science and Ethics within the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford.

Diu Nguyen Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Vinagroup

Diu Nguyen has served as deputy chief executive officer at Vingroup since 2014 with functional responsibility for international capital transactions, investor relations and M&A. Prior to that, Nguyen was Head of Vietnam for UBS from 2013-14. She also served as chairman and chief executive officer at AFH Finance Investment Advisory Corporation from 2008-13, Head of the Vietnam Representative Office at JP Morgan from 1996-2008, and was in charge of external affairs at Maritime Bank, Vietnam from 1994-96. Vingroup is the largest-scale property developer in Vietnam with an 8,100 hectare land bank in prime locations across the country. Recently, Vinagroup entered the retail sector, with a presence in supermarkets, convenience stores, electronics retailing and e-commerce.

Documents

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