Strategic Advisors
Daniel B. Wright
Dan Wright
Dr. Wright advises executives of leading global companies through his nearly four decades of China experience building bridges between people, resources, and public policy. He founded GreenPoint Group, a boutique strategic advisory firm with offices in Washington, D.C. and Beijing.
Wright was formerly Senior Vice President and China practice head of the Albright Stonebridge Group, a global strategy firm based in Washington, D.C. He also served at the U.S. Treasury Department as Managing Director for China and the Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED), where he provided strategic counsel to the Secretary of Treasury Henry M. Paulson, Jr. for this Cabinet-level economic exchange with China.
Prior to his Treasury Department appointment, Wright served as Vice President and Washington D.C. Office Director of the National Bureau of Asian Research and as the Executive Director of the Hopkins- Nanjing Program of Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He has been a visiting scholar at Qinghua University’s School of Public Policy and Management.
Dr. Wright is a nonresident senior fellow with the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution and a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. He earned his Ph.D. and M.A. from Johns Hopkins University SAIS, his M.Div. from Fuller Theological Seminary, and his B.A. from Vanderbilt University.
From 1997 to 1999, Dr. Wright held a fellowship with the Institute of Current World Affairs, during which he lived in southwest China’s Guizhou Province and wrote monthly reports from the perspective of grassroots societies in the country’s hinterland, with particular focus on governance and socio-economic development issues.
Amb. Kenneth Quinn
Ambassador Kenneth Quinn
Dr. Kenneth M. Quinn, former U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia, assumed the leadership of the World Food Prize Foundation on January 1, 2000, following his retirement from the State Department after a 32 year career in the Foreign Service.
Inspired by the vision of Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, the founder of the World Food Prize, Ambassador Quinn has endeavored to build this annual $250,000 award into “the Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture.” Held each October in Des Moines on or around World Food Day (October 16), the World Food Prize Laureate Award Ceremony, “Borlaug Dialogue” international symposium and Global Youth Institute have grown in size and stature under his direction.
With the support of the John Ruan family, Dr. Quinn has led the campaign which successfully raised over $30 million to restore the historic Des Moines Public Library and transform it into the World Food Prize Dr. Norman E. Borlaug Hall of Laureates. He provided the personal leadership to have the building designed to achieve LEED Platinum certification, the highest possible level of energy efficiency and resource conservation.
During his diplomatic career, Ken Quinn served: as a Rural Development advisor in the Mekong Delta; on the National Security Council staff at the White House; as Narcotics Counselor at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Vienna; for four years as Chairman of the U.S. Inter-agency Task Force on POW/MIAs; and as Director of Iowa SHARES, the humanitarian campaign that sent Iowa doctors, nurses, medical supplies and food to starving Cambodian refugees.
A fluent speaker of Vietnamese, Dr. Quinn acted as interpreter for President Gerald Ford at the White House and personally negotiated the first ever entry by U.S. personnel into a Vietnamese prison to search for U.S. POW/MIAs. He was also a member of the first U.S. team to gain entry to a former Soviet prison in Russia.
Ambassador Quinn, a graduate of Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, has a M.A. in Political Science from Marquette University and a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Maryland. He and his wife Le Son have three adult children.
Jim Sutter
Jim Sutter
Jim Sutter serves as USSEC’s CEO after spending significant time in the global oilseeds industry with Cargill, Inc. USSEC represents the full U.S. Soy Export Supply Chain, which runs from the Farm through the Export Elevator including all facets along the way and USSEC’s 100+ Members represent that full chain.
Since joining USSEC, Sutter has worked with their global team to differentiate and build a preference for U.S. Soy with strong emphasis on ensuring market access. Key initiatives have included building collaborative relationships with international Customers of U.S. Soy and multiple Organizations with whom we partner. Sutter grew up on a crop and cattle farm in northeastern Colorado and received a degree in Agricultural Business/Economics from Colorado State University.
Craig Allen
Craig Allen
President, US-China Business Council
On July 26, 2018, Craig Allen began his tenure as the sixth President of the United States-China Business Council (USCBC), a private, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization representing over 200 American companies doing business with China.
Prior to joining USCBC, Craig had a long, distinguished career in US public service.
His last government position was as US Ambassador to Brunei Darussalam (December 2014–July 2018).
Before that, Craig served in Washington as Deputy Assistant Secretary for China (2012–2014) in the Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA), and as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Asia (2010–2012).
He served previously as Senior Commercial Officer at the US Embassy in South Africa (2006–2010), and as Senior Commercial Officer at the US Embassy in Beijing (2003–2006). When in Beijing, he was promoted to Minister Counselor rank in the Senior Foreign Service.
While on a foreign service assignment to the National Center for APEC in Seattle (2000–2002), Craig worked on APEC summits in Brunei, China, and Mexico.
Earlier posts were as Deputy Senior Commercial Officer and Commercial Attaché at the US Embassy in Tokyo (1995–2000), as Commercial Attaché at the US Embassy in Beijing (1992–1995), and as Director of the American Trade Center in Taipei (1988–1992). He started his career in government in 1985 as a Presidential Management Intern in ITA at the Department of Commerce.
Craig received a M.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University (1985), and a B.A. in Political Science and Asian Studies from the University of Michigan (1979).
Gov. Ronnie Musgrove
Gov. Ronnie Musgrove
Governor Ronnie Musgrove was born in Tocowa, Mississippi. He is a graduate of Northwest Community College, the University of Mississippi, and the University of Mississippi Law School.
His term as governor followed a distinguished career of public service. A two-term state senator, Musgrove chaired the Education Committee. In 1998 he was recognized nationally as a leader among his peers, serving as chair of the National Conference of Lieutenant Governors. He served as chair of the Southern Regional Education Board, as the chair-elect for the Southern States Energy Board, on the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and the Executive Committee for the Democratic Governors’ Association, where he served as vice chair of policy.
In the face of a national recession, Musgrove’s efforts created more than 52,000 new jobs and brought more than $13.5 billion in new investments to the state. In August 2000, Musgrove crafted a new jobs program for the state called the Advantage Mississippi Initiative (AMI). After its passage, Mississippi was selected as the home for a new $1.4-billion Nissan Motor Company production plant. Throughout his career, Musgrove has been a champion of education. In July 2001, he signed a bill raising teacher pay in Mississippi to the Southeastern average.
Gov. Brad Henry
Gov. Brad Henry
Governor Brad Henry serves as Counsel to the national business law firm of Spencer Fane LLP and is a founding member of Henry-Adams Companies, LLC, a general and business development consulting firm.
Governor Henry served as Oklahoma's 26th governor. He was elected governor in 2002 and served two terms through January 10, 2011. Only the third governor to serve two consecutive terms, Governor Henry, a democrat, was re-elected in 2006 by the largest vote margin in modern times and the second largest margin in state history. During his time in office, Governor Henry consistently enjoyed high approval ratings in public opinion surveys of his governorship, earning him recognition as one of the most popular state chief executives in modern history.
A charter member of the Governors’ Council of the Bipartisan Policy Center, Governor Henry also served as Chairman of the Council of State Governments, the Southern Growth Policies Board, and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission. He currently serves on numerous boards, including the national board of the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the board of directors of NIC Inc. (NASDAQ: EGOV).
Governor Henry was a President's Leadership Scholar at the University of Oklahoma, where he received the Gold Letseizer Medal as the Top Senior Graduate and earned a bachelor's degree in economics in 1985. In 1988, Governor Henry was awarded a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Oklahoma College of Law, where he served as managing editor of the Law Review.
Prior to his election, Governor Henry practiced law with his father, Charles, in Shawnee, and served ten years in the Oklahoma State Senate, chairing the Senate Judiciary Committee and serving as vice-chair of the Senate Economic Development Committee.
Suisheng (Sam) Zhao 赵穗生
Suisheng (Sam) Zhao 赵穗生
Suisheng Zhao is Professor and Director of the Center for China-US Cooperation at Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver. A member of the Board of Governors of the US Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific, a member of National Committee on US-China Relations, a Campbell National Fellow at Hoover Institution of Stanford University, and a Research Associate at the Fairbanks Center for East Asian Research in Harvard University, he is the founder and chief editor of the Journal of Contemporary China. He received his Ph.D. degree in political science from the University of California-San Diego, M.A. degree in Sociology from the University of Missouri and BA and M.A. degrees in economics from Peking University, and was Associate Professor of Political Science and International Studies at Washington College in Maryland, Associate Professor of Government and East Asian Politics at Colby College in Maine and visiting assistant professor at the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) at University of California-San Diego.
He is the author and editor of more than a dozen of books, including Debating Regime Legitimacy in Contemporary China: Popular Protests and Regime Performance (2017); The Making of China’s Foreign Policy in the 21st Century, Historical Sources, Institutions/Players, and Perceptions of Power Relations (2016); China in Africa: Strategic Motives and Economic Interests (2015): the Construction of Chinese Nationalism in the Early 21st Century: Domestic sources and International Implications (2014); The Rise of China and Transformation of the US-China Relationship: Forging Partnership in the Age of Strategic Mistrust, (2013); China’s Search for Energy Security: Domestic Sources and International Implications(2012); China and East Asian Regionalism: Economic and Security Cooperation and Institution-Building (2012), In Search of China’s Development Model: Beyond the Beijing Consensus, (2011), Village Elections in China (2010), China and the United States, Cooperation and Competition in Northeast Asia (2008), China-US Relations Transformed: Perspectives and Strategic Interactions (2008), Debating Political Reform in China: Rule of Law versus Democratization (2006), A Nation-State by Construction: Dynamics of Modern Chinese Nationalism (2004), Chinese Foreign Policy: Pragmatism and Strategic Behavior (2003), China and Democracy: Reconsidering the Prospects for a Democratic China (2000), Across the Taiwan Strait: Mainland China, Taiwan, and the Crisis of 1995-96 (1999). His articles have appeared in Political Science Quarterly, The Wilson Quarterly, Washington Quarterly, International Politik, The Hague Journal of Democracy, European Financial Review, The China Quarterly, World Affairs, Asian Survey, Asian Affairs, Journal of Democracy, Pacific Affairs, Communism and Post-Communism Studies, Problems of Post-Communism, and elsewhere.
Amos Smith
Amos Smith
Coming soon...
Ed Schafer
Ed Schafer
Ed Schafer is one of very few leaders with extensive experience and proven performance in both business and government. He has led a multinational consumer products business and several entrepreneurial start-up companies. In the public sector, he has been elected Governor of North Dakota twice and served as United States Secretary of Agriculture.
North Dakota voters heard his “Schafer Means Business” campaign focus and elected Ed their governor in 1992 and again in 1996. He approached his leadership for the state as if he were its CEO. Increasing investment in North Dakota was Ed’s top priority, and he did so by improving the state’s tax and regulatory climates. His creative priority-based budgeting initiatives and aggressive use of cutting edge technologies reduced the cost of government while his strong fiscal policies gave North Dakota the foundation for its current financial strength, budget surplus, and the lowest unemployment in the nation.
As Secretary of Agriculture, Ed oversaw a $95 billion operating budget and over 107,000 employees. He restructured and reshaped 29 agencies to modernize the focus of $285 billion in program delivery and built a new process for implementing the 2008 Farm Bill. Ed also initiated the Secretary’s Fight Hunger Initiative, directed the United States’ response to the World Food Crisis, and helped direct international trade negotiations on behalf of the federal government.
Ed has been equally effective as a business leader. As president of the international cleaning and personal care products company, Gold Seal, he oversaw a 50 percent increase in sales and tripled this private company’s net worth. He launched three new products, four product line extensions, and made three acquisitions. Ed negotiated the sale of the company realizing top dollar value for shareholders.
Meanwhile he started a beverage distribution company and boosted first-year sales fifty-fold before selling to the managing partner. He later founded and sold an aquaculture enterprise and a real estate development group. Following his governorship, Ed returned to the business world and co-founded a telecommunications company focusing on rural cell phone connectivity and broadband coverage.
Ed Schafer is serving on public and private corporate boards of directors and holds leadership positions in foundations and trade associations. He’s also an active member of many civic and service organizations.
He graduated from the University of North Dakota with a Bachelor of Science degree in business, earned a Master of Business Administration at the University of Denver, and has been awarded an honorary doctorate degree from his Alma Mater. Two statewide organizations have named him “North Dakotan of the Year.”
Ed is married to Nancy Jones Schafer. They have four children a foster son and fourteen grandchildren. He holds United States government top secret clearance, rescue diver certification, and is CPR trained.
Jeff Moseley
Jeff Moseley
Jeff Moseley returned to business consulting last year and is the principal of Moseley Advisors. His work focuses on business development in the areas of trade and transportation.
Jeff is the immediate past President and CEO of the Texas Association of Business (TAB). TAB is the State Chamber of Commerce and also a bipartisan advocacy organization of 2,500 large and small business members with more than 200 statewide chamber partners. For almost 100 years TAB has aggressively advocated for laws and policy that support a pro-jobs philosophy.
Under Jeff’s leadership, TAB instituted a World Trade Division and worked with the White House and US Trade Representative to assist in ratification of the US Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA).
Additionally, upon Jeff’s arrival, TAB reengaged its State and Federal PACs fundraising and endorsement activity. In 2018, TAB enjoyed a greater than 90% candidate endorsement success rate in both PACs.
TAB was very successful in defeating a large number of bad legislation that would have increased regulatory and litigation costs including the defeat of an eminent domain bill that would have been a direct challenge to the oil and gas industry.
Prior to TAB, Jeff served as State Vice President of Government Affairs of Texas Central Partners LLC, a private company developing a $15 billion high-speed rail system between Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth.
In 2012 Governor Rick Perry appointed Jeff to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Commission receiving unanimous Senate confirmation.
As one of TxDOT’s five-member Commission, Jeff had oversight of one of the largest highway agencies in the world with 130,000 lane miles, 11,000 employees and a $12 billion annual operating budget. Commissioner Moseley served as Vice Chairman of the Commission and as the Commission liaison to the 29 Texas ports of entry and their communities during his four year term.
Beginning in 2005, Jeff served seven years as President/CEO of the state’s largest chamber of commerce, the Greater Houston Partnership (GHP). The GHP Board consisted of 130 business leaders representing businesses with revenues of $1.6 trillion annually. As energy capital of the world, Houston oil and gas companies had heavy representation on the GHP Board.
Through a program Jeff introduced, Opportunity Houston, GHP significantly grew its involvement in regional economic development. Opportunity Houston was the largest national recruiting initiative offered by a Chamber or Economic Development Organization. Jeff worked closely with the region’s 30+ economic development allies to incorporate an aggressive five-year, $32 million lead generation program that set ambitious goals of targeting 600,000 new regional jobs and $60 billion in capital investment by end of 2015. Ahead of schedule--Opportunity Houston jobs and capital investment goals were met in 2014.
Under Moseley’s leadership, GHP became nationally recognized as a leader in economic development with Site Selection magazine twice naming GHP as one of the top performing economic development groups in the US. Additionally, GHP earned the distinguished title of Accredited Economic Development Organization (AEDO) from the International Economic Development Council (IEDC). GHP was the only economic developer of its size to receive this distinction.
Additionally, as he was building the economic development division, Jeff worked to secure World Bank recognition by selecting GHP as a secretariat for one of three national Private Sector Liaison Officers.
Jeff also served on the Greater Houston Convention Visitors Bureau Board and
was an advisory board member of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
In 1999, Jeff served as Executive Director and CEO of economic development for Texas under Governors George W. Bush and Rick Perry. During his six years heading the agency, Moseley was involved in a range of site selection projects including but not limited to: Toyota Tundra Assembly Plant, Samsung’s expansion, Vought, Sematech, Citgo, WalMart Distribution and Huntsman.
Under Governor Rick Perry’s leadership, the Legislature created the largest deal-closing fund in the United States, the $250 million Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF). Jeff was one of the team leads in establishing best practices and oversight of the TEF. Jeff also worked to establish TexasOne, a private-public partnership to market Texas and served as TexasOne’s founding CEO.
As Executive Director and CEO of economic development for Texas, Jeff worked
with other state agencies and programs in cooperative efforts to assist prospects seeking to expand or relocate to Texas. These agencies and programs include but are not limited to: Texas Workforce Commission, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, General Land Office, Texas Comptroller, Texas Historical Commission, Texas Railroad Commission and Texas Emerging Technology Fund.
The voters of Denton County elected Jeff to three terms as County Judge where he served more than 12 years in elected office. Denton County, during the decade of the 90s, was one of the fastest growing counties in America. As County Judge, Jeff took leadership on a range of economic development projects including announcements by Intel, Texas Motor Speedway and JC Penny Distribution.
While Denton County Judge, Jeff initiated the I-35 Corridor Coalition, a multi-state, bi-partisan, urban-rural advocacy group. The Coalition grew to include Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan as well as international memberships from Canada and Mexico and became North America’s Super Highway Coalition (NASCO). NASCO successfully lobbied Congress during ISTEA reauthorization to recognize trade corridors.
Additionally, Jeff served on the Dallas/Ft.Worth region’s North Central Texas Council of Governments Metropolitan Planning Organization board. Jeff is a 6 th generation Texan, married to Jackie Barret of Comanche, Texas for 38 years. They have two daughters, Joi (SMU ‘Pony’) and Jenni (UT ‘Longhorn’).
The family enjoys learning about different cultures through international travel. Moseley is a graduate and Outstanding Alumnus of Southern Nazarene University.
Galal Walker
Galal Walker
Galal Walker (PhD, Cornell) is a professor of Chinese in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, and the Director of the National East Asian Languages Resource Center, and the Midwest US–China Flagship Program at The Ohio State University.
Galal Walker has been instrumental in the development of Chinese language studies in the United States since the early 1980s. His work as a teacher, department chair, program director, author, and editor has contributed to establishing the “Performed Culture” approach and a field-wide pedagogical infrastructure based in research and publication for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
Walker has emphasized training Americans to the advanced levels of Chinese language and culture. Graduates of the Ohio State Chinese Program, including the Flagship Program, work in international business, finance, research, pedagogy, and government service. Walker has mentored hundreds of graduate students, authored volumes on training teachers of less commonly taught languages, championed the application of performance theory to language learning and teaching, and created innovative multimedia programs for learning Chinese from elementary to advanced levels.
Walker has participated in the leadership of national organizations and task forces, including the National Association of Self Instructional Language Programs, the National Council for the Organizations of Less Commonly Taught Languages, the Chinese Language Teachers Association, and the College Board’s Chinese Advanced Placement Language program. He was a member of the Board of Visitors at the Defense Foreign Language Institute, and honorary professor at Beijing Normal University, Guizhou Normal University, Wuhan University, and Sichuan University.
In 2003 he was the first US recipient of the “China Language and Culture Friendship Award,” presented by the People’s Republic of China Ministry of Education. In 2012, Walker was awarded the Walton Lifetime Achievement Award by the Chinese Language Teachers Association (CLTA) and was also the 2012 recipient of the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages (ADFL) Award for Distinguished Service to the Profession.
James Xue
James Xue
James Xue has over 25 years of experiences in international business promotion, which include investment, technology transfer, business set-up, joint ventures, sales and marketing, public relations, and executive training. His major focus is on the Chinese market and business promotion between the US and China.
James Xue used to be a professor of Renmin University, “Lead Consultant & Coordinator” for China projects at International Business Development (IBD) of Northwestern University and Director for China Affairs at Melamed & Associates. James has successfully conducted numerous joint projects. Through these projects, he has dealt with companies from multinational corps to small and medium size firms in various industries. In this capacity, he built an efficient network of contacts, from high-level government officials to industrial leaders.
James Xue also serves as Deputy Director of Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy.
Gov. Matt Blunt
Gov. Matt Blunt
Governor Matt Blunt is President of the American Automotive Policy Council, a trade association representing the common public policy and trade interests of FCA US LLC, Ford Motor Company and General Motors Company.
In 2004, Matt Blunt was elected the 54th Governor of Missouri, carrying 101 of the state’s 114 counties. As governor, he eliminated a $1.1 billion deficit and delivered balanced budgets, a surplus, tax relief and dramatic increases in education funding. He enacted economic growth measures to improve the state’s business climate leading to the creation of over 70,000 jobs.
Prior to his election as governor, Matt served in the Missouri House of Representatives and as Missouri’s Secretary of State. As Secretary of State, he reformed state election laws and used technology to increase customer convenience while also reducing costs.
Governor Blunt served 14 years in the Navy and Naval Reserve, which included assignments on the USS JACK WILLIAMS (FFG-24), and the USS PETERSON (DD-969). As a Reservist, he was mobilized after the September 11, 2001 attacks. LCDR Blunt received four Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals as well as numerous other awards while on active duty.
Governor Blunt earned his bachelor’s degree in History from the U.S. Naval Academy. He, his wife Melanie, and their two sons, William Branch and Brooks currently reside in Delaplane, Virginia.
Alan Wong
Alan Wong
Mr. Alan Wong is special advisor to the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF) as well as a former executive director of the Foundation. CUSEF is a Hong Kong based non-profit organization established in 2008 to promote positive relationship and better understanding between China and United States.
The Foundation’s annual program includes a host of activities in policy research, senior executive exchanges, high-level dialogues, education programs and outreach initiatives. In his capacity as Executive Director, Mr. Wong oversees the day to day running of the organization and is responsible to the Foundation’s Board of Governors.
Prior to his appointment with the Foundation, Mr. Wong was the Deputy Executive Director of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, a statutory organization responsible for promoting Hong Kong’s external trade. In his more than 30 years of service with the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, he had extensive experience working both in Hong Kong and overseas including Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, New York, Panama, Paris, London, etc.
Mr. Wong was born in Northern China. His family moved to Guangzhou soon afterwards and later the family settled in Hong Kong. After attending high school in Hong Kong, Mr. Wong went to Canada for his tertiary education, where he graduated from the University of Alberta with a degree of Bachelor of Science. Mr. Wong is married with two daughters.