Board of Directors

Bob Holden

Bob Holden

Chairman & CEO

Bob Holden

Bob Holden served as Missouri’s 53rd Governor, 2001-2005. Prior to being elected Governor, Holden served two terms as Missouri State Treasurer and three terms as a Missouri State Representative.

Bob Holden has been in public service his entire adult life. In addition to holding elective office, Holden worked for State Treasurers James I. Spainhower and Mel Carnahan, United States Senator Thomas F. Eagleton, and Congressman Richard A. Gephardt.

During Governor Holden's term in office, he chaired the Midwest Governors Association; opened Missouri’s first trade office in China; created Missouri’s first Hispanic Outreach Committee; moved Missouri from 41st to 5th in terms of women in leadership positions; appointed over 200 African Americans to prominent leadership roles; established the state's first Youth Cabinet; and built the first LEED certified state office building in Missouri.

Bob Holden is currently the Missouri Co-Chair for the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, and is an Executive Board member of the Missouri State NAACP Chapter. After leaving office in 2005, Holden founded the Holden Public Policy Forum and was a professor at Webster University for ten years. While at Webster University, he helped bring the first Confucius Institute to Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri.

For over 40 years, Bob Holden has been an active participant in the American Legion Missouri Boys and Girls State Program. He led efforts to bring the first delegations of Chinese students to be participants in this historic program. Since that first delegation to Missouri Boys and Girls State, he has lead the efforts to continue these student delegations of Chinese students to Missouri and Missouri students to China with plans to initiate delegations from other states.

Bob Holden believes that long term economic success for the United States and China must be built on mutual respect, clear understandings and honest dialogue. This can be achieved by expanding our cultural ties, creating more educational partnerships, and creating bridges of opportunities for successful business in both countries.

About Bob
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Galal Walker

President

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.

About Galal
James Xue

James Xue

Executive Vice President

James Xue

James Xue has over 25 years of experiences on international business promotion, which include investment, technology transfer, business set-up, joint venture, sales and marketing, public relation, and executive training.  His major focus is on the Chinese market and business promotion between the US and China.

James Xue is a former 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 numerals 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 is currently, as business advisor, working for The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He helps the university to develop joint programs with major Chinese universities, and also helps to create a unique program to provide internship opportunities in China to MSF students. Many of China’s top financial institutes, such as Shanghai Stock Exchange, Shanghai Future Exchange, commercial banks, security companies and etc., participate in and supporte the program.

 James Xue also serves as Deputy Director of Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy.

About James
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Sarah Burkemper

Treasurer

Sarah Burkemper

Sarah (Hartmann) Burkemper is a certified public accountant and a certified financial planner with a practice in Troy, Missouri.  She served as the public administrator for Lincoln County (Missouri) for twelve years, retiring from the position in December 2008.

Burkemper was a Pershing Scholar at Truman State University and graduated cum laude with two bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree in 1992. She went on to earn a master’s degree in International Affairs from Washington University in 1997.

Burkemper was honored as Truman’s Alumna of the Year in 2006. She served as president of the Truman State University Foundation from 2011-2014 and served as a member of the Truman Board of Governors from March 2001 to June 2007.

Burkemper is a graduate of the CORO Women in Leadership program. She is chair of the Lincoln County Health Foundation Board and chair of Community Opportunities (the County’s Senate Bill 40 Board). 

About Sarah
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Amos Smith

Finance Chair

Amos Smith

Amos L. Smith is a global business and foreign affairs executive from the United States, specializing in international trade and market expansion.

Amos has collaborated with numerous multinational market-leading firms and executive leadership on worldwide projects; including extensive work in trade facilitation, market strategy, government relations, and conflict management.

Amos is currently the president of Walton International, a firm concentrating on connecting companies and their executives to alternative market and investment opportunities, both foreign and domestic.

Amos additionally serves as the Executive Director of the Global Chamber Nashville, assisting regional organizations in expanding global possibilities to foreign markets and connections in Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa.

Previously, Amos served as the International Trade Coordinator at Cargill Cotton in Memphis, Tennessee as well as Global Business Analyst with Tractor Supply Company in Nashville, Tennessee.

Amos holds a Global Masters degree in International Relations from Webster University and a Bachelors degree in Political Science and Philosophy from the University of Mississippi. He has lived, worked or conducted research in: Austria, Belgium, England, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea, Switzerland, and Thailand.

Amos and his family live in Nashville, Tennessee.

About Amos
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Yawei Liu

Research Chair

Yawei Liu

Yawei Liu is director of the China Program at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia, and has been a member of numerous Carter Center missions to monitor Chinese village, township, and county people's congress deputy elections since 1997.

Dr. Liu has written extensively on China's political developments and grassroots democracy, including three edited book series: "Rural Election and Governance in Contemporary China" (Northwestern University Press, Xi'an, 2002 and 2004), "The Political Readers" (China Central Translation Bureau Press, Beijing, 2006), and "Elections & Governance" (Northwestern University Press, Xian, 2009). He is the founder and editor of the China elections and governance website www.chinaelections.org. Dr. Liu is also co-author of the popular Chinese book "Obama: The Man Who Will Change America" (October 2008).

Dr. Liu is adjunct professor of political science at Emory University and associate director of the China Research Center in Atlanta.

He earned his bachelor's degree in English literature from Xi'an Foreign Languages Institute (1982), master's degree in recent American history from the University of Hawaii (1989), and doctorate in American political and diplomatic history from Emory University (1996).

About Yawei
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Jim Schultz

Agriculture Chair

Jim Schultz

Jim Schultz is the founder of Open Prairie and is responsible for the management of four private equity funds with investments in innovative technologies spanning agriculture, medical devices, and information systems.  Funds invested by Open Prairie have resulted in two successful IPO’s and created over 4,500 jobs across 25 portfolio investments.  His current fund strategy is focused on agri-business investments in rural America under a USDA licensed rural business investment program (RBIP).

Jim is a fifth-generation Illinoisan, agribusiness entrepreneur, and private equity executive.  He has owned three proprietary soybean seed companies and three ag-chemical companies along with farmland in the Midwest and Brazil, representing over 17,000 acres. 

Jim is a recognized leader throughout the State of Illinois. From 2015-2017, Jim served in State of Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner’s cabinet as the Director of the Illinois Department of Commerce.  He has also served as Chairman of the Board for Prime Banc Corporation – a multi-branch rural banking group serving southern and central Illinois – which grew from $40 million in assets to over $1 billion in assets…all in rural communities in Illinois.  He also has served as Chairman of the Board for the following organizations:  Illinois Chamber of Commerce, Southeast Illinois Community Foundation, The Cross Foundation, and Effingham County Community Foundation.  Jim also served on the Advisory Board for the Chicago Federal Reserve.

Jim earned his MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship from Northwestern University, a Juris Doctor Degree in Corporate Finance from DePaul University, and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University.  Jim was born in Teutopolis, Illinois - adjacent to the building which housed his great-great-grandfathers trading post which supplied wagons heading west on the Cumberland Road…his Open Prairie office is located on the same road today.   

About Jim
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Jeff Moseley

Board Member

Jeff Moseley

Jeff Moseley has four decades of public and private sector experience, particularly in the transportation industry and economic development.

Currently, he serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the Texas Association of Business, the largest business association in Texas, representing over 2, 800 businesses, from major corporations to small start-ups. Combined those businesses employ over 2.5 million Texans and drive the economic engine of the state.

Before that, Moseley was appointed by former Texas Governor Rick Perry (R) to the five-member Texas Transportation Commission, which oversees the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and a $12 billion annual budget.

Previously, Moseley was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Greater Houston Partnership (GHP), the primary business organization for the 11-county Houston region. Under his leadership, the GHP gained national recognition as a center for economic development and became the largest chamber of commerce in the Lone Star State with a board consisting of 130 business leaders representing companies with a combined annual revenue of $1.6 trillion.

Prior to joining the GHP, Moseley was Chief Executive Officer of the Office for Economic Development and Tourism for the state of Texas and served as the Executive Director of the Texas Department of Economic Development. Under his direction, the Department was instrumental in bringing the Toyota Tundra manufacturing facility to San Antonio and the move of CITGO to Houston.

Moseley is a sixth generation Texan and graduate and Outstanding Alumnus of Southern Nazarene University in Oklahoma.

About Jeff
Liza Mark

Liza Mark

Board Member

Liza Mark

Liza Mark started the Shanghai office of Haynes and Boone, LLP, an international corporate law firm, in 2013 and is the administrative partner of the office. She is a partner in the Capital Markets and Securities Practice Group and regularly works in the firm’s Shanghai and Dallas offices. Liza has been working at U.S. firms in the U.S., Hong Kong and Shanghai for more than 20 years. She is familiar with the legal environments of these three countries and is able to help her clients fulcrum between the different business environments. She has concentrated her practice in private equity investments, securities and cross-border M&A.

 

She represents investors, issuers, and investment banks/financial intermediaries in financing transactions, including equity and debt public offerings and cross-border private placements in Hong Kong, India and the U.S. Liza is experienced in private placements of debt and equity securities, Asian in-bound equity offerings, Rule 144A offerings, medium term note programs, SPAC acquisitions, PIPEs, and Hong Kong IPOs. She also regularly advises clients regarding private equity investments, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and U.S. public company securities law reporting and compliance.

 

Liza has deep experience in the clean technology, energy, transportation and logistics, and environmental, social and governance (ESG) impact industries. She has worked closely with foreign private issuers in their securities offerings in the United States and the Hong Kong markets.

She holds a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law and a B.S. in Accounting and Finance, Indiana University Bloomington, 1995, summa cum laude, with honors.

About Liza
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David Firestein

Policy Chair

David Firestein

David J. Firestein is the inaugural executive director of The University of Texas at Austin’s China Public Policy Center (CPPC) and clinical professor at UT’s Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. As CPPC chief, Firestein leads UT's institutional engagement with China and oversees innovative interdisciplinary research on China-related domestic and foreign policy topics.

Prior to joining UT, Firestein served as senior vice president and Perot Fellow at the EastWest Institute; there, he led the Institute’s work in the areas of U.S.-China relations, East Asian security and U.S.-Russia relations.

A decorated career U.S. diplomat from 1992–2010, Firestein specialized primarily in China and U.S.-China relations. He is the author or co-author of three books on China, including two China-published Chinese-language best-sellers. Firestein speaks Chinese at the near-native level.

Throughout his career, Firestein has played an active role advancing U.S.-China and U.S.-Asia trade. He has also produced path-breaking thought leadership, scholarship and Capitol Hill testimony on a range of topics, including U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, U.S.-China infrastructure investment cooperation, and the role of national exceptionalism as a driver of major international conflict today.  Firestein was also a principal architect of the U.S.-China High-Level Political Party Leaders Dialogue.

A native of Austin, Firestein holds a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and two master’s degrees from The University of Texas.

About David
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Michael Froy

Board Member

Michael Froy

Mike Froy is co-chair of Dentons' global Corporate practice and global Manufacturing sector. Mike previously served on Dentons’ China region board and remains active in developing relationships and opportunities between Dentons’ 25+ US and 45+ China offices.

Mike advises businesses in meeting their strategic objectives focusing on domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings, corporate governance and public company compliance.

While Mike represents clients across a broad array of industries, his work on behalf of manufacturers and regulated businesses (energy, health care and insurance) has been particularly noteworthy.

  • Executive Committee, Northwestern University’s Ray Garrett Jr. Corporate and Securities Law Institute

  • Board of directors, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Lymphoma Research Foundation, Ravinia Festival Association

  • Secretary and member of the executive committee, Junior Achievement of Chicago

University of Chicago Law School, 1983, JD

University of Michigan, 1979, AB, with honors and high distinction

About Michael
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Blaine A. Brownell

Education Chair

Blaine Brownell

Blaine A. Brownell, a teacher and scholar specializing in U.S. urban history and international education, has held tenured professorships in four different universities and served in senior leadership roles in US universities and other non-profit and for-profit organizations. He served as dean, graduate dean, and founding director of international programs at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (1974-1990); provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of North Texas (1990-1998); executive director of international programs and services at the University of Memphis (1998-2000); president of Ball State University (2000-2004); and president and CEO of an academic quality assurance company, headquartered at the University of Virginia, owned by a consortium of 17 major research universities in seven countries, providing accreditation services for one of the world’s first global on-line education programs, based in Singapore (2004-2006). 

During 2006-2008, he held positions as interim dean of Business, interim regional vice chancellor for academic affairs, and senior university advisor for strategic planning and international programs at the University of South Florida at St. Petersburg.  From 2009 to 2012 he served as a consultant on academic programs and planning in the United Arab Emirates national universities in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Al Ain.

His international experience also includes appointments as Fulbright professor in American History and Urban Studies at Hiroshima University in Japan (1977-78), academic specialist for the U.S. Information Agency in Brazil (1985), and Visiting Professor at Sichuan University in China (1987).  He was editor of the International Education Forum, the journal of the Association of International Education Administrators (1998-2000) and a member of the Strategic Task Force on Education Abroad for NAFSA: Association of International Educators (2002-2003), chair of the international education committee of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), a member of the board of directors of the Council for International Education Exchange (CIEE), and chairman of the board of directors of the International Student Exchange Programs (ISEP), headquartered in Washington, DC. He has been Chair of the Birmingham (Al) Committee on Foreign Relations and the Birmingham Sister City Commission (a municipal agency), a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations in Dallas, TX, and chair of the Committee in Charlottesville, VA.

During his time at the University of Memphis he led a program, under contract with the government of Shenzhen, China, to provide native English speakers for the city’s elementary and secondary schools.

He holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in United States history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a B.A. degree from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.  He completed a year of post-doctoral work in the Institute of Southern History at The Johns Hopkins University (1971-72) working with Professor David Herbert Donald. He now resides in Evanston, IL.

About Blaine
Alan Wong

Alan Wong

Board Member

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.

About Alan
Tom Ostrander

Tom Ostrander

Board Member

Tom Ostrander

Tom is a seasoned financial industry executive with deep expertise in investment banking, corporate finance, strategy, business development, M&A, capital raising, management, accounting (CPA), governance, as well as public and private Board experience.

Currently, in addition to serving on the Board, and as the Audit Chairman at Monaco-based Scorpio Bulkers (NYSE-SALT), Investor / Board member of Asgard Craft Brewery, Tom is the co-founder and Senior Financial Advisor of EquityHealth. While in New York, Tom held senior leadership roles in various leading companies, such as CFO at US Alliance Paper, and Global Co-Head of Salomon Brothers / Citigroup’s Industrial Group where he led a team of approximately 150 professionals internationally, and was responsible for $850 million in annual revenue.

Tom also has extensive international business experience in many countries in Western Europe and East Asia through his direct engagement with leading global companies such as GM, IBM, Chrysler, Goodyear, Japan Tobacco, Canon, Fuji Film, Shanghai Electric, and Xerox.

Tom has served countless times in various Board and other high-level meetings as a senior Investment Banking advisor. Notable experiences include his time at Kidder Peabody & Co. where he was a Board member present for the SEC-filing firm’s sale to GE in 1986. Tom also was on the Board and Audit, Compensation, and Governance Committees at Westmoreland Coal Co.

In addition to his professional responsibilities, Tom has and currently serves on various philanthropic, educational, medical, and institutional boards and fundraising activities. Notably, the University of Michigan, Harvard Business School, National Down Syndrome Society, Ballet Hispánico, the Institute for Semitic Studies, and others.

Tom is a multi-disciplinarian A.B. graduate of the University of Michigan, where he graduated cum laude, and also holds an M.B.A from Harvard Business School where he graduated with Distinction in the Top 10% his class. Tom currently lives with his family in Nashville, Tennessee.

About Tom
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