BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Bob Holden

Gov. Bob Holden

Chairman & President

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 led 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.

Gov. Holden was recently inducted into the Missouri Public Affairs Hall of Fame. Watch his honoree video here. 

About Gov. Holden

Susan A. Thornton

Vice-Chair

Susan A. Thornton

Susan A. Thornton is a retired senior U.S. diplomat with almost three decades of experience with the U.S. State Department in Eurasia and East Asia. She is currently a Senior Fellow and Visiting Lecturer in Law at the Yale Law School Paul Tsai China Center. She is also the director of the Forum on Asia-Pacific Security at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. 

Until July 2018, Thornton was Acting Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the Department of State and led East Asia policymaking amid crises with North Korea, escalating trade tensions with China, and a fast-changing international environment. In previous State Department roles, she worked on U.S. policy toward China, Korea and the former Soviet Union and served in leadership positions at U.S. embassies in Central Asia, Russia, the Caucasus and China. 

Thornton received her M.A. in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and her B.A. from Bowdoin College in Economics and Russian. She serves on several nonprofit boards and speaks Mandarin and Russian.

About Susan Thornton

Yawei Liu

Board Member

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 Liu
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Qiaoni "Linda" Jing

Board Member

Qiaoni “Linda” Jing

Qiaoni “Linda” Jing grew up at a village in central China. Pulling weeds was her first job and hunger was real in the community. As a child, Linda was determined to leave agriculture and see other parts of the world. In 1999, Linda started her career as a consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Shanghai, China, after receiving her BE in Industrial Engineering and MA in Economics from Fudan University. 

Her father’s appointment by the Chinese Premier to lead one of the largest enterprises in China inspired Linda to shape her career towards general management. In 2002, Linda came to the U.S. for her MBA at Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. Upon graduation in 2004, Linda joined the Corporate Strategy group of General Motors. In 2006, Linda moved to Wentzville, MO to supervise UAW production teams along the truck assembly line. She later became the Quality Audit Manager there and secured JD Power Associates’ Best Quality Award for General Motors. Shortly after, Linda was brought back to the headquarters as a Business Development Manager focusing on strategic alliance. 

Linda returned to agriculture when Monsanto, now part of Bayer Crop Science, was seeking from other industries emerging leaders with track records of delivering. She joined Monsanto in 2009 as Strategic Planning Lead for the U.S. business, followed by leading a Customer Care team that delivered $1.9 billion revenue in 2010. Linda was expatriated to Argentina in 2011 to revamp the distribution channel in South America. Returning to the U.S., Linda became Global Operations Manager in Supply Chain. Her contribution in inventory and COGs reduction earned her the 2013 Global Business Outstanding Award. Linda joined R&D in 2013 as Director of Global Strategy & Operations, driving strategic initiatives and managing Monsanto’s plant breeding operations in 35 countries. In 2016, she became Senior Director & Chief of Staff in Global Corporate Affairs, spearheading stakeholder engagement. 

Genective, a biotechnology JV between Limagrain and KWS, the world’s 4th and 5th largest seed companies, chose Linda as its CEO in 2019. Tasked with transforming the Paris, France-based semi-virtual entity to a global operation centered in the U.S., Linda successfully led facility build-out, grand opened a new global headquarters in Champaign, IL, quadrupled the work force, and signed up multiple collaboration partners during her first two years on the job. Now President, CEO and a Board Member, Linda focuses on leading execution of the new strategy towards the new vision she set, together with the Board of Directors, for Genective, nurturing a new culture that has resulted in record high employee engagement, and commercialization of deliverables out of a refreshed R&D pipeline. 

Linda has been promoting cross-culture understanding since her student times in Japan and Switzerland. She served the Greater St. Louis community as a Leadership Council Member of the Danforth Plant Science Center, a Board Member of the Asian American Chamber of Commerce, a Co-chair of United Way Multi-Cultural Leadership Cabinet, and an Executive in Residence for University of Missouri-St. Louis’ IMBA program, lecturing and coaching on cross-cultural leadership. 

Linda was one of the St. Louis Regional Business Council’s Young Leadership 100, 2013 through 2015. She was honored by Who is Who Diversity in Color as Most Intriguing in St. Louis in 2018. She has been the leading voice for the Heartland in the leadership circle of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders since 2018. After featuring Linda as a St. Louis Character in 2018, the St. Louis Business Journal honored her as one of the Most Influential Business Women in 2019. 
About Linda Jing

Steve Grand

Board Member

Steve Grand

For over 30 years, with offices in Washington DC and San Francisco, CA, Steve Grand has provided strategic advice, research and planning coupled with creative, persuasive, winning media for political and corporate clients.    He designs, produces and places messaging, advertising and long format content for political and corporate campaigns in all video distribution media.  Political clients include Karl Rove’s American Crossroads, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, Governor Doug Burgum, and numerous Members of the House and Senate.

In addition to his extensive, winning political campaign work, Grand has advised corporate clients as well as Governors, Senators, Congressmen, state legislators political parties, Prime Ministers and Presidents and other elected and appointed officials in new technologies, education, telecommunications, broadcasting, computers, intellectual property, health care, the environment, transportation, energy, tourism, the economy, election law, and public perception of government as well as conducting message development and deployment.  

Dr. Grand’s international work includes research, strategy, media and messaging in over 36 countries, including national election campaigns in Slovakia, Croatia, South Africa and seven national elections in the Netherlands.  He has also done media, research, strategy and communications in places as varied as Sri Lanka, South Africa, Hungary, Jordan, Morocco, England and China.    His international work also includes measuring and affecting American public opinion and attitudes about foreign countries and cultures.

A Rotary Scholar in England, Grand also holds a BA (magna cum laude) from Harvard University, a Masters in Communications Management, a Masters in Research Methodology and a Ph.D. in Communications from the Annenberg School for Communications at University of Southern California. 

Dr. Grand has taught at the college level and lectured at numerous campaign schools and universities in the US and Europe.  In 2011, Grand was named a Fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government where he taught  classes on public opinion, campaigns, media, messaging, production and persuasion. 

About Steve Grand

Scott Tackett

Board Member

Scott Tackett

Scott M. Tackett, MHA, MPH is currently Vice President of Global Access, Value & Economics (GAVE); serving as the executive and chief economic advisor and market access leader for Intuitive, Sunnyvale, California. In this role, he leads the strategy, management, and operations of the global GAVE organization. His remit is to work with policymakers, payers, major health systems providers, and clinical and economic decision makers to address concerns related to the value of emerging technologies and its delivery of higher quality and cost-effective care. Scott is an applied health economist and strategist with 20+ years of experience in healthcare management and leadership roles for life sciences companies and U.S. Honor Roll Hospitals. He has led health economic strategy, and market and patient access operations in more than 30 international markets.

He has been published in many clinical, economic and health care strategy peer‐reviewed journals and regularly speaks at global conferences on health care futures, economic strategies, patient access, and the link between value and technology investment as it relates to achieving the “Quadruple Aim in Healthcare.” His research interests have focused on observational evaluations and integrating predictive analytics to deliver “meaningful value transfer” via intelligent medical interventions, effectiveness, and efficiency. Prior to his current role at Intuitive, Scott was Head of Global & U.S. Market Access & Health Economics, and Director of Medical Outcomes Research & Economics at Baxter.

Scott holds a Master of Public Health with an emphasis in international health economics and a Master of Health Administration with an emphasis in health care strategy from Tulane University School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana. He performed a post‐graduate fellowship training and was the David A Gee Fellow at Barnes‐Jewish Hospital at Washington University Medical Center, St. Louis, Missouri. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in biology and chemistry from Central Methodist University, Fayette, Missouri.

About Scott Tackett

Cameron Turley

Board Member

Cameron Turley

Cameron Turley is a Senior Managing Director of Ankura and Executive Vice President of GreenPoint Group with over two decades of experience working with businesses and non-profits to achieve their objectives in China.

Previously, Cameron served for over 18 years at The Cohen Group, a global business advisory firm led by former U.S. Senator and Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen, where he helped to build one of the top China practice groups in the industry. He began his consulting career at the international government relations firm Andreae, Vick and Associates, which was preceded by service at the U.S. State Department’s Chinese School of Language Studies, where he developed diplomatic training materials.

Cameron spent two years pursuing volunteer work in Asia before graduating summa cum laude and valedictorian of Brigham Young University’s David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies where he majored in International Law & Diplomacy and Asian Studies.

Cameron is based in Washington, DC and is proficient in Mandarin Chinese. He is a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.

About Cameron Turley
Jim Sutter Chief Executive Officer U.S. Soybean Export Council Web

Jim Sutter

Board Member

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. 

About Jim Sutter

STAFF

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Min Fan

Executive Director

Min Fan

Min Fan was born in China and studied at Peking University before immigrating to the United States. Continuing her education at the University of North Carolina she earned a B.A. in Art followed by an M.B.A. at the Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Min went on to a successful career in the corporate world culminating in her role as the leader of the Ideation and Innovation Practice at Hewlett Packard (HP) Global Corporate Services. Upon leaving HP she joined the startup ecosystem as an entrepreneur and mentor at two Colorado incubators.

From 2018-2019, Min brought her entrepreneur experience and passion for US and China collaboration to the nonprofit sector as the Executive Director/COO of US China Innovation Alliance (UCIA). Over 100 US companies visited China on sponsored trips as a result of her team’s efforts.

Prior to joining the US Heartland China Association, Min launched US China Now, a not-for-profit endeavor, which partnered with a broad spectrum of organizations to build a bridge of understanding across the cultural divide between US and China.

About Min Fan
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Katherine Newton-Henry

Program Manager

Katherine Newton

Katherine Newton-Henry serves as a Program Manager at USHCA. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with degrees in International Political Economies and Asian Cultures and Languages. She recently obtained her MS in International Business from American University. Ms. Newton-Henry has published research analyzing political and economic dynamics across East and Southeast Asia. With experience at nonprofits focused on U.S.-China relations, she brings enthusiasm and practical knowledge to furthering mutual understanding between the two global powers. In her role at USHCA, she aims to continue pursuing positive diplomatic and economic ties between the world's most powerful countries.

About Katherine Newton-Henry
Ellen Wright Headshot (cropped)

Ellen Wright

Program Associate

Ellen Wright

Brought up in the Midwest and descended from Iowan farmers, Ellen Wright is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College with a degree in Sociology and minors in International Studies and Chinese, and has earned a Master’s degree in China Studies from Zhejiang University. During her graduate program, her thesis work concentrated on China’s national innovation system. Ellen has previous experience working for international nonprofits based out of Beijing and D.C., and is eager to return to her roots and help cultivate the Sino-American relationship in the Heartland region.

About Ellen Wright

STRATEGIC ADVISORS

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Amb. Kenneth Quinn

Strategic Advisor

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.

About Ambassador Quinn
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Gov. Brad Henry

Strategic Advisor

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.

About Gov. Henry
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Gov. Ronnie Musgrove

Strategic Advisor

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.

About Gov. Musgrove
Daniel B Wright

Daniel B. Wright

Strategic Advisor

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. 

About Daniel Wright
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Jim Schultz

Strategic Advisor

Jim Schultz

Jim Schultz founded Open Prairie as a private capital management company in 1999. He has led and overseen 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 5,000 jobs across 31 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. Like his ancestors, Jim has continued his family legacy in agribusiness throughout the America’s with investments in ag-tech companies, ag-input companies, rural businesses and farmland. 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. In his hometown of Effingham, Illinois, Jim developed and created in a bean field an office park, Network Centre, that has created over 1,500 professional jobs for college graduates seeking to remain in the east-central Illinois area. He gained extensive leadership experience with growth-stage capital expansion over the years by investing in rural America. Jim has served as the financial expert on mergers and acquisitions for clients in rural America in software development, banking, manufacturing, retail, healthcare, and entertainment.

From 2015-2017, Jim served in newly-elected State of Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner’s cabinet as the Director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity where he oversaw the following departments: foreign direct investment, business development, job training, energy, film, and tourism. He traveled on behalf of Governor Rauner leading Trade Missions to Japan, China, Canada, Germany and France.

Jim is a recognized leader throughout the State of Illinois. He has served as Chairman of the Board for Prime Banc Corporation – a multi-branch rural banking group serving southern and central Illinois – which grew organically 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 (cum laude). Jim was born in Teutopolis, Illinois - adjacent to the building which housed his great-great- grandfather’s trading post which supplied wagons heading west on the National Trail. His office in Effingham is located three miles west on the same National Trail. Jim currently lives in Effingham, Illinois, where he and his wife Laura raised their three sons.

About Jim Schultz
Craig Allen

Amb. Craig Allen

Strategic Advisor

Craig Allen

Senior Counselor, The Cohen Group
 
Former 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).

About Ambassador Allen
Sam Zhaoweb

Suisheng (Sam) Zhao 赵穗生

Strategic Advisor

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.

About Suisheng Zhao
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Amos Smith

Strategic Advisor

Amos Smith

Coming soon...

About Amos Smith
Ed Schafer

Ed Schafer

Strategic Advisor

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.

About Ed schafer
President James Smith

Dr. James Smith

Strategic Advisor

James Smith

Dr. James M. Smith is the 23rd president of Eastern Michigan University. He began his duties on July 1, 2016.

Before coming to EMU, Smith served as president of Northern State University (NSU) in Aberdeen, South Dakota, since June 2009. 

Smith, 66, who grew up near Columbus, Ohio, in Washington Court House, knew early on that he wanted to be a teacher. He always admired teachers and enjoyed school. He became an elementary and middle school teacher after earning his Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education, from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in 1979. He would go on to earn a Master of Education, Educational Administration, from Xavier University in Cincinnati and a Doctor of Philosophy, Educational Leadership, from Miami University.

Over the next 28 years, Smith served as an elementary school principal, a teaching fellow and assistant professor at Miami, director of the Experiential Program for Preparing School Principals at Butler University in Indianapolis, and director of the Educational Leadership Program and coordinator of doctoral studies at West Texas A&M University. Smith was also vice president for Economic Development at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio, before heading to NSU.

About James Smith
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Galal Walker

Strategic Advisor

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 Walker
James Xue

James Xue

Strategic Advisor

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.

About James Xue
Alan Wong

Alan Wong

Strategic Advisor

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 Wong
Jeff-Moseley-400-300

Jeff Moseley

Strategic Advisor

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.

About Jeff Moseley

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