China Sustainability Conference 2019

Michael is the Chief Economist and Managing Director of Economics at the Commonwealth Bank. His extensive experience as an economist reflects more than thirty years working in economic policy and financial-market-related areas. Michael’s role encompasses monitoring, analysing and forecasting trends in the Australian economy and financial markets. In addition, he prepares a wide range of research material on matters of current interest. In his capacity as the CBA’s Chief Economist, he is a regular conference presenter and media commentator on major economic developments and themes. Michael and his team have consistently ranked in the top three for macroeconomic analysis advice in various industry polls. Michael works in the Institutional Banking & Markets division of the Commonwealth Bank. This division is responsible for managing the Group’s relationships with major corporate, institutional and government clients and providing a full range of capital raising, transactional and risk management products and services. After graduating in economics from the University of Sydney in 1982, he spent a total of 13 years in various roles within the Economic Group of the Reserve Bank of Australia. This included a stint at the International Monetary Fund in 1988. He was the RBA's Senior Economist from 1991-95. Key features of these roles involved the provision of economic analysis and policy advice. Michael joined the Commonwealth Bank in late 1995.

Ms. Guan is the Deputy General Manager of SynTao Green Finance – a leading consultancy in responsible investment, ESG evaluation, green bond assurance, and other green finance areas. She is dedicating to the research and development of sustainable finance, with more than ten years’ financial industry experiences, including serving at Deutsche Bank, Zhongde Securities, and PE fund. Ms. Guan holds a MBA degree, as well as a PhD degree in Population, Resources and Environmental Economics. SynTao Green Finance is  a founding member of the Green Finance Committee (GFC) of China Society of Finance and Banking  a signatory to the UN supported Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI)  the first China based Climate Bonds Standard (CBS) approved verifier  an observer organization of the Green Bond Principles launched by International Capital Markets Association (ICMA)  a member of the National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors (NAFMII)  a certified consulting agency for UK Green Investment Bank in China SynTao Green Finance also initiated China Social Investment Forum (China SIF) as a NGO platform to advocate green finance and responsible investment in China.

Mark Peacock is Head of Sustainable Finance for Institutional Banking and Markets, a division of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Mark is responsible for overseeing advice, client engagement and financing in relation to green, social and sustainability opportunities for CBA’s institutional clients. Mark led CBA’s first sustainability-linked loan with Queensland Airports, a $150m bilateral debt facility with the loan margin linked to environmental performance. This was the first sustainability-linked loan in the Australian market tied to a specific carbon emissions reduction target. Mark has over 15 years’ experience working in financial services across Australia and South-East Asia. Prior to joining CBA, Mark was a Director at Social Ventures Australia, an Australian impact fund manager, where he led the origination of corporate debt and project finance solutions to mid-tier corporates and not-for-profit organisations. In this role, Mark established SVA’s social, affordable and disability housing practice, structuring debt and equity solutions for aged care, community housing and student accommodation assets. Prior to this, Mark held a range of management roles across two of Australian’s largest banks - Westpac and CBA. Mark also worked as a strategic advisor to an Indonesian bank supporting the delivery of their microfinance program across Nusa Tengarra Timur (eastern Indonesian province) Mark holds a Bachelor of Business (Honours) from Macquarie University. Mark is a former board member of African Enterprise and Baptist World Aid and is a fellow of the Vincent Fairfax Ethical Leadership program.

Dan is an analyst at The EIU’s Access China service, which offers analyses of China’s provinces and cities. She leads regional research and forecasts, and advises clients on economic and policy developments in China as well as global outlook. Dan joined The EIU in 2015. She has published on a wide range of topics since then. She is the main writer for several special reports including China Consumer 2030 and China’s Emerging City Rankings. She is also one of the authors of the Belt and Road Quarterly report available to EIU clients. Besides, she has acted as a consultant on commissioned policy studies, topics ranging from fiscal reform, energy to climate change. Dan is a regular commentator in international media (CNBC, BBC, Al Jazeera, Channel NewsAsia, CGTN). She often presents at conferences and has been invited to share perspectives on China with senior corporate executives, academics and diplomatic officials. She has also been speaker, panelist and moderator for events inside and outside The EIU. Dan holds a PhD in economics from University of Washington. Before joining the EIU she was a post-doctoral fellow in the Chinese Academy of Sciences as an economist. She led national surveys to evaluate agricultural policies and the National Clean-Water projects, and has collaborated with the World Bank and the UN on inclusive growth and food security issues. Dan holds a BE in International Economics and BA in law from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Jason Yu is the Head of Multi-Asset Product, North Asia. Based in Hong Kong, Jason focuses on supporting the growth of Schroders’ Multi-Asset business in North Asia. His responsibilities include Greater China, Korea and Japan markets, working with both institutional and intermediary clients. Jason joined Schroders in June 2017. Prior to joining Schroders, Jason was Multi Asset Investment Director for Asia Pacific at Standard Life Investments based in Hong Kong. Before then, Jason was at Wellington Management with roles in both Hong Kong and Boston. His roles at Wellington included Derivatives Analyst and more recently Investment Director, Asia ex-Japan Fixed Income, Global Fixed Income Investing. Jason has 15 years of experience working in financial services as a trader, analyst, product manager and investment director. Jason holds a Master of Financial Engineering from Hass Business School, University of California – Berkeley. He is also a CFA Charterholder.

Maxime Van ‘t Klooster, with a Master degree in International Business from Maastricht University, has been living in China for 6 years. As General Manager of 1421 Consulting Group, he is responsible for the implementation of organisational strategy in their Beijing office. Moreover, he leads the inbound consulting project team and oversees all corporate services for foreign clients. These experiences have given Maxime a deep insight into Chinese culture and expertise in assisting foreign companies with their China strategy.

Arnold Wang is responsible for the plastics program for Ellen MacArthur Foundation in China. Prior to this, he was the deputy secretary general of CSRA China Plastics Reuse and Recycling Association. Arnold holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Xiamen University and an MBA degree from Thunderbird School of Global Management of Arizona State University. Before joining the association, he held several positions in the marketing and product management function in many international companies, including：Rohm & Haas( Dow Chemical), Borouge, Specialty Tapes Company and the garbage collection system company: Envac.

Peter graduated as an agricultural engineer from the University of Ghent (Belgium) in 1994 and holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the Technical University of Twente (The Netherlands). Before joining Unilever, he worked as a consultant in a Dutch contract research organization specialized in dairy research. He joined Unilever in 2001 and had various R&D management and director roles in The Netherlands, Poland and Turkey. In Turkey, Peter was part of the regional board of executives for Unilever North Africa, Middle East, Turkey and Russia. On June 1, 2019, Peter was appointed as the head of R&D Shanghai, one of the six big R&D labs Unilever has across the world. Developing the local R&D talent, as well as leading the innovation and sustainability agenda for China are a key part of his role. Peter is also part of the executive board of Unilever China and the North Asia region.

Josh McBain is Consultancy Director at leading data-led trends agency Foresight Factory, specialising in the design, delivery and communication of strategic consultancy projects. On behalf of British Airways, Josh and his team produced 'BA 2119: Flight of the Future', a ground-breaking global travel report published to mark the airline’s Centenary which offers a picture of what aviation will look like in 20, 40, 60 and even 100 years’ time. Josh has worked with a range of other leading global travel brands to help them navigate their future; including Eurostar, London City Airport and MSC Cruises.

Boyong Wang is the Strategic Partnerships Director of Smart Freight Centre. Boyong previously worked as Senior Project Manager for Swiss Development and Cooperation Agency (SDC) in China working on low carbon city development, and managed EU FP7 projects on carbon awareness within the transport sector. Graduated from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna and Washington DC, Boyong returned to China in 2003 and has since developed into an experienced project manager working for EU China cooperation projects and international development institutions. He managed EU China Village Governance Project, EU China Information Society Project and EU Asia Business Roaming Project from 2003 until 2013 for 10 years before he joined SFC. Boyong has extensive experience in collaborating with government agencies and building up cooperation amongst cross sector stakeholders. Boyong is very enthusiastic about the freight sector and determined to make valuable contributions and change.

Tian Ying is a senior reporter with Bloomberg in Beijing, covering business news for two decades. Her focus has been on the automobile industry for the past 14 years. Before joining Bloomberg in Jan. 2003, she worked as a journalist with Dow Jones Newswires for three years.

Ms. Zhou is currently the Director of Strategy and Business Portfolio with BP China. She oversees and coordinates BP China’s corporate strategy development across the traditional hydrocarbon value chain and new energy opportunities. Ms. Zhou also leads a team to monitor the development of Chinese energy market as well as government energy policies to assist BP group’s commercial operations and long term investment decisions in China. Ms. Zhou has worked for BP for 15 years in a number of commercial leadership roles in China and United States cross refining, petrochemicals, and fuel businesses. She was once seconded as the Planning Director working in Shanghai SECCO Petrochemical Co, a joint venture between BP and Sinopec. She also worked as the Finance Director of BP US Northwest Fuels Value/Cherry Point refinery, the Head of Control for BP US West Coast Fuels Value Chain, Business Development Director of BP China Refining and the Venture Director of BP Petrochemicals’ Olefins and Derivative business and etc.

Danae has been the Minister Counsellor Prosperity Beijing since October 2018. Prior to that Danae Dholakia was the UK’s Special Envoy to the Great Lakes of Africa and the Head of Southern and Central Africa Department at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. During her 17 year FCO career, she has also worked as Political Counsellor in Pretoria; Deputy Director of Eastern Europe and Central Asia Directorate; Deputy-Director on Counter-Terrorism issues in the Home Office; on NATO; on the EU in Brussels; and on UN and Environmental issues. Before joining the FCO, Danae worked in the NGO sector in Eastern and Central Africa for 7 years. Danae has a Master’s degree in Environmental Science. She speaks Mandarin and is fascinated by Chinese history and culture. She is married to Nishi Dholakia, British Embassy Beijing, Minister Counsellor Economic and Trade Policy.