leading author and journalist

Jasper Becker is one of the leading voices on China's development, setting his reputation as an author with a monumental work "Hungry Ghosts" on China's secret famines that changed the world's perception on China. He worked over twenty years as a foreign correspondent in China.

Associate professor Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism;
Former New York Times correspondent in Africa, Japan, China

Howard French has called Africa, the Americas, Japan and China as his home, and got the best out of it. As a professional photographer he had a very keen eye for those details that matter. As correspondent for the New York Times, he was not only an alert observer of the society he was in, but was able to compare and connect between those worlds, much to the benefit of his audience.

Founder of Access Asia, a leading research institute on retail; author of several books on China

Looking for a sharp debater? Then Paul French is your man. He does not shy away from many subjects and covers China's middle class, North-Korea, the way of doing (no) business in China or the latest on Western companies trying to crack this difficult market.

Publisher and editor of Danwei.org

South African long-time Beijing resident Jeremy Goldkorn is a much asked speaker on Chinese media and advertising, Internet business and culture and Sino-African relations. In a witty, sometimes provocative style, Goldkorn engages his audiences. With more than a decade of experience in China's print media, Internet and advertising industries. He has also worked as a media consultant to the South African embassy and writes for publications suchs as the the Far Eastern Economic Review about Sino-African relations and trade.

travels from New York or Beijing

Michael A. Zakkour is the founder and managing director of China BrightStar LLC, a leading Sino-American consulting, manufacturing and sourcing company. Mr. Zakkour leads the day-to-day operations of China BrightStar from the company's headquarters in New York City, and manages its factories and offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Ningbo, and Hangzhou, China, as well as Mumbai, India.

Writer, journalist, social commentator

Zhang Lijia became the Chinese equivalent of a self-made woman, escaped from the state-owned enterprise where she worked, to a UK-educated commentator on contemporary issues in China.