Our People

A recognized expert on the global technology sector, Duncan is a global trustee of the Asia Society, founding trustee of Asia Society France and founding member of Asia Society Japan. He is the founder and chairman of advisory firm BDA (www.bda.com) with over 120 professionals serving private equity and hedge funds on their investments in high growth sectors in Asia and beyond. Prior to founding BDA in 1994, Duncan was an investment banker with Morgan Stanley in London and Hong Kong. An early advisor to China Internet entrepreneurs, Duncan is author of ‘Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built’. Published in over thirty-five languages, ‘Alibaba’ was named Book of the Year by The Economist and shortlisted as Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year. An early stage investor in global technology ventures including AppAnnie (invested by Sequoia),  Radish Fiction (acquired in 2021 by Kakao), fintech venture Quantitative Insight and fund manager Cambridge Machines Asset Management. A Visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics, his alma mater, and previously a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University, Duncan in 2013 was awarded an OBE for services to UK-China trade. Raised in the UK, US and France, Duncan is fluent in French, Chinese (HSK5 level) and conversant in Spanish and Japanese.

Chairman, Asia Society France, Vice Chairman, ImpactWayv Inc.

Serge Dumont, co-founder and Chairman of Asia Society France and Vice Chairman of ImpactWayv Inc. has lived in Beijing, Hong Kong and Taipei for over 40 years. A specialist in international issues and strategic communications, Serge Dumont draws on decades of experience in Asia, the United States and Europe. He has regularly advised multinational companies, business leaders and boards of leading institutions.

In the early 1980s, he founded China's first independent public relations and public affairs consulting group. A young entrepreneur at the time, he is now credited with leading China's growing communications industry, having served companies such as Edelman (as EVP and Board Member), and Omnicom Group (NYSE, OMC), a global communications and marketing holding company of which he was Vice Chairman and Chairman Asia Pacific.

With a strong knowledge of the Asian, European and American markets, Serge strives to bring an international perspective to his activities. As a global citizen, his role is not limited to business. As a philanthropist, he is particularly involved in the fields of health and education. He is also convinced that a company's objective should not stop at making a profit, as social responsibility is an integral part of business success.

Serge Dumont has received several awards and distinctions from governments and international organizations for his commitments in the areas of business, philanthropy, health, culture and education. He has also served as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations.

He serves on the boards of several corporations, educational institutions and non-profit organizations. He is fluent in English, Mandarin and French.

Betsy Z. Cohen is the chairman of FinTech Masala, a sponsor of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) and venture rounds. She was previously founder and CEO of The Bancorp, an internet provider of financial services to non-bank fintech companies. From 1974 to 1999 she was founder, chairman and CEO of Jefferson Bank in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Cohen has served on a variety of philanthropic and corporate boards, including Aetna, Inc., Asia Society, The Brookings Institution, and The Metropolitan Opera. She served on the Bryn Mawr College Board of Trustees for 29 years and remains one of the Emeriti trustees. She is an Honorary Trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Fritz Demopoulos has been involved in the Asian region for over 20 years as a technology entrepreneur and investor.  Fritz co-founded Qunar.com, China’s largest travel platform, which was listed on the NASDAQ in 2013. He also co-founded Shawei.com, China’s largest digital sports media company, which was acquired by Hutchison Whampoa affiliateTom.com. Previously, he held senior executive positions at The News Corporation and Netease. Fritz coordinates his entrepreneurial business activities through Hong Kong-based Queen’s Road Capital.  Fritz was educated at UCLA, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the University of Heidelberg in Germany. He is a member of the Global Board of Trustees of the Asia Society in New York, a Trustee of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, a Trustee of Jazz at Lincoln Center, and serves on the Board of Advisors of UCLA’s Department of Earth, Planetary & Space Sciences.  Fritz is a long-term resident of Hong Kong with his wife and two daughters. 

Sidney Huang has over 16 years of experience in the technology and internet industry in China. He is currently a senior advisor of JD.com and a Board member of Kuaishou Technology.

Prior to 2004, Sidney spent 12 years in the United States, lastly as an investment banker at Citigroup Global Markets in New York. He earned his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Sidney moved to London in 2021 and is currently a Foundation Fellow at St Antony’s College at the University of Oxford where he was an Academic Visitor from 2021 to 2022.

Co-Chair of Asia Society Japan. Managing Director at JC Flowers, previously President and CEO of Shinsei Bank after 22 years with Morgan Stanley in New York, London and Tokyo.

Graduate A.B. magna cum laude  of Harvard College and Baker Scholar graduate of the Harvard Business School. Co-Chair of Asia Society Japan.

An experienced communicator, Jean-Michel Dumont returned to Europe after 32 years in Asia to focus on expanding the communication opportunities between the two continents. He currently consults in communication strategy for corporations in their Asia and global positioning, and for their growth and acquisitions strategy, focusing on their purpose and core values.

As Chairman of Ruder Finn Asia, he was responsible for its growth and development, devising Asia-wide strategic direction and setting the tone on managing the company’s business. He grew the operations from 10 people to over 400, helping the firm become one of the top 3 international agencies in China and a recognized leader in multiple sectors across. To provide counsel on strategies for Asia, Jean-Michel draws on his experience with different types of clients from a broad spectrum of sectors. Involved in strategy development, helping reposition or launch international brands in Asian market, he also worked with international governments to support their positioning or investment strategies.

His lengthy experience in Asia gives Mr. Dumont a thorough understanding of how to create and implement image-building programs throughout the region. A native of France, he is fluent in French, English, Spanish and Portuguese and has a working knowledge of Mandarin and Italian.

Dr. Yuan Ding is the Vice President and Dean, and Cathay Capital Chair Professor at CEIBS. Yuan is an established scholar in accounting, corporate governance, and mergers & acquisitions, with his Ph.D. in Accounting from University Montesquieu Bordeaux IV, France. He has plenty of academic publications in world-renowned journals, and more than 20 years’ teaching experience at the levels of MS, MBA, EMBA and PhD in Europe and in China. During his Deanship, CEIBS Zurich campus was established in 2015, and the Global EMBA programme has been reconstructed with two integrated cohorts running between China, Europe and Africa, which has grown into #2 worldwide (ranked by FT for two consecutive years).

An expert on higher education in business management, Yuan is a Dean Director at the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), Steering Committee Member of EFMD Conference for Deans and Director General; International Advisory Board Member at Université Paris Dauphine, EHL and Bologna Business School.

Yuan is also a frequent contributor to academic and executive conferences across the world, including World Economic Forum in Davos, French German Forum, Roland Berger Symposium, Soft Power Conference in Italy, EFMD Conference for Deans and Directors, GMAC Asia Pacific Conference, New Development Bank ThinkLAB, and CEIBS Europe Forum, etc.

He has also served on the Boards of Directors of several listed firms and financial institutions in mainland China, Hong Kong, Europe and North America. Adept at cross-border M&A, he frequently provides consulting services for Chinese companies going overseas which span across different industries and continents.

Debra Eisenman is Chief Operating Officer of the Asia Society and Founding Director and Senior Fellow of the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI). As COO, Debra oversees the operations and strategy of the Society’s substantive pillars, as well as the global network.

Prior to this role, Debra was Managing Director of the Asia Society Policy Institute, where she led and oversaw projects on development, governance, sustainability, and security challenges throughout Asia, with a particular focus on Myanmar, Central Asia, and Iran. She also ran ASPI’s strategy and operations, and has been with ASPI and its predecessor, the Global Policy Programs department at Asia Society, in numerous, progressively responsible roles since 2011. Debra also created the initial business, operations, and strategic plans for the development of ASPI, prior to its launch.

Before joining Asia Society in 2011, Debra worked on the Peacebuilding and Western Balkans grantmaking programs of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. From 2005 to 2008, she worked at the National Crime Prevention Council on projects to advance youth civic engagement and individual and community safety.

Debra has been a short-term election observer in Kosovo (2010), Albania (2011), Ukraine (2012 and 2014), and Armenia (2017). She holds a master’s degree in politics from New York University, and is a cum laude graduate of the University of Maryland with high honors in her government and politics major. She is also a fellow of the Truman National Security Project and a member of Women in International Security. Debra is a contributor to radio, television, and print media. In June 2018, she authored the ASPI report, Reconciling Expectations with Reality in a Transitioning Myanmar. 

Jean-François Huchet is currently President of the University for Oriental Language and Civilization in Paris (INALCO). He was vice-president for research of INALCO from 2017 to 2019. He was director of the Centre for Asian Studies (ASIEs) at INALCO from 2014 to 2017. Between 2006 and 2011, he was director of the French Centre for Research on Contemporary China (CEFC) a French National Research Center (CNRS) research institute based in Hong Kong, and director of the Academic Journal "China Perspectives". He was based in Asia for 18years and has occupied several academic positions as senior research fellow at the French Centre for Research on Contemporary China (CEFC) in Hong Kong between 1997 and 2001. He was also senior research fellow at the Maison franco-japonaise in Tokyo between 1993 and1997 and PhD researcher at Beijing University from 1987 to 1991. He has received his PhD of economics from the University of Rennes (France) in 1993. His research and publications have focused on the role of the state in economic development in China and India and on the global consequences of China’s economic development. He has published numerous articles and books on the Chinese economy. His latest books and articles include: The Environmental Crisis in China (in French), Paris, Presses de SciencesPo, 2016 ; China and India in Central Asia, A new Great Game?, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, 254 pp. ; "Impact of 1989 on the Emergence of State and Authoritarian Capitalism in China ", in Jacques Rupnik and Christian Lequesne (eds.), 1989: Europe and the World transformed, London, Routledge, 2011.

Eric Labaye is President of École Polytechnique, a major French institution of higher education and research in sciences and engineering and President of Institut Polytechnique de Paris, created by École Polytechnique,
ENSTA Paris, ENSAE Paris, Télécom Paris and Télécom SudParis in 2019.

He serves on the board of Telecom Paris, the International Advisory Board of ESSEC, and the Board of Advisors of the School of Public Affairs at Sciences Po. Eric Labaye was formerly Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company and
Chairman of the McKinsey Global Institute. Prior to this, he was Managing Director of the France office, led the firm’s Global Knowledge and Communication and was a member of the Shareholders Council of the firm (Global Board) for ten years, of which he chaired the Client Committee. Eric Labaye has intensively worked with Asian companies on business development interest in Asia and more recently strengthened partnerships with Asian universities.

Eric Labaye is a graduate from École Polytechnique and Telecom ParisTech and holds an MBA with distinction (Henry Ford II award) from INSEAD.

Officier of the French Légion d’Honneur. Founder and President (1981-2003) of the Institut Aspen France with former Prime Minister Raymond Barre as chairman (2015- 2017). Lifetime trustee of The Aspen Institute USA and Board Member of Aspen Italia. Chairman and CEO of Interfina SAS. Former chairman and CEO of Mellerio dits Meller, a family High Jewellery group since 1613. Chairman of Mellerio Foundation. Board Member of the Fondation Victor Segalen.

Former chairman of the Comité d’Echange franco-japonais (CEFJ). Honorary member and Former chairman of COMITE COLBERT (Association of French Luxury Brands), Former vice president of the sectorial committee Fashion and luxury (French Ministry of Finance), Board Member of La Haute Ecole de Joaillerie, Former Board member of Union Française de la Joaillerie (UHBJO), Honorary member of the French Family Business network (FBN France), Former member of the Paris advisory Board of Banque de France, Former elected member of the Paris Chamber of Commerce, former chairman of Promosalons, President d’honneur de IREFI (Institute for Economic Relations between France and Italy), former vice president of comité d’Etablissement of HEC Business School. Olivier Mellerio graduated from HEC in France and has an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Peter Piot is a former Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and is a Handa Professor of Global Health. He is visiting professor at the National University of Singapore, and is Special Advisor on Covid-19 of the President of the European Commission.

He has a medical degree from the University of Ghent (1974), and a PhD in Microbiology from the University of Antwerp (1980). In 1976 he co-discovered the Ebola virus in Zaire while working at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, and led research on HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases and women's health, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. He had academic affiliations at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, the University of Nairobi, the University of Washington, Imperial College London, and the College de France Paris, and was Senior Fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

He was the founding Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1995 until 2008, and was an Associate Director of the Global Programme on AIDS of WHO. Under his leadership UNAIDS became the chief advocate for worldwide action against AIDS, also spearheading UN reform by bringing together 10 UN system organizations.

Professor Piot was Chair of the King Baudouin Foundation Brussels and New York, and was Vice Chair of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI). He is Vice-Chair of the Global Health Innovation Technology Fund (GHIT), Tokyo, and member of the Board of the Novartis Foundation, Basel, and of Biocon Biologics, Bengaluru. He was President of the International AIDS Society.

Peter Piot is a member of the US National Academy of Medicine, The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the French Académie Nationale de Médecine, The U.K. Academy of Medical Sciences and of the Royal Academy of Medicine of his native Belgium.

He has received numerous scientific and civic awards such as the Canada Gairdner Global Health Award, the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize, Japan, the Robert Koch Gold medal, The Prince Mahidol Award for Public Health, the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights, and the Prix International INSERM, Paris, He was a 2014 TIME Person of the Year (The Ebola Fighters). Peter Piot was ennobled as a Baron in 1995 in Belgium, and knighted (KCMG) in the U.K., and received the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun of Japan.

He has published over 600 scientific articles and 17 books, including his memoir 'No Time to Lose' in 2012 (WW Norton), translated into French, Dutch, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. He is married to Heidi Larson.

Investor and entrepreneur in China and Silicon Valley for over 20 years, Will is a co-founder of Timeplus Inc, a leading global streaming data analytics platform.  Will also sits on the investment committee for CreaDev China, the ever-green private equity firm of the Mulliez Family. Mulliez family businesses span over 200 companies and includes global market leaders such as Auchan, Decathlon, Leroy Merlin, and Agapes. Prior to TImeplus, Will was an early investor and the Chief Strategy Officer at TalkingData. While at TalkingData, Will led the scaling of the business to become China’s leading independent big data analytics platform, achieving unicorn status.

Will started his career at Goldman Sachs, where he worked in the New York and London offices. Will received his BA from Tufts University, and his MBA from the Harvard Business School. He has served as a Board Member of Harvard Business School’s Global Alumni Board.

He is also a member of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, Sous-Commanderie de Los Angeles. He is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and French. Will lives in Santa Barbara with his French-American wife and three children.

Born in the U.S. to immigrant parents from China, Amy Tan rejected her mother’s expectations that she become a doctor and concert pianist. She chose to write fiction instead. Her novels are The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Saving Fish from Drowning, and Valley of
Amazement, all New York Times bestsellers. 

She is the author of two memoirs, The Opposite of Fate and Where the Past Begins; two children’s books, The Moon Lady and Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat; and numerous articles for magazines.

Ms. Tan served as co-producer and co-screenwriter for the film adaptation of The Joy Luck Club and was creative consultant for Sagwa, the Emmy-nominated PBS television series for children.

She wrote the libretto for the opera based on her novel The Bonesetter’s Daughter. With music composed by Stewart Wallace, the opera had its world premiere in 2008 at the San Francisco Opera.  Tan is the subject of the American Masters documentary Amy Tan:  Unintended Memoir which premiered at Sundance in 2021. In addition, she is an instructor of a MasterClass on Fiction Writing.

French seasoned tech entrepreneur with two exits, a business data platform with global footprint (GIA) and an Asia wide business expert platform (Fusion). She invests in Health businesses with a focus on Mental Health innovations and serves on the board of growth stage companies. Marine has a special interest in neuroscience, science and data-centric businesses.  She co-founded and was the CEO of a gamified and AI powered social network for cancer patients in China (MedAnt) and a video Q&A platform based in London (YurOn). She started as an investment banker in 1994 in Tokyo where she also managed the editorial team of a Japanese publishing house. Marine lives in London with her three children and English husband.

Laurent's digital expertise started in 1999 with Lastminute.com, a leading European e-travel company, where he opened up Continental Europe, and IPOed in 2001. His second venture in e-travel was with Voyage Privé in 2010, leading its international expansion in Europe and in Latin America.

Laurent is also a Fintech expert, with 8 years in the payment industry at Edenred (2001-2008), growing the company in multiple geographies, including Asia-Pacific. He also spent 2 years in the insurance industry (Aviva), leading its digital transformation. Since 2012, Laurent is active on the European tech start-up scene, at different stages of their development (seed to 10 million € turnover), and with various roles: angel investor, advisory, interim management (mandate from funds) and board role. He is a co-founder in France of a start-up studio (Senseii Ventures), of a holding company focussed on decarbonation (Redmill Capital). Laurent was also involved with two start-up accelerators (Wilco and P/Factory) and was a Venture Partner at Blackfin Capital.

Laurent is an ex-consultant at McKinsey, is a graduate from Harvard Business School and from Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris (ESCP).