Karen Cator is President and CEO of Digital Promise and a leading voice for transforming American education through technology, innovation and research. From 2009-2013, Cator was Director of the Office of EducationalTechnology at the U.S. Department of Education, where she led the development of the 2010 National Education Technology Plan and focused the Office’s efforts on teacher and leader support. Prior to joining the department, Cator directed Apple's leadership and advocacy efforts in education.

Howard Chao is an investor, lawyer and counselor to entrepreneurs. He began his work life as a corporate lawyer with O'Melveny & Myers and for many years was the Chair of the Firm's Asia Practice. In recent years Howard has moved to the principal side of investing and deal-making. Howard actively makes angel and other VC investments in earlier stage companies through his personal vehicle, Doon Capital, usually in collaboration with other investors.

Duncan Clark is Chairman of BDA, a team of over 120 Beijing-based professionals advising investors in China’s Internet and consumer sectors. Duncan founded BDA in 1994, becoming an early advisor to the founders of leading Chinese Internet companies. His book, Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built will be published in April 2016 by Harper Collins. A graduate of the L.S.E., Clark was more recently a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University.

Richard Dasher  has directed the US-Asia Technology Management Center in Stanford’sSchoolof Engineering since 1994. He serves on advisory boards for government S&T programs and research institutes in Canada, Japan, and Thailand, and as an advisor to start-up companies, accelerators, and VC firms in the U.S., China, Japan, and S. Korea. He was the first-ever non-Japanese person asked to join the governance of a Japanese national university, serving on the board of directors and management council of Tohoku University, 2004-2010.

Robin Goldberg is the Chief Experience Officer of Minerva. Minerva was established to make this a smarter and wiser world and offers a liberal arts university education that prepares the world’s future leaders. Goldberg leads all efforts supporting the student experience from recruitment to student life to lifelong professional support. She is also responsible for defining the brand, building awareness, and driving engagement of all constituencies.

Anil K. Gupta is the Michael Dingman Chair in Strategy, Globalization & Entrepreneurship at the Smith B-School, University of Maryland at College Park. Ranked by Thinkers50 as “one of the world’s most influential living management thinkers,” he has also been named by The Economist as one of the world’s “superstars” for research on emerging economies. He is the author of several best-selling books including The Quest for Global Dominance, Getting China and India Right, and The Silk Road Rediscovered.

Leslie Hook covers technology for the Financial Times out of San Francisco, including Uber, Amazon, e-commerce and payments companies. Prior to this she wrote for the Lex column, and before that she was a Beijing correspondent covering energy and the environment, also with the FT. A Mandarin speaker, Leslie was based in China for seven years where she got her start at the Far Eastern Economic Review and then worked for the Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong. 

Anthony Jackson is Vice President for Education at Asia Society. Previously, he was a Director of the Walt Disney Company's Disney Learning Partnership, where he designed and oversaw theCreative LearningCommunities network ofreforming elementary schools. Prior to that he was at the Carnegie Corporation of New York where he directed its Task Force on the Education of Young Adolescents that produced the seminal Turning Points report, which became a blueprint for the reform of thousands of middle schools nationwide.

James McGregor is Chairman of APCO Worldwide’s greater China region and author of the book, No Ancient Wisdom, No Followers: The Challenges of Chinese Authoritarian Capitalism. Previously, he was a veteran reporter for The Wall Street Journal, was founder and CEO of a China-focused consulting and researchfirm for hedge funds, a senior adviser for Ogilvy Public Relations China, and was the China managing partner for GIV Venture Partners.

Tom Nagorski became Executive Vice President of the Asia Society following a three-decade career in journalism, having served most recently as Managing Editor for International Coverage at ABC News. He has written for several publications and is the author of Miracles on the Water: The Heroic Survivors of a World War II U-Boat Attack.

Ni Xiangyu is Chairman of the Administrative Committee of Tianjin Binhai Hi-Tech Industrial Development Area. He has been engaged in foreign economic work for more than 30 years and maintains a close relationship with the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.Having attended numerous domestic and foreign high-level meetings and forums,he has given keynote speeches on economics and finance, scientific and technological innovation, cultural creativity, manufacturing and other areas

Wilhelm Oehl is the Principal of Eight Inc. where he is overseeing the creation and execution of human centric experiences for a wider range of projects of Eight Inc.’s key accounts. His contribution have received international design awards andhave been published worldwide. Oehl has taught industrial design at the San Francisco Academy of Art College, and speaksat international design forums. He actively supports the arts and is a member of the Media Arts Accessions Committee of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and a Board Member of the Grabhorn Institute in San Francisco.

N. Bruce Pickering is Vice President of Global Programs at Asia Society overseeing cross-Center program initiatives throughout the organization's global network. He is also Executive Director Asia Society's Northern California Center. Pickering has an extensive background working on Asia-related issues in government, non-profit and academicsectors. Prior to joining Asia Society, Pickering was Director of Public Affairs and Development at the Graduate School of Journalism and Special Assistant to theDirector of the Institute of East Asian Studies at UC Berkeley.

Orville Schell is the Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-ChinaRelations at Asia Society in New York. He is a former professor and Dean at the University of California, Berkeley Graduate Schoolof Journalism. Schell’s most recent books are: Wealth and Power, China’s Long March to the 21st Century; Virtual Tibet; The China Reader: The Reform Years; and Mandate of Heaven:The Legacy of Tiananmen Square and the Next Generation of China’s Leaders.

Peter Schwartz is SVP for Global Government Relations and Strategic Planning at Salesforce.com where he manages the organization’s ongoing strategic conversation. He is the author of many books, with his first book, The Art ofthe LongView, considered a seminal publication on scenario planning. Schwartz publishes and lectures widely, and has served as a script consultant on the films "The Minority Report," "Deep Impact," "Sneakers," and "War Games."

Kim Walesh Kim Walesh Kim Walesh is Director of Economic Development and Deputy City Manager for the City of San Jose. Throughout her career, Kim has helped leaders collaborate across disciplines in order to create economic opportunity, strengthen sense of community, and design environments that make people happier, healthier, and more productive. Kim is co-author of the books Grassroots Leaders for a New Economy: How Civic Entrepreneurs Build Prosperous Communities and Civic Revolutionaries: Igniting the Passion for Change in American Communities .

Wang Wei is the Vice Chairman of the Administrative Commission of Tianjin Binhai Hi-Tech Industrial Development Area, where he is responsible for foreign and domestic project negotiation, project management and integrated service. With more than 10 years of work experience in foreign invested enterprises from the U.S. and Europe, he has extensive social relationships with top managers from different areas, including the financial industry, mass media industry, cultural industry, new energy industry, and telecommunication industry.

Wang Zhen is the research professor and Vice President of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS). He is in charge of economic research, international relations and human resources. A scholar on industrial economics, small and medium-sized enterprises and development of rural areas, Wang has published extensively in these fields. His works includes Talent Strategies Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: The Motivation of The Japanese Economy, The Second Way for China's Industrialization, and The Development and Governance of The Innovative City.

Ken Wilcox currently serves as Emeritus Chairman of Silicon Valley Bank and was Vice Chairman of SPD Silicon Valley Bank. Wilcox was previously the CEO of SVB Financial Group. In that role, he successfully pursued a strategy of expansion and diversification, while remaining focused on the group’s core niches of technology, life sciences, venture capital and premium wineries. In 2013, the Shanghai Municipal Government presented Wilcox with the “Magnolia Silver Award”, a municipal honor given to expatriates for their outstanding contribution to the city's economic, social or cultural development.

Caroline Winnett is the Executive Director at SkyDeck Berkeley, an entrepreneur and marketing executive specializing in neuromarketing, branding, and startup launch and strategy. Winnett co-founded the pioneer company in the neuromarketing industry, NeuroFocus, which was acquired by Nielsen. Caroline is founder of BrandNeuro, providing neuromarketing strategy and insights based on her extensive experience in using neuroscience to understand the mind of the consumer. She is also a managing partner for Neurensics, the leading company in fMRI research for consumer insights.

Jonathan Woetzel is Director of the McKinsey Global Institute. He also leads McKinsey’s Cities Special Initiative and co-chairs the non-profit think tank Urban China Initiative—a collaborative project of Columbia University, Tsinghua University, and McKinsey & Company—that aims to develop and implement solutions to China’s urbanization challenge. Woetzel has written five books on China, including Capitalist China: Strategies for a Revolutionized Economy.

Jim Wunderman is the President and CEO of the Bay Area Council, a CEO-led public policy and advocacy organization formed in 1945 that works to make the Bay Area the most innovative, globally competitive, and sustainable region in the world. Since becoming CEO in 2004, Wunderman has honed the Council’s regionalist approach to advocacy in key areas that impact the Bay Area’s economy and competitiveness, including: business climate, housing, transportation, workforce, water, energy, communications, education, gender equity and cyber security.