WANG Shi, Chinese real estate developer and advocate for environmental sustainability, discusses the business philosophy of Vanke which he founded and grew into China’s biggest home builder. He will share his experiences as a visiting scholar in the U.S., U.K. and Israel at Harvard, Cambridge and Hebrew Universities respectively over the past decade as well as his passion for nature, sports and his recent involvement in advocating for climate protection. The conversation will be moderated by ASSC Advisory Board Member, Dr. Seagull Song.

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WANG Shi

Founder of Vanke Co., Ltd.

Chairman of the Board, Vanke Foundation

Mr. Wang Shi is Founder and Honorary Chairman of China Vanke Co., Ltd, which he founded in 1984. Under his leadership, Vanke has grown into the world’s largest residential home developer by sales revenue, and China’s pioneer in green home construction.

In recent years, Wang led environmental initiatives among Chinese private sector companies, particularly in the areas of natural habitat conservation, garbage recycling, forest conservation and carbon emission reduction. In 2004, he co-founded the Society of Entrepreneurs and Ecology, China’s largest environmental network, including more than one million Chinese private sector entrepreneurs. He was the founding President of the One Foundation and Shenzhen Mangrove Wetlands Conservation Foundation. Wang is also a member of the Leadership Council of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves under the UN Foundation, Board Director of World Wildlife Fund (U.S.) and Board Director of the Palace Museum Cultural Relics Protection Foundation. In April 2020, Wang orchestrated a donation valued at 5.3 billion RMB (USD 747 million) with Vanke employees, to Tsinghua University, to establish Tsinghua Vanke School of Public Health.

As a passionate mountaineer, Wang reached the peak of Mount Everest from the North and South faces in 2003 and 2010 respectively. He is the eleventh person in the world to accomplish “7+2”—reaching the Seven Summits in 2004 and the North and South Poles in 2005.

Wang was a visiting fellow at Harvard University, the University of Cambridge and Hebrew University. He has teaching roles at numerous universities, including Harvard, Peking, Columbia, MIT, HKUST, and the National University of Singapore.

Wang is the author of My Changes (Wang Shi’s 40 Years in the Age of Modernization) (2019), The Vanke Way: Lessons on Driving Turbulent Change from a Global Real Estate Giant (2016), Soul in The Journey (2008), The Journey and The Dream (2006) and other books.

Dr. Seagull Haiyan Song

Advisory Board Member, Asia Society Southern California 

Dr. Seagull Song has been a leading expert on U.S.-China intellectual property law and entertainment law. She has over twenty years of experience practicing in international law firms, advising multinational corporate clients and working with academics, policy makers and industry players across the US and Asia Pacific region. Dr. Song is the former Director of the Asia-America Law Institute at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, and a Guest Professor at Peking University School of Law and Beijing Film Academy. In addition to her academic capacity, she held a series of positions, including Senior Counsel at Disney, overseeing the company’s intellectual property division in the Asia Pacific region, a consultant with Hogan Lovells LLP and Arnold & Porter LLP, and a partner with King and Wood Mallesons in Shanghai, heading the intellectual property practice of the firm’s Shanghai Office. Dr. Song also serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A.  Dr. Song earned her LL.M. from Hong Kong University, and a second LL.M. and a J.S.D. from School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley.

For any questions for the speakers in this program please submit in advance to [email protected]. We hope you'll consider joining Asia Society Southern California as a member and contributing, both available on our website.

Asia Society Southern California (“ASSC”) is launching China Insights Series, a comprehensive, annual initiative to promote deeper understanding of China. This program is the second event in the series. ASSC will mobilize its Southern California resources, as well as its large network of academic, business, and government leaders in Asia, to bring their expertise, experience and perspective to this program series.

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