A Phoenix in the Dragon’s Den III: Entrepreneurial Success in China

Professional experience

• Tim has over 25 years’ experience in finance and advisory business.  His expertise covers not only managing daily financial operation for foreign invested companies in China, but also advising on capital market, cross-border M&A and private placement transactions to support the business growth.
• Tim was trained with KPMG in both China and UK.  After qualified as the Chartered Accountant in England and Wales, He joined BDO UK and specialized in corporate finance.  Before becoming the CFO of Next Beauty, Tim was the Head of Financial Advisory for Mazars in China leading transaction advisory services in the Asia-Pacific region, including IPOs, private corporate transactions covering fundraisings (start-up to growth capital), acquisitions and disposals.

Skills

• In depth knowledge of cross-border M&A, investment and restructuring;
• Business oriented approach enabling analysis of companies in a wide range of industries
• Ability to establish strong corporate governance and financial reporting system
• Capability to manage large projects and teams with an international reach and across departments

Dr. Dongqing Shi is the CEO of the company. He is also the technical leader of company’s robotic team developing both indoor and outdoor wheeled robots. He was a post-doctoral fellow of Dartmouth College, with PHD of robotic and control major from Florida State University. He was the major developer of a couple of grand robotic projects granted by US Army research laboratory and US Navy office. His research mainly focuses on perception, machine learning, planning and control for intelligent systems.

Teo Rojas is BRANDON founder, an architect born in Perú, trained in Las Vegas (USA) with 20 years of working experience, focusing the last 16 years in luxury brands and real estate developments, with projects in the Americas, Middle East and Asia.

His expertise includes Branding & User Experience, Design, Construction
and Project Management. He has been working for different brands developing their facilities/infrastructure, such us: Salvatore Ferragamo, Tommy Hilfiger, Polo Ralph Lauren in the Americas and Zara ( Inditex Group ), Versace & Fendi in Asia Pacific and workplace and shopping Center Projects as well.

Teo has travelled widely, which allows him to know deeply about customer experience, design methods and construction techniques, he has a passion for creating customer feelings reflected in spaces and components, currently he receives invitations for giving lectures in Marangoni Fashion Institute, Raffles Design Institute, China International Furniture Fair in Shanghai, Retail Fulfilment Forum, China Coworking Development Forum, Shanghai Design Week & Moscow Design Week. Currently he is mentoring different startups under WeWork Labs Platform.

• Vice President and CTO, responsible for the company’s technology management, big data, and professional services business
• Graduated from the University of Turku, Finland with a bachelor’s degree in Applied Physics
• 27+ years financial IT work experience, have good insight into the development of China’s banking industry, and in-depth research on the comprehensive application of FinTech.
• Served for well-known IT companies such as Union Mobile Payment, Longtop and Hi Sun Technology as General Manager, Vice president, CTO

OUYANG Yun is the founder of Hainan Vonsoar Biotech Co., Ltd, a CRO Specialized in Building Block, Complex API and Intermediates. Before starting his own business, Ouyang was the president of Guizhou-Cloud Big Data Industry Co., Ltd., the exclusive operator of i-Cloud for Apple Inc in China. Prior to that, Ouyang was a vice president of Siemens China, overseeing its import & export business over ERU 5 billion/year. He is a DrPH student in Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and Tsinghua University with LL.M. and LL.B., respectively.

Dr Shameen Prashantham is a Professor of International Business and Strategy, and Associate Dean (MBA), at China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai, China. Prior to joining CEIBS, he taught at Nottingham University Business School (NUBS) China and the University of Glasgow. He pursued doctoral and post-doctoral research at Strathclyde University in Glasgow, Scotland. Prof. Prashantham is best known for his work at intersection of global strategy and entrepreneurship on partnering between large multinationals and startups, and is currently focused on partnerships that contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). His latest book is Gorillas Can Dance: Lessons from Microsoft and Other Corporations on Partnering with Startups Wiley, 2022).

Grace Jiang, Director, Commercial Banking HSBC China Bank Limited. With nearly 20 years’ experience in banking industry, Grace is currently managing a team based in Shanghai looking after more than 200 international corporates from European countries across different industries and sectors, to provide professional financial services and solutions to support the day-to-day business operation and expansion in China.

Dr Cherry Hu has 28 years’ experience in ESG&EHS consulting service, including 7 years of experience in charge of environment administration, 15 years of experience in environment and ESG consulting and l6 years of experience in environment management and engineering research.

Dr Hu’s professional and industry experience including 30+ projects experience in ESG Strategies and Information Disclosure, 100+ projects experience in ESG Due Diligence, 20+ projects experience in Sustainable Finance, 200+ projects experience in EHS Compliance, and 20+ projects experience in Carbon Neutrality & Emission Peak.

Education, Licenses & Certifications

• lPh.D., School of Environment, Tongji University
• lCertified EIA engineer
• lMember of Carbon Neutral Committee of China Environmental Science Society
• lExpert of Sichuan Department of Ecology and Environment Climate Change
• lEIA expert committee member of Sichuan BEE, Dalian BEE, Shanghai BEE and Ningbo BEE

James Jin is managing partner of Ventech China.  Ventech China focuses on China’s Internet, consumption, enterprise services and technology, and has successfully invested in outstanding start-up companies such as Jumei, Keep, Deeproute, Dongfang Microbank, Naiveblue, and Wonderfull.  Before joining Ventech, James was the founding partner of CMHJ Partners which Invested in early stage and growth stage companies in China.  Previously, James managed a startup in Silicon Valley, USA, which was sold to a private equity fund.

He is also a adjunct lecturer at Nanyang Technological University.

James holds a master’s degree in computer science from California State University and a master’s degree in business administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Joanne is the Founder and Managing Partner of Capital Eight, a corporate finance house headquartered in Shanghai.  During her investment banking career spanning nearly 40 years, Joanne has worked in senior corporate finance positions with UBS, Jardine Fleming (JP Morgan) and GE Capital across Europe, the USA and Greater China; 25 of those years have been focused on a wide range of M&A, debt and equity capital raisings, restructurings and infrastructure financing.  At Jardine Fleming, she was a member of the first dedicated team of M&A professionals based in Asia and was internationally ranked as a leading Asian-emerging markets corporate finance advisor.

Joanne actively represents the foreign financial services industry in China, engaging in regular peer dialogue with the Chinese Government.  She is Chair Emeritus of BritCham Shanghai’s Financial Services Group, Chair of the Ethics Committee for the American Chamber of Commerce Shanghai and was inaugural Chair of the National Australian Chamber of Commerce Greater China.  Joanne has also worked with the UK Government to promote the adoption of PPP infrastructure financing in China and is a former Vice Chair of the EU Chamber’s Investment Working Group.  She advises young and aspiring entrepreneurs in China as an accredited member of SOS Ventures’ global mentor program and is anAdvisory Board Director to two tech start-ups.

Joanne is a regular speaker at international conferences and often asked for her views on China’s financial services industry and the China investment environment; she has participated in the BBC’s globally televised debating series “Intelligence Squared”.  Joanne holds an MBA from London Business School, a BA from the University of Adelaide, South Australia and reads, writes and speaks Mandarin.