Dynamic Zero-COVID Approach – Its Domestic and Global Impacts

John Edwards took up his position as British Consul-General Shanghai in June 2015. He leads the British Government’s engagement in East China: Shanghai, Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangsu.
John has been with the Foreign and Commonwealth since 1996. In that year John was the Desk officer for Nuclear Weapons having graduated in 1995 from the University of Oxford with a Bachelor’s Degree in Ancient and Modern History.
Following a period of Mandarin language training at the University of Westminster and Beijing Normal University, he worked as Consul Political, Economic and Press at the British Consulate General Shanghai from 2000 to 2003.
John then spent four years in London – between 2003 and 2004 as the Head of Human Rights Policy and Projects, between 2004 and 2005 as the Head of Consular Policy, and between 2005 and 2007 as the Foreign Secretary’s Speechwriter. During that time he was also involved in the handling of several crises including the Asian Tsunami in 2004 and the Burma Crisis of 2007.
John was Deputy Consul General at the British Consulate General Jerusalem from 2008 to 2012. He returned to China in 2012, and worked at the British Embassy for four years as Minister Counselor (Prosperity) with the overall responsibility for UK-China policy collaboration on climate change, urbanisation, energy and healthcare, along with strategic oversight of the science and innovation network.
John is in China with his wife, Kate, who has degrees in Theology and Philosophy and teaches at an international school. Kate and John adopted their son, Leo, from Guangzhou in 2013. John is a keen runner and tries to run to and from work whenever possible.

Julia Coym leads Control Risks’ political and regulatory risk consulting team for Greater China and North Asia and is based in Shanghai. With 15 years’ experience in advising organisations on risk and corporate strategy, Julia specialises in responding to rising geopolitical risks, the politicisation of technology and data, industrial policy, and anti-competition, cyber security and other regulatory enforcement.
Before joining Control Risks, Julia worked as a Principal Political Risk Analyst for Maplecroft, a UK-based global risk and investment advisory firm, where she wrote and oversaw risk assessments on China and other Asian countries and focused on manufacturing, extractive, transport, financial, retail and other sectors. She was also previously a contributor to political and economic analysis for the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Julia speaks Chinese, is a native German speaker, is fluent in French and has previous experience in Frankfurt, Washington, Paris, Beijing, London and Berlin.

Ted is a seasoned corporate executive. He has a diverse industrial and automotive background in his past 20+ years’ experience serving leading global companies including JD Power, Danaher, Stanley Black & Decker and Smiths Group.
Ted’s leadership philosophy is “The only way to make big things happen is to take people with you”.
Borne and brought up in Beijing, Ted and his family have lived in Shanghai for over 12 years.
Ted is the Vice-Chair of the British Chamber of Commerce Shanghai.