Panel Discussion “Scaling Up in China”

Entrepreneur, sports fanatic, husband and father of 3, William Vanbergen, along with his wife Emma, founded BE Education in 2003 to help Chinese students gain access to top-ranked international schools. A former pupil at Eton College, William brings an intimate knowledge of international education and practical strategies to gain acceptance to the worlds leading schools and universities. William designed BE Educations proprietary summer programmes at Eton College and Charterhouse School and is responsible for expanding Wycombe Abbey International School in China. William has an unmatched work ethic that inspires his teams and those around him; under his leadership, with a few bumps and bruises along the way, BE education has grown from a small education consultancy to the award-winning full-range education consulting services provider it is today.

Penny founded Red Bridge in 2009 with the aim of providing clients seeking marketing communications advice in China with an alternative to the large holding companies – an independent consultancy local in its focus, creative in its approach and international in its thinking.

Through the creation of award-winning work, trusted client partnerships and distinct company culture, Red Bridge soon earnt its reputation as one of the leading independent agencies in the region.

Today, following the 2017 merger of Red Bridge with WE Communications, Penny leads the combined WE Red Bridge business with offices in Beijing and Shanghai. The company’s independent spirit remains strong and it continues to out-perform the market. In 2020 the agency was again awarded as PRWeek’s Greater China PR Consultancy of the Year and Penny was named Leader of the Year at The British Business Awards in China.

Jonathan joined Bridgepoint in 2011 and leads the Shanghai Portfolio Office.

He worked for Coca-Cola for ten years where he was a Director of Strategy and Planning for the South Pacific Business Unit and prior to that he was executive assistant to Coca-Cola’s President of Greater China in Shanghai. Before that, he was a management and strategic consultant with a boutique strategic consultancy for five years based in Shanghai.

Jonathan is a Certified Accountant (CPA) and holds an MBA and a BA in Economics from Fudan University. He is also fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin.

Barbara Ex is the Founder and CEO of WhiteSpace, a fast-growing start-up that operates professional meeting space on demand for regular business events. Since launching WhiteSpace 3 years ago, Barbara led the company in creating a new category of real estate operations, scaling up, growing out of Covid, and now partnering with global commercial real estate companies to build an Asia-wide brand.

Before moving to the start-up world, Barbara served as Executive Director of Business Transformation at Lenovo in Beijing. In the 1990s, she was a Principal Consultant at IBM, where she pioneered B2B e-business models in the manufacturing industries.

Barbara holds an MBA from London Business School and both Bachelors and Masters degrees in Chemical Engineering from MIT.