Closing the Gender Gap in the workplace [SDG Series]

Caroline joined the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office in 1995 after qualifying as a Barrister-at-law.

She completed Mandarin language training at Beijing Normal University before taking up her first role overseas at the British Embassy in Beijing from 1997-2000.

Caroline was posted to the UK Representation to the European Union in Brussels in 2001 and served as Private Secretary to the Foreign Secretary from 2004-2006.

Caroline was then seconded to the Cabinet Office European Secretariat as Deputy Director. From 2008-12 she served at the British Embassy in Moscow as Minister Counsellor.

Caroline then went on to become Her Majesty’s Consul General to Hong Kong and Macao from 2012 to 2016.

Returning to London, Caroline was appointed Europe Director at the FCDO, a role she held from 2016 to 2019.

Ruikan joined UN Women in January 2018 and is now serving as Partnership Specialist, responsible for developing and maintaining UN Women China office’s strategic relationship with government, international development partners and private sectors, etc.

Before UN Women, Ruikan worked for government department, embassy and international organisation for over 12 years, led strategic development and provided technical support to health projects in areas including newborn health, child health and nutrition as well as HIV/AIDS.

Yang Ruikan holds an MSc in Public Health from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. She also served as member of World Health Organisation’s Guideline Development Group.

• Over 22 years with McKinsey;
• Co-leader of McKinsey diversity & inclusion initiative and leader of diversity, equality and inclusion in McKinsey Greater China Region;
• GCR representative of McKinsey Global Social Responsibility Council and leader of social responsibility in GCR.

Carmen Liu is a Director in Control Risks’ Compliance, Forensics and Intelligence practice. Based in Shanghai, she specialises in pre-transaction due diligence in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau and Korea, and has also taken key roles in a number of commercial due diligence and fraud investigation projects. Her project experience has included the real estate, healthcare and pharmaceutical, finance and banking, automotive, retail, aviation and shipping sectors.

Carmen’s recent projects include:

• Pre-transaction due diligence for a large US-based private equity fund on a USD 500m acquisition in China’s real estate sector, reviewing the target company’s business track record, decision-making structure, management relationships and potential issues related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
• Comprehensive pre-investment due diligence for a financial client, looking into a technology company in Hong Kong and eight of its principals across multiple jurisdictions – including mainland China, Hong Kong, UK and the Netherlands. The aim was to understand the business track record as well as the government and business relationships of the targets in the sector.
• Conducting multi-jurisdictional asset trace for a Singaporean client who seeks to pursue debts owed by a business partner. The exercise was conducted through extensive public domain research and discreet enquiries in those jurisdictions involved, as well as targeted analysis of the partner’s financial status.
• Third-party risk assessment project for a healthcare company, involving due diligence, enquiries and site visits, looking into around 10 service providers in mainland China to verify their existence and business operations. Our final reports included risk rating charts for the client’s reference.

Before joining Control Risks in 2012, Carmen worked for KPMG Shanghai as an auditor. Her primary responsibility was to conduct substantive audit procedures and Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) control tests. Significant projects included an audit for a Hong Kong pre-IPO project.

Carmen holds a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from Fudan University. She is a native Mandarin speaker and is fluent in English.

Charlene Liu was born in Malaysia and has lived in the US, Singapore, and now Shanghai, China. She is an engineer, a social change maker, and a community leader.

She graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a BSc in Electrical Engineering and has 20 years of working experience in different areas of the Semiconductor & Electronics industry, ranging from design, engineering, manufacturing, project management to sales and marketing. She also has experience with events, corporate innovation, and management consulting at PwC.

Charlene has 16 years of community leadership, commercial event management, and Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) advocacy experience. In 2009, she co-founded ShanghaiPRIDE, an annual festival run entirely by volunteers that promotes diversity, in 2014 Q-Events, an event management company, in 2016 Ladies Who Tech, a social impact community for women in STEM, and in 2019, D&I Consulting, a consultancy which helps corporates cultivate a more inclusive culture. Charlene is now embarking on a full-time journey managing these platforms.

In 2014, she and team ShanghaiPRIDE were awarded Shanghai Hero by Time Out Shanghai, and in 2018, Best Event Organizer in East China by Huodongxing.

Sherry is the founding director of the University of Manchester Worldwide China Centre in Shanghai. She manages China Centre’s business strategies, alumni relations and partnerships in the region. Sherry is standing committee member of Shanghai Overseas Returned Scholars Association and vice president of SORSA UoM association. Sherry was appointed as an envoy to Manchester China Forum in 2013 and awarded ‘women leadership award’ and other influential awards in the field of education at municipal and national levels in recent years. She holds Masters’ degree in Contemporary literature in London as well as MBA degree from the University of Manchester. She was executive committee member of the British Chamber of Commerce Shanghai and currently serves as vice chair of the Education Focus Group. She published a few books such as overseas Chinese corporate reputation and Preparing for multiple challenges on the Belt and Road.