View speaker details

Laurence Barron has been at Airbus for over thirty two years; he joined the company in 1982, as an in-house lawyer specialising in aircraft finance; after ten years as an international commercial lawyer in Paris, Tokyo and then in-house at Airbus, he moved to the business side when, in 1984, he was appointed Sales Finance Director North America, becoming Head of Sales Finance in 1985, and then, in 1987, Vice President Customer Finance. In 1994, he was asked to set up the Asset Management Organisation within Airbus and that year became Vice President and Head of Asset Management. In 2001, he was promoted to Senior Vice President of Airbus.

In January 2013, Laurence was appointed Chairman of EADS China, now rebranded Airbus Group China. The Airbus Group has three main divisions, all of which are represented in China: Airbus, Airbus Helicopters (previously Eurocopter) and Airbus Defense and Space (the result of the merger of Astrium, Cassidian and Airbus Military).

Laurence graduated from Bristol University Law Faculty (1973 - LLB), Barrister-at-law England and Wales (1974 - Member of Middle Temple), ex-Conseil Juridique (1977-1982 - Paris, France), ex-Foreign Law Consultant (1978-1982 - Tokyo, Japan).

View speaker details

E. Allan Gabor is the President of Asia Pacific for the biopharma business of the Merck Group. As President of Asia Pacific biopharma, he is responsible for developing and driving growth strategies in 14 countries and building on the company’s 350-year presence and reputation. Before Mr Gabor was promoted to President of the Asia-Pacific region, he was the President and CEO for the biopharma business in China.

Prior to joining Merck, Mr Gabor spent 25 years at Pfizer in leadership roles including Chairman and General Manager for China, and Regional President for North Asia, Russia, India, Turkey and Eastern Europe, across many different businesses and geographies with responsibilities within sales and marketing, strategy, mergers and acquisitions and general management.

In recognition of his tireless contribution towards the economic construction, social development and international exchange and cooperation of Shanghai, Mr Gabor has been awarded the Magnolia (Baiyulan) Award twice by the Shanghai municipal government.

Mr Gabor is a highly seasoned executive with an extensive knowledge of strategy, commercial operations and business development. He holds a BA in Communications from the College of Wooster and pursued further education at the University of Tennessee and Harvard Business School.

View speaker details

Mr. Johan de Wit is Vice President, Executive Director, and Head of Retail at the Bank of Beijing. In 1989, Mr. de Wit started his career at ING in life insurance and asset management (corporate & retail). In 2007, De Wit moved to ING’s Direct and Retail banking division. After various commercial and management roles at Nationale Nederlande Corporate Pensions, De Wit left the Netherlands in 1997. He subsequently worked in Mexico (CFO AFORE Bital at Banco Bital), Chile (Commercial Director ING Life), back to the Netherlands (Project Manager restructuring Head Office), Japan (President/CEO ING Life, Chairman ING Mutual Funds), UK (CEO ING Direct UK), Turkey (Head of Retail ING Bank Turkey) and since 2013, he has held his current role at the Bank of Beijing.

View speaker details

Dr.Wang, Huiyao (Henry) is the Founder and President of Center for China and Globalization (CCG), a top independent global think tank in China. In February, 2015, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang appointed Dr. Wang as Counselor for China State Council. Dr. Wang is a well-known Chinese expert on China and globalization issues, on global migration, global talent, overseas Chinese, students, returnees and on Chinese firms going global and MNC in China; he is also a founder of several Chinese well-known overseas returnees organizations; a social entrepreneur and a top adviser to the Chinese government at both central and provincial levels as well as to international organizations and large enterprises.

He has a work life span over both Chinese and foreign governments, multinational executive and business entrepreneurs and academic circles. He has taught at Peking University, Tsinghua University, University of Western Ontario and was a visiting fellow at Brookings Institution and a senior fellow at Harvard Kennedy School. He is currently the Dean of Institute of Development of Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. He is on the Migration Advisory Board of International Organization of Migration (IOM), a member of Yale University Asia Development Council, an advisor for Laureate Education Group, a member of advisory board of Richard Ivey School of Business in Asia, a Steering Committee Member of Metropolis International, a policy fellow of IZA and an advising member to the board of Association of Executive Search Consultants in New York. He is also a frequent speaker at different international forums and often interviewed by various influential global media.