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Barbara is a partner based in Beijing. With almost three decades’ experience working in a senior in-house legal role at the Beijing and London offices of leading international firms, as well as providing business consultancy services at PwC, Barbara brings a wealth of knowledge to advising international and Chinese companies and financial institutions on doing business in China and globally. She focuses her practice on complex, cross-border M&As, joint ventures, strategic alliances and foreign direct investment in a wide range of industries including the high-tech, telecom, energy, infrastructure, automotive, pharma and high-end manufacturing industries. She also counsels Chinese companies on their outbound strategies and major transactions.

Barbara has a particular interest in the cyber, data, technology and FinTech sectors, with significant experience advising international companies and financial institutions on navigating China’s evolving legal regime governing data and cybersecurity. She is regularly engaged by clients to provide legal support on high-stakes data and cybersecurity-related issues including managing complex, cross-border data transfers, the digital transformation of businesses, and the deployment of emerging technologies such as AI, cloud computing and blockchain. Barbara also advises Chinese companies on global data compliance projects under the laws of other countries, such as the EU GDPR. She is recognised as a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/EU) by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) and is an IAPP-designated writer for the Asia-Pacific region.

Barbara is widely recognised in the Chinese market as an eminent data/tech lawyer and is described as “having extensive experience in complex TMT regulatory issues” by Legal 500. She is ranked as a leading individual in corporate, M&A, TMT and FinTech by various legal directories, including Chambers, Legal 500, Asian Legal Business, IFLR1000 and WhichLawyer, and received the China Top 15 TMT Lawyer award 2020 from Asian Legal Business.

Benefiting from her in-house experience, Barbara works closely with the industry and is frequently invited to share her insights at premier international professional and industry conferences organised by the IAPP, the Asia Privacy Forum and the Economist Corporate Intelligence Network, among others. She served as the vice chair of the Cybersecurity Sub-Working Group and the Construction Working Group of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China for several years.

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Dr. Oliver M. Rui is Professor of Finance and Accounting at CEIBS. He is also professionally designated as Certified Financial Analyst (CFA) and Financial Risk Manager (FRM). Prior to joining CEIBS, Dr. Rui was a tenured Professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has taught a variety of courses at both the graduate and undergraduate levels at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Tsinghua University, Shanghai National Institute of Accounting, and Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He was the Programme Director of Executive Master of Professional Accountancy which is a joint programme between the CUHK and Shanghai National Institute of Accounting. He was a deputy director of the Center for Institutions and Governance and a senior research fellow of Institute of Economics and Finance. Prof. Rui is also an award winning teacher and researcher. He received the Faculty Teaching Award at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, six years in a row, from 2004 to 2009. He received the 2013 Research Excellence Award at CEIBS and was awarded the first CEIBS Medal for Research Excellence in 2015.

He holds a B.S. degree in International Economics (1990) from the Institute of International Relations in Beijing, a Msc. degree in Economics (1993) from Oklahoma State University as well as an MBA in Statistics (1995) and a Ph.D. in Finance (1997), both from the University of Houston.

Dr. Rui has a wide range of research interests. He has published over 60 papers in reputable Economics, Finance, Accounting and Management journals.

Prof. Rui is a former member of the Panel of Examiners of the Securities Industry Examination of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, a Member of American Finance Association, Financial Management Association, American Accounting Association, Hong Kong Securities Institute. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Business Valuation Forum in Hong Kong. He is a visiting financial economist at Shanghai Stock Exchange, research fellow at Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research and research fellow at Asian Development Bank Institute. He is also a vice president of Hong Kong Financial Engineering Association. He has conducted in-house training for many large corporations such as China Mobile, China Construction Bank, Ericsson, R&F, Odebrecht and China Gas. He also serves as an independent director for several companies.