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Helena Legarda’s research focuses on China’s defense and foreign policies, including their domestic sources and drivers, and their geopolitical impact.

Prior to joining MERICS she gained professional experience at the Delegation of the European Union to China and at research and advisory firm China Policy in Beijing. Helena holds a Master in Public Policy degree with a focus on International and Global Affairs from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a BA in Chinese Studies from the University of Oxford. She also studied Chinese language at Peking University.

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Kevin Ma is a Managing Director based in Beijing. He has over a decade of experience in corporate communications, government & public affairs as well as financial communications. Kevin has provided government and government-affiliated stakeholder advocacy strategy, stakeholder and perspective mapping, policy intelligence, engagement narratives and messaging development, and government official meeting support services for clients in financial services, energy, healthcare, TMT and other sectors.

Prior to joining FGS Global, Kevin worked on similar mandates with other communications consultancies including FTI Consulting, Kreab and Edelman. He has played a pivotal role for representing the Hydrogen Council, a Europe-based global hydrogen industry alliance, to discuss with Tsinghua University and EV100 to organize the alliance’s first ever high-level forum in China. He also advised the world’s largest asset manager BlackRock before and after the company got its fund management and wealth management licenses in China for the geopolitical factors influencing its business operations.

His earlier working experience includes government and media engagement responsibilities for China’s central government owned Shenhua Group and China Coal Group. He also contributed in the organization of Beijing’s first Olympic Games in 2008.

Kevin graduated from the University of Melbourne with Master of Marketing degree and Xi’an International Studies University with a bachelor’s degree in English with International Relations as a minor.

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Liam is a versatile professional with the past 7 years advising European businesses on market access and business strategies to China. Solid working experience in project and operations management, financial and risk control in the EU context.
Experienced speaker and author of publications on a range of topics including the Environment sector, SME Digitalisation and F&B distribution. Great team player, generating positive influence on teammates.