The Luxembourg Renminbi Forum 2017

Following the legislative elections of 14 October 2018, Pierre Gramegna was re-appointed Minister of Finance in the coalition government formed by the Democratic Party (DP), the Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party (LSAP) and the Green Party (déi gréng). Pierre Gramegna first joined the government as Minister of Finance in 2013.

As Minister of Finance, Pierre Gramegna has initiated major reforms to balance the budget and to align Luxembourg’s tax rules with international transparency standards. Thanks to these efforts, Luxembourg’s AAA rating has been consistently confirmed by all major rating agencies and, in 2015, the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes upgraded Luxembourg to “largely compliant”. Pierre Gramegna is also a promoter of the diversification of Luxembourg’s financial centre, in particular with regard to FinTech and sustainable finance. He is the initiator and president of the LHoFT Foundation, which runs the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology. He has also further developed bilateral relations with China in the financial sector.

Pierre Gramegna puts particular emphasis on Luxembourg’s role in multilateral development banks. In 2014, Luxembourg became a member of the African Development Bank and, in 2015, Luxembourg was the first non-Asian country to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Currently, he is the chairman of the board of Governors of the AIIB. In May 2016, Pierre Gramegna was elected chair of the Board of Governors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for a one-year mandate. He currently serves on the Board of Governors of the European Investment Bank and on that of the European Stability Mechanism. He is also Luxembourg’s governor to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

Pierre Gramegna studied law and economics at the Université Panthéon-Assas (Paris II), where he was awarded a master’s degree in civil law in 1981 and a degree in economic sciences in 1982. He completed his post-university education with a DEA (postgraduate diploma of advanced studies) in European Union law.

As a career diplomat, Pierre Gramegna joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1983. From 1996 to 2002, Pierre Gramegna was Luxembourg’s ambassador to Japan and South Korea. From 2003 to 2013, Pierre Gramegna held the position of Director General of the Chamber of Commerce.

Nicolas Mackel is CEO of Luxembourg for Finance, the Agency for the Development of the Financial Centre, since July 2013.

Nicolas is a career diplomat. He has graduated with a law degree from the University of Aix-en-Provence, and holds two post-graduate diplomas in European law from the Sorbonne University, respectively the College of Europe in Bruges where he then also served as a teaching assistant in the Law Department. He worked as a legal clerk at the European Court of Justice before joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1999. His assignments focused on the successive EU Treaty negotiations (Amsterdam, Nice, Constitution, Lisbon).

Nicolas was consecutively posted at Luxembourg’s Permanent Representation to the EU (2002-07), as Deputy Chief of Mission at Luxembourg’s Embassy in Washington DC (2007-11) and as Consul General in Shanghai (2011-13) where he was in charge of promoting Luxembourg’s economic interests throughout China as the Executive Director of the Luxembourg Trade and Investment Office.

Judith Bogner is a television presenter, event facilitator and commentator for international finance, business and geopolitics based between the UK and Germany. For more than ten years she was one of the main European anchors of the financial news channel Bloomberg Global Television in London. Since 2012 Judith runs her own business, offering event and business facilitation, client advisory boards and strategic consulting. She is also a UK accredited mediator.

Judith regularly leads public and private events for corporate and institutional clients in the financial sector and beyond. Her list of clients include the Federation of German Industries, the Euro Finance Week (Frankfurt), Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Bank of New York Mellon, The Brewers of Europe, Luxembourg for Finance, the Dutch Development Bank FMO, Ergo Insurance, State Street, Scope Ratings, the Institute of Culinary Art, Allianz Global Assistance, Wacom and the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Born in Germany, Judith has lived in Switzerland, China, Ukraine, France and Italy. Currently she divides her time between Munich and London. She is bilingual in English-German and also speaks Italian, French and Mandarin Chinese. Judith holds a degree in International Business Management and Chinese from the University of Applied Sciences in Bremen.

Christopher Balding is an associate professor finance and economics holding tenure with Chinese characteristics at the HSBC Business School of Peking University Graduate School. A recognised expert in the Chinese economy sovereign wealth funds, he has written a book entitled Sovereign Wealth Funds: The New Intersection of Money and Power published by Oxford University Press. He is a columnist for BloombergViews as well as a regular contributor to the Financial Times. His work has been cited by a variety of global media outlets including the CNBC, Wall Street Journal, and the BBC where he speaks regularly on the Chinese economy and financial markets. His scholarly work has been published in such leading journals as the Review of International Economics, the International Finance Review, and the Journal of Public Economic Theory on such diverse topics as CDS pricing, the WTO, and the economics of adoption and abortion.

Prior to entering academia, Prof. Balding worked in private equity focusing on turnaround and special situations across industries including mining, high technology, water and waste water, natural resources, and food processing becoming junior vice president of operations and finance for portfolio holdings. He received his PhD from the University of California, Irvine and worked in private equity prior to entering academia. He is happily married with two daughters and one son, (all of whom speak Chinese) and lives in Shenzhen, China.

Bob Currie is Editorial Director and co-founder of Financial Services Research, a publication that reports on investment strategy, risk and operational performance in the financial services industry. Prior to his current role as financial commentator, Bob worked for much of the 1990s as lecturer and researcher in the UK university sector, specialising in international political economy and development strategy for emerging markets.

He is author of published books in development policy and a Global Securities Operations workbook for the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.

Bob graduated in BSc (Hons) Physics from Imperial College London and has Masters and Doctoral qualifications in International Political Economy.

Chris has 28 years’ experience in the financial services industry, mainly with Chase Manhattan Bank Luxembourg and its successor business under J.P. Morgan. Chris left J.P. Morgan in 2005 to build a business offering savings and investment service propositions for UK retail clients. In 2009/10 he built a mobile payment business in East Africa. Chris re-joined J.P. Morgan in 2011 and was appointed Managing Director of its Luxembourg bank once more.

Chris was appointed Head of HSBC Securities Services Luxembourg in September 2014, and led a reanimation of the business for the next two years. In September 2016 Chris joined PwC in Luxembourg in a new role focused around innovation and transformation solutions for the Asset Management sector.

Jonathan Ford is the City editor of the Financial Times. He was previously the FT’s Chief Leader Writer, and before that Comment Editor of Reuters. He was one of the founders and Deputy Editor of Breakingviews, an online financial commentary website.

Prior to that he worked on the Lex column of the FT. A graduate of Oxford University, he started his career in investment banking, working for Morgan Grenfell, now a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank.

Patrick Hess currently serves as Senior Market Infrastructure Expert in the Oversight Division of the European Central Bank (ECB), which is in charge of promoting the safety and efficiency of payment, clearing and settlement systems under the oversight mandate of the ECB.

His prior positions include Senior Economist at the ECB’s China Desk, where he was responsible for monitoring and analysing Chinese economic and financial sector developments, and Senior Market Infrastructure Expert in the TARGET2-Securities and TARGET2 projects, where he worked as relationship manager, policy and communications expert. From 1996 to 2003, he worked for Deutsche Bank in its corporate and transaction banking businesses as credit analyst and product manager.

Patrick Hess holds an M.A. in Sinology and Economics from Heidelberg University, and studied also at Beijing Foreign Studies University, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden and VU Amsterdam. His publication and teaching record, inter alia at the Institute of Chinese Studies in Heidelberg, focuses on China’s economic policy, financial system and market infrastructure, and more recently also on financial and digital innovation in China.

Karine Hirn is a partner of East Capital, an independent asset manager specialised in emerging and frontier markets, which she co-founded in Sweden in 1997. East Capital started to invest in China onshore equity markets in 2013 through a QFII quota. In 2015 it became the first to be approved to invest up to 100% of its UCITS China strategy in A-shares through Stock Connect. East Capital China Environmental fund, a unique A-shares strategy benefiting from and supporting China’s war on pollution, was recently awarded the Luxflag climate finance label.

Karine is French and based in Hong Kong. She is the CEO of East Capital Asia and a French trade counsellor, vice chair of the Swedish Chamber of Commerce and member of the board of the European Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. She is also the chairperson of East Capital Asset Management, East Capital (Lux) General Partners and East Capital (Lux) SICAV.

Jane Jiang is a partner at Allen & Overy Shanghai specialising in legal and regulatory issues in the financial sector. She is a trusted adviser for many first-tier domestic and international financial institutions on how the latest legal developments would affect their product, risks and strategy. She is experienced in advising international clients regarding their investments in regulated industries, including banking, securities and asset management, insurance and derivatives trading and in advising them when they face local regulatory investigations. She also helps Chinese financial institutions with their investment and business operations overseas including helping them to navigate through significant regulatory investigation and litigation. Jane’s clients benefit from her strong relationship with local financial regulators and insights into the financial regulatory regime in China. Jane is particularly recognised as an expert in legal and regulatory issues in respect of RMB internationalisation. She has advised on many landmark transactions of Dim Sum bonds, Panda bonds, complex cross-border investment and acquisitions with an RMB element.

Jane regularly speaks on China’s regulatory changes and financial reform at prominent fora, such as the RMB internationalisation seminar hosted by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the FT-ANZ Growth Strategy Series, the ASIFMA conference, the International Capital Conference, Thomson Reuters’ Regulatory Summit, and the A&O GC Tables for financial institutions in Hong Kong. She was quoted extensively upon the launch of the report “Generation ¥ – RMB: the new global currency”, jointly produced by Allen & Overy and the Economist Intelligence Unit on how global businesses are managing the rise of China’s currency.

Jane was voted the winner of 2016 Outstanding Individuals Award by FT Asia Pacific Innovative Lawyers.

Jane won Financial Regulation Lawyer of the Year in China from Corporate Intl Magazine Global Awards 2017.

Gast Juncker has over 20 years’ experience in the establishment of investment funds and investment companies.

Gast advises clients in relation to regulatory matters and the structuring of their Luxembourg investment fund operations. He is also in charge of leading contacts with Asian asset managers, in particular in China, Korea and Japan.

Gast is listed as one of the leading lawyers in investment funds by IFLR and recommended for his advice in relation to Chinese investments and his work with Asian clients by Chambers and Partners.

Zennon Kapron is the Founder and Director of Kapronasia, a leading financial industry research and advisory firm with offices across Asia. Zennon has been involved in the financial industry for over 20 years and is a recognised expert on the development of fintech in China and its impact on the financial industry.

Before Kapronasia, Zennon was the Global Banking Industry Director for Intel and before Intel, the CIO for Citigroup Portugal. Zennon is also the co-founder of China Fintech and the author of Chomping at the Bitcoin: The Past, Present and Future of Bitcoin in China. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Syracuse University and an MBA from INSEAD.

Stephane Karolczuk is a Partner of Arendt & Medernach and the Head of the Hong Kong office. Stephane advises clients based in the Asia Pacific region regarding their European projects and their Luxembourg legal and regulatory questions.

As Partner in the Investment Management practice, Stephane advises international clients on all issues relating to Luxembourg investment funds (UCITS or other vehicles) including the structuring, setting-up and marketing of these funds (under UCITS or AIFMD), as well as strategies involving investments in the Asia Pacific region and questions relating to the distribution of funds in the region.

Stephane also specialises in questions relating to the internationalisation of the RMB and the opening of the PRC capital markets (QFII, RQFII, Stock Connect, QDII, QDII2, QDIE, QDLP, etc.) from a Luxembourg perspective.

In 2008, Stephane was seconded to Arendt & Medernach’s representative office in New York with a view to developing an Investment Management Helpdesk advising US clients in relation to Luxembourg investment funds questions.

Stephane has taken part in the activities of the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI), the Hong Kong Investment Funds Association (HKIFA), the Hong Kong Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (HKVCA) and he is regularly invited to speak on Luxembourg funds related topics at conferences in the region.

Stephane graduated from the University of Brussels (Belgium) and the University of Ghent (Belgium). He is admitted to practice in Hong Kong as a Registered Foreign Lawyer, as well as in Luxembourg and Brussels.

Languages: English, French, Dutch and basic knowledge of Mandarin.

James Kynge is emerging markets editor and associate editor at the Financial Times. He is also chairman of FT Confidential Research, a premium research service on China, South East Asia and Latin America that he founded in 2009.

A recipient of several journalism awards, Kynge has been a correspondent based in Japan, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Russia, former Soviet Central Asia and Hong Kong over the past 28 years. He was China Bureau Chief for seven years until 2005 and later headed up the Pearson Group of companies’ business operations in China. He was also President of FTChinese.com, the FT’s Chinese language website.

His prize-winning book “China Shakes the World” was an international bestseller, translated into 19 languages. Outside the office, he encourages young people in the UK to engage with China as a British Council “leading light” and as President of the ChineseSpeakers Association, an NGO.

Fiona Leung is the Europe based China Ambassador for Standard Chartered’s Securities Services team and is responsible for driving the Bank’s RMB initiatives in the region. She regularly speaks with European institutions and assists them in navigating multiple cross-border programmes such as the China Interbank Bond Market Direct programme (CIBM), Shanghai and Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect, Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (RQFII) and Qualified Domestic Limited Partnership (QDLP), among others.

Prior to relocating to London in 2015, Fiona was part of the China Securities Services sales team at Standard Chartered Hong Kong and assisted international asset managers in accessing the onshore China market. Fiona holds a Bachelor of Science Economics degree from London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Ms Liu has been working in the head office of ICBC since 2009, and is engaged in assisting foreign institutional investors to trade in the China interbank bond market and FX market. In 2005, ICBC was awarded as the Best Foreign Institutions Agent Bank in the China interbank bond market.

Now, ICBC Agent Trading Team has offered the professional agent service to nearly 80 foreign institutional investors all over 25 countries and regions. The customers cover overseas commercial banks, insurance companies, assets management companies, securities companies and etc., and also include foreign central banks and international financial institutions, market share 1/4.

Andrew is Head of Linklaters’ Capital Markets Group in Asia and widely recognised as a market leader with almost 30 years’ qualified experience. He has been active in the development of documentation for the offshore RMB market, having acted on two of the first three Chinese bank RMB bonds offered to the retail public in Hong Kong (Bank of China and CHEXIM) in 2007. Andrew has also developed documentation for the offshore RMB securities issues of Hopewell Highway Infrastructure (Awarded Debt and Equity-linked Deal of the Year, IFLR Asia Awards 2011), Caterpillar, World Bank, IFC, Tesco and Orix Corporation.

Andrew has been the legal adviser to the Asia Capital Market Association for over 15 years, and has been appointed as a member of the Listing Committee of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. He regularly authors articles on RMB issues and market developments for the financial press and key legal journals.

Margit Molnar is the Head of the China Desk at the OECD Economics Department. In 2015-16 she was seconded to China’s Ministry of Finance to support the G20 Presidency. She has held various positions at OECD working on issues ranging from globalisation, growth, productivity, macroeconomic policies to fiscal consolidation, financial sector performance, services and competition during the past 17 years. She had also been temporarily seconded to UNESCAP as Adviser leading empirical modelling projects as well as advising Bhutan, Mongolia and Brunei Darussalam on their macroeconomic and structural policies.

Prior to joining the OECD, she consulted for the Japanese government project “The Asian Financial Crisis and Response of Macro-economy” in Japan, and conducted research for the Institute for World Economics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. She is lead author of the 2017 and 2015 OECD Economic Survey of China, the Perspectives on Global Development 2014, the Multi-Dimensional Review of Myanmar and of many other reports and articles.

She received her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Economics, Keio University in Japan, M.As from Budapest Economics University and Ritsumeikan University and B.A. (Economics) from Renmin University of China.

Caroline Owen is the CEO and Founder of an independent renminbi (RMB) internationalisation advisory firm, RMB Global Advisors. Caroline is one of the world’s foremost experts in the field of RMB internationalisation and a regular speaker on the advancements China has made to make its currency more freely usable.

Caroline has extensive experience working with multi-national corporations, financial institutions, investors, development organizations and central banks on RMB business. She has advised a variety of investors seeking access to China’s onshore capital markets and has worked to ease access to the RQFII program for U.S. investors. Caroline has successfully helped corporates across the consumer goods, retail, pharmaceutical, technology, industrial and commodity sectors redenominate their invoicing from USD to RMB and mobilise RMB to the offshore market for international use. A pioneer in the market, Caroline has led numerous award winning RMB transactions, including bond issuances for McDonald’s, Caterpillar Financial and the International Finance Corporation.

Before launching RMB Global Advisors, Caroline led the RMB Solutions advisory team for the Americas at Standard Chartered Bank. Prior to that, she worked in a variety of capital markets roles with Credit Suisse and Barclays Capital in New York, London and Sydney, specializing in cross-border funding.

Caroline is a graduate of Cornell University, a CFA charterholder and a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts.

Marc Robert-Nicoud is CEO of Clearstream Holding Frankfurt and Clearstream International Luxembourg.

Marc joined Deutsche Börse Group in 2006 as a legal counsel and has since fulfilled different roles with a focus on the post-trade services offered by Clearstream, a wholly owned company of Deutsche Börse AG. In particular, Marc acted as Eurobond market manager, head of marketing and program manager in charge of strategy execution.

Previously, Marc was a legal officer at the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) and started his career as an associate with the law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton.

Marc is a member of the New York State Bar and the Quebec Bar. Marc is a common law (LL.B.) and civil law (B.C.L) graduate of McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Marc has also completed the Executive Program of the Swiss Finance Institute.

Aldo Romani oversees EIB’s Climate and Sustainability Awareness Bond (CAB&SAB) issuance in all currencies. His team was created in 2018 in response to growing investor demand as well as increasing public attention in the context of the Action Plan on Financing Sustainable Growth.

A graduate in monetary and financial economics of Bocconi University, he started his career in investment banking at Commerzbank AG. He joined EIB as assistant to the Deputy Director General of Finance and then as member of the EUR-funding team.

Aldo began to integrate social responsibility into EIB’s funding strategy in 2007, shaping the first Green Bond ever and overseeing EUR Green Bond issuance since. He structured the upgrade of CAB-administration in 2014, coordinated the IFI- and GBP- groups on impact reporting harmonisation from 2015 to 2016, managed first KPMG-audit of EIB’s CABs in 2016. In 2017-18, he coordinated the EIB-team that co-authored with the China Green Finance Committee White Papers on the Need for a Common Language in Green Finance.

Market recognition includes awards with Global Capital (“Overall Most Impressive Green/SRI Bond Funding Official” in 2015, 2016 and 2017) as well as with Environmental Finance (“GB Personality of the Year” in 2018).

Robert Scharfe has been at the helm of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange since 2012.

He is a recognised expert in Capital Markets matters and a specialist in Green finance.

Before joining the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, he spent 35 years in the banking industry, mostly in Corporate Finance and Financial Markets. Between 2000 and 2012 he was a Member of the Management Board of BGL BNP Paribas in Luxembourg. During that time, he also assumed senior responsibilities within Fortis Bank in the areas of Institutional Banking and Global Markets.

During his banking career, he acquired extensive knowledge in International Capital Markets and gained solid experience in the fields of Asset Management and Investment Funds.

He holds a Master Degree in Economics from the University of Nancy, France, and he is an alumni of Insead, France and Stanford Graduate School of Business, Palo Alto, USA.

Felicia Stanescu has over 20 years of international experience in the financial sector, combining public experience of developing European Union financial legislation with private experience of advising on Mergers & Acquisitions and Initial Public Offerings.

She currently heads the Policy Coordination and International Affairs unit of the Directorate General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union of the European Commission. She has been with the European Commission since 2010 working previously as Policy Assistant to the Director General and prior to that on long-term financing policy aspects, coordinating the Commission’s input on financial regulation to G20 and the Financial Stability Board, and developing legislation for the post-trading sector (clearing and settlement).

Prior to the European Commission, she worked in the private sector, mainly in banking, managing and advising on Mergers & Acquisitions and Initial Public Offerings. Positions included: Head of Strategy for ALM Treasury and M&A Manager at BNP Paribas Fortis (Brussels, 2008-2010); Director, Equity Capital Markets at ABN AMRO Rothschild (London, 2003-2008); Assistant Director, Corporate Finance at ABN AMRO (London/Bucharest, 1999-2002). She started her career at KMPG Romania.

Felicia holds a first class degree in Economics from the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK (1994) and a degree in Business Administration from the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest (1996).

With 12 years of management experience in media, internet, and financial industry, Mr Su is an entrepreneurial and a thought-leadership executive with proven track record in leading Fintech businesses. He is now the vice-president of China Binary Sale Technology and General Manager of Goopal International Limited.

In 2006, he started his professional career in China Binary Sale Technology. In 2010, he joined Alcatel-Lucent and worked as Senior Manager of Business Development. After that, he worked for Samsung Electronic China in Internet Media Business Development. One year later, he began to work for Beijing Qiandaibao Payment Technology as the vice president of Business Development.

Paola Subacchi is the Director of International Economics Research at Chatham House (The Royal Institute of International Affairs) in London. She is an expert on the functioning and governance of the international financial and monetary systems, and advises governments, international organisations, non-profits, and corporations.

She is a media commentator with the BBC, Project Syndicate, the Financial Times, and writes a regular column for Foreign Policy and Huffington Post Italy. She is the author of The People’s Money. How China is building a global currency (Columbia University Press, 2017).

Paola is also a visiting professor at the University of Bologna, a non-executive director of the FTSE-listed company Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, a governor of St Marylebone School in London and an advisory member of Wilton Park (FCO).

An Italian national, she studied at Università Bocconi in Milan and at the University of Oxford. In 2016 she was awarded the honour Cavaliere della Stella d’Italia.

Camille Thommes is the Director General of ALFI, the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry. He joined the association back in 2007.

Before joining ALFI, Camille Thommes was in in charge of the Investment Fund Department at the State and Savings Bank, Luxembourg (BCEE) from 2001-2006, after holding various senior positions in the Securities & Custody department since 1993. He started his professional career in 1986 at BGL (now BGL-BNP Paribas) where he held positions in the Securities and Custody Divisions.

He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Luxembourg Supervisory Authority (CSSF) and a member of the Consultative Committee for Prudential Regulation. Camille is also a member of the High-Level Committee of the Financial Centre set up by the Ministry of Finance and a Board member of the Luxembourg Financial Industry Federation (PROFIL S.A.). Furthermore, he represents ALFI at the Board of Directors of the European Fund and Asset Management association (EFAMA) and is a Board member of IIFA (International Investment Funds Association). In addition, he is a member of the Advisory Board of the Department of Finance of the Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance (University of Luxembourg).

Camille holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg (France), completed the Accelerated Development Program at the London Business School and accomplished traineeships in London and New York.

A Luxembourg native, Camille is fluent in English, French, German and Luxembourgish.

Professor Yao Wang is the Director General of International Institute of Green Finance (IIGF). She also serves as Deputy Secretary General of Green Finance Committee (GFC) of the China Society for Finance and Banking, as Secretary General of the Green Securities Committee (GSC) of the Securities Association of China, as fellow at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), as advisor to the Sustainable Finance Programme at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford and as consultant for the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. She was awarded by Asiamoney China Green Finance Awards 2019 “the Outstanding Contribution to Development of Green Finance in China”.

Prof. Wang worked in investment banks for 7 years, before she became a faculty of Central University of Finance and Economics(CUFE) in 2006.She did her post-doctorate at Bank of Beijing from 2008 to 2010. From 2010 to 2011 she was a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University. Professor Wang is interested in Green Economy, Sustainable Finance, Climate Finance and Green Finance. She is the author of several publications on climate finance and green finance, such as Carbon Finance: Global Vision and Distribution in China (China Economic Publishing House, 2010), and Climate Finance (China Economic Publishing House, 2013).

Ning Wang is cofounder and Chief Business Officer at PingPong, an innovative fintech company specialized in cross-border B2B services. He leads the expansion strategy and partner relationships in North America, Europe and APAC. Previously, he was Head of Business Development for Alipay.com US (now part of Ant Financial Group). He started his payment career with PayPal.com at various finance, analytics and market expansion roles.

Ada Xiao graduated from the University of Cambridge with a B.A. degree in Economics before joining a Chinese investment bank in Hong Kong, China International Capital Corporation (CICC). After that she obtained an MBA agree from the Columbia Business School in New York, and soon after she joined ZhongAn, the very first internet insurance company in China as a product manager, and began her career in fintech. After ZhongAn, she worked at Wanxiang Blockchain Labs as the business development manager. Wanxiang Blockchain Labs was the first entity to promote Blockchain technology in China.

She is now the Chief Strategy Officer of Juzix, a fintech portfolio company of Wanxiang, focusing on Distributed Ledger Technology and its applications in financial market infrastructure.

Mr Zhang is Managing Director at Institute of International Finance, Bank of China Head Office. He joined the Bank in 1995 and served as Assistant Director of the Executive Office, Deputy General Manager of International Settlement Department in Suzhou Branch, and Chief Credit Officer in Kunshan Branch. Mr Zhang moved to the Head Office in 2004 as a member of the Bank’s Restructuring and IPO Office. He was subsequently appointed as Senior Strategy Analyst, the Head of Strategic Partnership in Strategic Development Department and the Head of Banking Research at Institute of International Finance. His research experience covers China’s economic and banking reform, bank development strategy, M&A, SME finance and microfinance.

Mr Zhang holds an MBA Degree from the Cass Business School of City University London and is a member of the China International Finance Society.

Dr. Yanqing Yang is Deputy Editor-in-Chief of YICAI Newspaper, Managing Director of YICAI Think Tank, host and commentator of YICAI TV, invited senior fellow at National Institute of Finance and Development. Being a founder of YICAI Newspaper, she has been following China’s macro economy, financial markets and its interconnectedness with the rest of the world closely by writing a column and hosting in-depth programs for interviews with top global leaders, mainly central bank governors, finance ministers, prime ministers, economists and so on.

Being a media leader, she attends and moderates sessions in prominent global and domestic events, including World Economic Forum, IMF annual meetings, Lujiazui Forum, China Development Forum, Boao Forum and others. She published academic papers both in Chinese and English, recently engineered YICAI Research Institute transforming into a think tank, and lead research project including China Financial Risk & Stability Report, ULC report, China Financial Leasing Annual Report, G20 and China, etc. She sits on the board of China Universal asset management company.

She holds a Ph.D, a M.A. and a B.A. in economics in Fudan University, and was a visiting scholar at SAIS of Johns Hopkins University.

Nasir is CEO of The LHoFT – The Luxembourg House of Financial Technology, a public/private sector initiative to drive fintech innovation in Luxembourg.

He sits on the IMF’s High Level Advisory Group on Finance and Technology and the OECD’s Blockchain Expert Policy Advisory Board. He has been a Non-Executive Board director at a “traditional” bank, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB) S.A. Nasir has worked in Financial Services for 22 years. He spent 13 years working within Capital Markets at RBS, ICAP, HSBC and EBS.  He has been immersed in the Fintech and startup sector since 2011.

As an entrepreneur, Nasir has built multiple Fintech businesses across verticals. He has advised the boards of leading financial institutions, central banks and governments. Nasir is included in the “Top 40 innovators shaping the future of financial services -2014” by The Wall Street Journal/Financial News.

Nasir has a BSc from the London School of Economics and is a Sloan Fellow from London Business School.