Speaker Bios
Zhou Xiaofang is a seasoned business manager, who has developed complexfinancial services, international investment and trade projects in both China and the United States. She is president of Asia-Pacific Group in China, and established the company’s first full-time office in Beijing in 2016.
Born in Beijing, Xiaofang nurtures high-level relationships with leaders of business, academia and government in China, including the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Publicity Department of the CPC, Beijing University, Nankai University, Shanghai East China Normal University and Huaiyin Institute of Technology, Huaian, Jiangsu Province. She pioneered the introduction of revenue royalties to China in a partnership with renowned Wall Street financier Arthur Lipper. Under her leadership, Asia-Pacific Group created joint projects with the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council, a unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
She is the co-founder of the Zhou Enlai Peace Institute, an international group that creates public education projects about Zhou Enlai, the first Premier and Foreign Minister of modern China. Through the work of the Institute, Zhou Enlai is being increasingly recognized as China’s global peacemaker. She is an experienced documentary filmmaker, and has completed on-location production in more than 20 cities for the production of “In the Footsteps of Zhou Enlai.”
Xiaofang is co-author of four books, with partners including the Zhou Enlai Study Center at the Central Committee, the Zhou Enlai National Memorial in Huaian, the Zhou Enlai-Deng Yingchao Memorial in Tianjin, and China International Publishing Group.
Xiaofang introduced Mary Buffett, the best-selling author and former daughter-in-law of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, to China for the first time, at the historic Beijing Hotel.
Originally trained in hotel management and international relations, in the mid-1980′s Xiaofang served in the Jianguo Hotel, the first joint venture hotel in China, which was established by the Peninsula Group and helped to open up Beijing and all of China to international business.
Xiaofang’s career is dedicated to forming a bridge between the business communities, cultures and the people of China and the United States. This follows in the tradition of her great uncle, Zhou Enlai, as a communicator who is trusted and respected across borders, committed to supporting the cause of peace between all nations.
more detail at http://xiaofangzhou.com/experience
xiaofangzhou@zhouenlaipeaceinstitute.org
Michael North is the original founder of North Communications, a leader in multimedia touchscreen networks. Together with key investor Metromedia and its principal, John Kluge, he was responsible for many innovations in the public access field, and managed hardware, software, services and network management divisions in hundreds of sites worldwide.
Clients and allies of North Communications included IBM, Microsoft, IBM, BellSouth, GTE, MCI, Sears, U.S. Postal Service, the PGA, Social Security Administration, Medicare, the Cities of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Brisbane and Singapore, the States of California, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania and more.
He is an experienced entrepreneur and private investor, with extensive relationships across mainland China. Michael works with investment banking professionals to identify, research, assist in corporate development, and provide capital to sound, growing businesses. He has made investments in the renewable energy field in strategic markets around the world, including Ghana, India, Jamaica, Tibet and the West Bank.
Michael serves as a Senior Business Development Executive with Wealthbridge, a firm that provides financial services to individuals and growing companies. He is helping to expand the firm’s business reach in America and Asia. He has worked actively since 2012 with his longtime associate and partner, Arthur Lipper, to develop royalty finance as a new field of investment.
He helped create and host a syndicated television series, “Understanding China.” He is a co-founder of the Zhou Enlai Peace Institute, and has written two peer-reviewed papers about Zhou Enlai for Nankai University.
more detail at http://www.michael-north.com
michaelnorth@zhouenlaipeaceinstitute.org
Elisabet Sahtouris is an evolution biologist, futurist, speaker, author and sustainability consultant to businesses, government agencies and other organizations. She is a US and Greek citizen who has lived in the US, Canada, Greece, Peru and Spain while lecturing, doing workshops and media appearances on all continents. She has a PhD from Dalhousie University in Canada. She consults with corporations and government organizations in Australia, Brazil, Europe, Asia, Africa and the United States.
Sahtouris co-convened two symposia on the foundations of science in Hokkaido and Kuala Lumpur. She was Professor in Residence at Chaminade University in Honolulu, Hawaii, teaching in the School of Business & Communication MBA Program and helping redesign it for entrepreneurship in local living economies. She is a member of the Evolutionary Leaders and a founding member of Rising Women; Rising World. She promotes a vision she believes will result in the sustainable health and well-being of humanity within the larger living systems of Earth and the cosmos.
Elisabet Sahtouris, PhD, is an internationally-known evolution biologist & futurist; one of the first American professionals to visit Beijing, in the early 1970’s. She formed indelible impressions of the young nation, struggling to emerge from a century of colonialism. She was the chief lecturer at a series of talks called Laudato Si, a study of the role of Pope Francis I, shortly after he was chosen as Pope, in radiating of vision of a world transformed.
She has appeared in films including Occupy Love, I Am, Femme, Love Thy Nature and Money & Life. Her books include EarthDance: Living Systems in Evolution, A Walk Through Time: from Stardust to Us, Biology Revisioned (with Willis Harman). and new ebook Gaia’s Dance: The Story of Earth & Us.
more at http://www.sahtouris.com
contact: elisabet@sahtouris.com
Ma Mengjia is an influential young future leader of China, and a skilled public speaker. She runs the international TED franchise (Technology, Entertainment, Design, San Jose) in the heart of Shanghai, the biggest city in the world. These events bring leaders and future leaders of China and their international partners together to solve challenging technical, environmental and cultural topics. See https://www.ted.com/tedx/events/37068
Mengjia is a materials engineer, project manager, and marketing communications executive. She holds advanced technical degrees, has received several patents, worked in China and internationally, and organizes large, complex, influential public events.
She holds a Masters Degree of Materials Sciences and Engineering from Jiao Tong University, Shanghai and a Bachelor Degree from Zhejiang University. She was awarded a national scholarship as a graduate student. She has published five scientific papers (two as primary author) and has authored four patents, published in China.
Ma Mengjia joined the international graduate program at Prysmian in Milan, the largest electrical and telecommunications cable company in the world, after graduation from university in China. She studied at SDA Bocconi School of Management in Milan, in the fields of Supply Chain management, Business Analysis and Multicultural Communication, and served Prysmian as a material engineer and international project coordinator.
Ma Mengjia is the founder of TEDxSJTU and TEDxXujiahui, influential idea-sharing platforms in Shanghai attended by hundreds of delegates each year. She is China’s Ambassador to World Speech Day, and a certified Guinness World Record adjudicator.
more information:
https://www.ted.com/profiles/1311720/about
contact: mengjia.ma@tedxxujiahui.com
