Asia Society Hong Kong Movers & Shakers Podcast

In today's episode of the ASHK movers and Shakers Podcast we interview the legendary Jim Rogers, a native of Demopolis, Alabama, is an author, financial commentator and successful international investor. He has been frequently featured in Time, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Barron's, Forbes, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, and most publications dealing with the economy or finance. He has also appeared as a regular commentator and columnist in various media and has been a visiting professor at Columbia University. After attending Yale and Oxford University, Jim Rogers co-founded the Quantum Fund, a global-investment partnership. During the next 10 years, the portfolio gained 4200%, while the S&P rose less than 50%. Rogers then decided to retire - at age 37. Continuing to manage his own portfolio, Jim Rogers kept busy serving as a professor of finance at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business, and, in 1989 and 1990, as the moderator of WCBS's 'The Dreyfus Roundtable' and FNN's 'The Profit Motive with Jim Rogers'. In 1990-1992, Jim Rogers fulfilled his lifelong dream: motorcycling 100,000 miles across six continents, a feat that landed him in the Guinness Book of World Records. As a private investor, he constantly analyzed the countries through which he traveled for investment ideas. He chronicled his one-of-a-kind journey in Investment Biker: On the Road with Jim Rogers. Jim also embarked on a Millennium Adventure. He traveled for 1101 days on his round-the-world, Guinness World Record journey. Passing through 116 countries, he covered more than 245,000 kilometers, which he recounted in his book Adventure Capitalist: The Ultimate Road Trip. His latest book "A Gift to My Children: A Father's Lessons for Life and Investing" was published in 2009.

James E. Thompson is the Chairman and Founder of the Crown Worldwide Group. After graduating from San Jose State University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Aeronautical Engineering, Jim arrived in Asia in 1963. Within two years he established Crown in Yokohama, Japan – with just US$ 1000 . He moved to Hong Kong in 1978. Today, the Crown Worldwide Group employs over 5,000 full-time staff around the world, as well as a large number of contracted personnel.

Today's guest is Christopher K. Ho a speculative artist based in New York, Hong Kong, and Telluride, Colorado. He received his BFA and BS from Cornell University and his MPhil from Columbia University. He is known for materially exquisite objects that draw equally from learned material about, and lived encounters with, power and otherness in an unevenly de-colonialised, increasingly networked world. He has exhibited at Storm King Art Center, the Queens Museum, Cranbrook Art Museum, Para Site, MASSMoCA, and Socrates Sculpture Park, among other venues. He was included in the Incheon Biennial and the Busan Bienniale, and is currently working on solo projects for the Bronx Museum and for the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Artforum, Art in America, ArtReview, Modern Painters, LEAP and the New York Times have featured his solo exhibitions. Christopher is here to talk more about his work, Always Leave The Table a Little Hungry which is one of the featured works for ASHK's Next Act Contemporary Art from Hong Kong. Next Act: Contemporary Art from Hong Kong features research-based works by 10 local artists that respond to the shared history and collective memories of Hong Kong. Throughout the creative process, each artist focused on different research methodologies as a starting point for their inspiration and thinking process. This process culminates in a collection of exciting works that are visually impactful, interactive, and performative. We encourage visitors to open their senses and imagination when viewing the works by delving into the past to form new perspectives, savor the present, and contemplate what the future holds. Next Act highlights a critical dimension of these creative practices by pivoting away from the conventional perception that art is a sensual form of truth. Instead, the final works make the creation of art a journey of critical thinking. The exhibition also opens up new areas of possible arts and culture programs that are immersive and educational. Whatever the future holds, we remain passionate about moving forward to provide an inclusive platform that encourages collaboration across different disciplines.

Helena Storm, Consul-General at the Consulate General of Sweden in Hong Kong and Macau. Has studied a Master of Laws at Uppsala University; studied political science at Sciences Po in Paris; worked with human rights, war crimes and trafficking issues for Sweden’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs; First Secretary at the Embassy of Sweden in Ankara, Turkey; Chief of Staff at Sweden’s Ministry for Trade; After five years in Hong Kong Helena will be moving to Colombia’s capital Bogotá where she will take up the position of Sweden’s ambassador to Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela.

Sandeep Sekhri, Founder of Dining Concepts, has shaped Hong Kong’s dining scene for nearly two decades since he launched the restaurant group back in 2002. Sandeep established himself as a leader within the Hong Kong hospitality industry since arriving in Hong Kong in 1990. Following many years experience in India's leading hotels, Sandeep embarked on a career of 12 years of executive experience with a prominent hospitality group within Hong Kong. He then made the move to establish his own company in 2002 and has overseen the growth and diversification of the organization since its inception. Under Sandeep's development and guidance, Dining Concepts is now recognized as Hong Kong's pre-eminent hospitality group.

Today's podcast is a two-part series with Adventurer and TV host Ryan Pyle. Originally recorded before COVID-19 Ryan gives us an update of his current living situation as he is stuck in transit between Istanbul Turkey and his home in Dubai. Born in Toronto, Canada, Ryan Pyle spent his early years close to home. After obtaining a degree in International Politics from the University of Toronto in 2001, Ryan realized a life long dream and traveled to China on an exploratory mission. In 2002 Ryan moved to China permanently and in 2004 Ryan became a regular contributor to the New York Times. In 2009 Ryan was listed by PDN Magazine as one of the 30 emerging photographers in the world. In 2010 Ryan began working full time on television and documentary film production and has produced and presented several large multi-episode television series for major broadcasters in the USA, Canada, UK, Asia, CHINA and continental Europe. SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS: Instagram: @ryanpyle (Fans: 92,000+) Facebook: @ryanpyle (Fans: 450,000+) Twitter: @ryanpyle (Fans: 15,000+) YouTube: @ryanjpyle (Fans: 30,000+) Weibo: @ryanpyle (Fans: 1,000,000+)

Today's podcast is a two-part series with Adventurer and TV host Ryan Pyle. Originally recorded before COVID-19 Ryan gives us an update of his current living situation as he is stuck in transit between Istanbul Turkey and his home in Dubai. Born in Toronto, Canada, Ryan Pyle spent his early years close to home. After obtaining a degree in International Politics from the University of Toronto in 2001, Ryan realized a life long dream and traveled to China on an exploratory mission. In 2002 Ryan moved to China permanently and in 2004 Ryan became a regular contributor to the New York Times. In 2009 Ryan was listed by PDN Magazine as one of the 30 emerging photographers in the world. In 2010 Ryan began working full time on television and documentary film production and has produced and presented several large multi-episode television series for major broadcasters in the USA, Canada, UK, Asia, CHINA and continental Europe. SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS: Instagram: @ryanpyle (Fans: 92,000+) Facebook: @ryanpyle (Fans: 450,000+) Twitter: @ryanpyle (Fans: 15,000+) YouTube: @ryanjpyle (Fans: 30,000+) Weibo: @ryanpyle (Fans: 1,000,000+) #extremetreks #toughrides

Asia Society Hong Kong re-connects with Global Strategist and author Dr. Parag Khanna for a video chat to talk about the potential society-shifting impact of COVID-19 on an international, and APAC level. Parag talks about the economy, and how the future of technology and travel will be forever changed with this current pandemic. Connect with Dr. Khanna here: https://www.paragkhanna.com https://twitter.com/paragkhanna

Today's podcast is with Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, journalist and author of “Sarong Party Girls” (William Morrow, 2016) as well as “A Tiger In The Kitchen: A Memoir of Food & Family“ (Hyperion, 2011). She is the editor of the fiction anthology “Singapore Noir“ (Akashic Books, 2014). She was a staff writer at the Wall Street Journal, In Style magazine and the Baltimore Sun. Her stories have also appeared in The New York Times, The Paris Review, The Washington Post, Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, National Geographic, Foreign Policy, Marie Claire, Newsweek, Bloomberg Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, The (Portland) Oregonian, The (Topeka) Capital-Journal and The (Singapore) Straits Times among other places. She has been an artist in residence at Yaddo, where she wrote “A Tiger in the Kitchen,” Hawthornden Castle, Le Moulin à Nef, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Headlands Center for the Arts, Ragdale Foundation, Ledig House and the Studios of Key West. In 2012, she was the recipient of a major arts creation grant from the National Arts Council of Singapore in support of her novel. Born and raised in Singapore, she crossed the ocean at age 18 to go to Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. Unsure of whether she would remain in the U.S. after college, she interned in places as disparate as possible. She hung out with Harley Davidson enthusiasts in Topeka, Kan., interviewed gypsies about their burial rituals in Portland, Ore., covered July 4 in Washington, D.C., and chronicled the life and times of the Boomerang Pleasure Club, a group of Italian-American men that were getting together to cook, play cards and gab about women for decades in their storefront “clubhouse” in Chicago. An active member of the Asian American Journalists Association, she served on its national board for seven years, ending in 2010. She started her full-time journalism career helping out on the cops beat in Baltimore — training that would prove to be essential in her future fashion reporting. Both, it turns out, are like war zones. The difference is, people dress differently.

Today's podcast is with Professor Katherine A Mason, the Vartan Gregorian Assistant Professor of Anthropology. Professor Mason is a medical anthropologist who has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in China and the U.S. Her research addresses issues in medical anthropology, population health, bioethics, China studies, reproductive health, mental health, and global health. Her first book, Infectious Change: Reinventing Chinese Public Health after an Epidemic, based on fieldwork she conducted in southeastern China on the professionalization and ethics of public health in China following the 2003 SARS epidemic, was published by Stanford University Press in 2016 and won the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness Book Prize in 2019. Mason is currently working on a multi-sited ethnographic field project that examines family experiences and models of care for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders in the U.S. and China. As part of this project, she became a certified postpartum doula (DONA International, 2018) and earned a certificate in maternal mental health (PSI and 2020 Mom). She is also a core consultant on the AmeRicans’ Conceptions of Health Equity Study (ARCHES), funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Mason is affiliated with Brown's Population Studies and Training Center, and the Program in Science and Technology Studies, and is a Faculty Fellow at the Swearer Center (2018-20). Her research has been funded by the Social Science Research Council, Wenner-Gren Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, U.S. Fulbright program, and Association for Asian Studies. She has previously held positions as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholar (2013-2015) and a Lecturer in the Health and Societies program at the University of Pennsylvania (2011-2013). She received her PhD in Social Anthropology from Harvard University in 2011. **For commentary from Mason on the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, see: https://www.sapiens.org/culture/covid-19-air-pollution/ http://somatosphere.net/2020/sars-covid19-coronavirus-epidemics-reflections.html/ https://stanfordpress.typepad.com/blog/2020/03/zika-and-the-common-good.html#more

Today's podcast is with Du Yun, born and raised in Shanghai, China, and currently based in New York City, works at the intersection of opera, orchestral, theatre, cabaret, musical, oral tradition, public performances, electronics, visual arts, and noise. Her body of work is championed by some of today’s finest performing groups and organizations around the world. Known for her “relentless originality and unflinching social conscience” (The New Yorker), Du Yun’s second opera, Angel’s Bone (libretto by Royce Vavrek), won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize; in 2018 she was named a Guggenheim Fellow; and in 2019, she was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Classical Composition category for her work Air Glow. As an avid performer and bandleader (Ok Miss), her onstage persona has been described by the New York Times as “an indie pop diva with an avant-garde edge.” Du Yun is Professor of Composition at the Peabody Institute, and Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. A community champion, Du Yun was a founding member of the International Contemporary Ensemble; served as the Artistic Director of MATA Festival (2014-2018); conceived the Pan Asia Sounding Festival (National Sawdust); and founded FutureTradition, a global initiative that illuminates the provenance lineages of folk art and uses these structures to build cross-regional collaborations from the ground up. In 2018, Du Yun was named one of 38 Great Immigrants by the Carnegie Foundation, and in 2019 the Beijing Music Festival named her “Artist of the Year.” Sweet Land is now available for on-demand streaming. Please consider watching so the company can honor their contracts to pay their cast, musicians and the crew, due to the cancellation of half of the run. Thank you! I hope we are all doing well. https://www.facebook.com/1059549730/posts/10219045691467428/?sfnsn=mo

Dr. Amos Danielli specializes in Electro-optics and Bio-photonics. After completing his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in the field of optical communication at Tel Aviv University, he worked in the industry for eight years and then return to the Academy. During his studies for P.hD, he developed a new technology to rapidly detect fluorescent-labeled probes at very low concentrations in homogenous solutions and continued developing it during his post-doctoral studies in Washington University, St. Louis. In 2014, he has returned to Israel and joined the faculty of Engineering at Bar Ilan University. During his stay in the US, he founded a company that commercializes this technology, and established connections with key figures in the fields of medical laboratory and diagnostics, and especially among troponin and heart attack specialists. Since the outbreak of coronavirus, one of the most pressing medical challenges that doctors in areas affected by the crisis face is the need to test a high number of potentially infected people in a short amount of time. New technology developed by researchers at Bar-Ilan University might assist them in the mission, drastically cutting the time needed to analyze saliva samples. Dr. Amos Danielli developed a technology for sensitive detection of virus-specific RNA sequences in 2007 to address cattle diseases. Since then, the same technology has been adapted for multiple viruses, including Zika. Contact Dr. Amos Danielli: Amos.danielli@biu.ac.il http://www.amosdaniellilab.com/ http://www.eng.biu.ac.il/daniela8/ https://magbiosense.com/technology/

Today's podcast is with Wu Man, recognized as the world’s premier pipa virtuoso and leading ambassador of Chinese music, Wu Man has carved out a career as a soloist, educator, and composer giving her lute-like instrument—which has a history of over 2,000 years in China—a new role in both traditional and contemporary music. Through numerous concert tours she has premiered hundreds of new works for the pipa, while spearheading multimedia projects to both preserve and create awareness of China’s ancient musical traditions. Her adventurous spirit and virtuosity have led to collaborations across artistic disciplines, allowing her to reach wider audiences as she works to cross cultural and musical borders. Her efforts were recognized when she was named Musical America’s 2013 “Instrumentalist of the Year,” marking the first time this prestigious award has been bestowed on a player of a non-Western instrument. Having been brought up in the Pudong School of pipa playing, one of the most prestigious classical styles of Imperial China, Ms. Wu is now recognized as an outstanding exponent of the traditional repertoire as well as a leading interpreter of contemporary pipa music by today’s most prominent composers such as Tan Dun, Philip Glass, the late Lou Harrison, Terry Riley, Bright Sheng, Chen Yi, and many others. She was the recipient of The Bunting Fellowship at Harvard University in 1998, and was the first Chinese traditional musician to receive The United States Artist Fellowship in 2008. She is also the first artist from China to perform at the White House. In 2015, she was appointed Visiting Professor of three major Chinese conservatories: her alma mater the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, Xi’an Conservatory of Music, and Zhejiang Conservatory in her hometown; she has also served as Artistic Director of the Xi’an Silk Road Music Festival at the Xi'an Conservatory. Live playback of Wu Man's Chinese lecture. Suxuan (bitter bitter heart) for one hour. Livestream playback (in Chinese) https://www.facebook.com/643359479/posts/10157364900964480/?sfnsn=mo Wu Man's getting ready for tomorrow's (Apr. 3) Silkroad Home Sessions with Wu Man (Facebook). The concert starts at 12pm PT/3pm ET.

Today’s ASHK Movers & Shakers Podcast is with Alison Friedman, the Artistic Director of Performing Arts at the West Kowloon Cultural District one of the largest arts and cultural developments in the world. During nearly two decades in China, Ms. Friedman worked closely with Chinese and international governments, non-profit and private organizations, as well as established and emerging independent performing artists across genres. Alison is a board member of the International Society for the Performing Arts, one of the largest international alliances of leaders in the performing arts. She founded the successful cultural exchange organisation Ping Pong Productions (PPP) in 2010 after studying as a Fulbright scholar at the Department of History in Peking University and the Beijing Dance Academy in Mainland China between 2002 and 2003. Prior to PPP, Alison held producer and general manager roles at dance and music institutions including the Beijing Modern Dance Company as well as famed composer/ conductor Tan Dun’s production and management company. Alison sat down with ASHK Executive Director Alice Mong to conduct the following interview.

Today's podcast is with Professor Ying Chan, an award-winning journalist, educator, e-learning advocate, and media strategist. She is a board member of the Media Development Investment Fund, and a member of the World Economic Forum Future Council on Information and Entertainment. She served on the Global Board of Open Society Foundations from 2013-17. A Hong Kong native, Chan spent 23 years in New York City, covering immigration, campaign finance and US China-relations for both Chinese and English language media, including the New York Daily News and NBC News. Since returning to HK in 1998, she has created two journalism schools as the founding director (1999-2016) and professor of the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at The University of Hong Kong, and the founding dean (2003-2012) of the journalism school at Shantou University in China. Both programs are early adopters of convergent media, data, and enterpreneurial journalism, while being grounded in the best international professional standards. She is a founding member of the the International Consortium for Investigation Journalists. Her honors include a Polk Award for Excellence in Journalism, a CPJ International Press Freedom Award, a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Asian American Journalists Association, and a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University. She currently mentors media startups in relation to China and cross-border projects, while conducting research on media in China and transitional societies.

Today's podcast is with Professor Niall Ferguson, a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford, and the Center for European Studies, Harvard. Professor Ferguson is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a senior faculty fellow of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard. He is also a visiting professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing. He is the author of fifteen books, including The Pity of War, The House of Rothschild, Empire, Civilization and Kissinger, 1923-1968: The Idealist, which won the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Prize. He is an award-making filmmaker, too, having won an international Emmy for his PBS series The Ascent of Money. In addition to writing a weekly column for the Sunday Times (London) and the Boston Globe, he is the founder and managing director of Greenmantle LLC, an advisory firm. His most recent book, The Square and the Tower, was published in the U.S. in 2018, and was a New York Times bestseller. A three-part television adaptation, Niall Ferguson’s Networld, will air on PBS in March 2020.

Today's Podcast is with Merle Hinrich, founder of Global Sources and the Hinrich Foundation. The Hinrich Foundation was established by Merle A. Hinrich in 2012, a global business leader and philanthropist. Mr Hinrich dedicated his 60-year career in Asia to facilitating the participation of emerging Asian economies in trade, driven by the belief that global trade helps break down barriers between nations by creating mutual interest, understanding and trust. Mr. Hinrich’s journey started in 1964, when he was granted a scholarship to study at the American Institute of Foreign Trade – which is now called the Thunderbird School of Global Management. The school’s mantra – “Border frequented by trade seldom need soldiers” – left a powerful imprint on the young graduate, and inspired his future endeavors. Subsequent work experiences in Japan, Taiwan and Korea in the 1960s further shaped his belief that trade promotes growth and development. By 1970 his first venture was born: Asian Sources, which later became Global Sources, a B2B trade media company to facilitate business transactions between Asian manufacturers and Western customers. A scholarship program was subsequently created to build talent in trade and support that goal. After spending more than three decades assisting companies and countries from Japan to Pakistan with their export development, Mr. Hinrich’s view of free, fair, and reciprocal trade started to evolve. He began to see how critically important it was for trade to be mutually beneficial with balanced economic, social and environmental outcomes for long-term peace and prosperity. He created the Hinrich Foundation to build leadership in trade, to research and to promote the conditions for making trade more sustainable.

Today’s Podcast is part two with Charlie Cook, Editor, and Publisher of The Cook Political Report described by The New York Times as “a newsletter that both parties regard as authoritative,” while CBS News’ Bob Schieffer called it “the bible of the political community.” Mr. Cook is also the co-author of the 2020 Almanac of American Politics, a biannual book widely considered to be the definitive publication analyzing U.S. elections, every state and every Congressional district in the country. Over the years Mr. Cook has served as an election night analyst for CBS, CNN, and NBC, and since 1996 on NBC News Election Night Decision Desk in New York. In 2010, he was the co-recipient of the American Political Science Association’s prestigious Carey McWilliams award to honor “a major journalistic contribution to our understanding of politics.” In 2013, Mr. Cook served as a Resident Fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Charlie gave a lot of wisdom and we’ve broken it up into two episodes with the first outlining Charlie’s career advice as we get a more detailed understanding of how networking and connections in DC as well as a focus on Political commentary made him the foremost expert in the field and our second episode Charlie dives deeper into his detailed thoughts regarding the Democratic nominees, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Michael Bloomberg as well as the Republican strategy for Trump’s re-election in 2020.

Today’s Podcast is part one with Charlie Cook, Editor, and Publisher of The Cook Political Report described by The New York Times as “a newsletter that both parties regard as authoritative,” while CBS News’ Bob Schieffer called it “the bible of the political community.” Mr. Cook is also the co-author of the 2020 Almanac of American Politics, a biannual book widely considered to be the definitive publication analyzing U.S. elections, every state and every Congressional district in the country. Over the years Mr. Cook has served as an election night analyst for CBS, CNN, and NBC, and since 1996 on NBC News Election Night Decision Desk in New York. In 2010, he was the co-recipient of the American Political Science Association’s prestigious Carey McWilliams award to honor “a major journalistic contribution to our understanding of politics.” In 2013, Mr. Cook served as a Resident Fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Charlie gave a lot of wisdom and we’ve broken it up into two episodes with the first outlining Charlie’s career advice as we get a more detailed understanding of how networking and connections in DC as well as a focus on Political commentary made him the foremost expert in the field and our second episode Charlie dives deeper into his detailed thoughts regarding the Democratic nominees, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Michael Bloomberg as well as the Republican strategy for Trump’s re-election in 2020.

Today's podcast is with Dr. Allan Zeman the Chairman of Lan Kwai Fong Group, a major property owner and developer in Hong Kong’s Lan Kwai Fong Area, one of Hong Kong’s most popular tourist and entertainment districts. The new California Tower at the heart of Lan Kwai Fong which features cues to the Group’s flair for design and attracted the top leisure brands that will take the district to new heights. Dr. Zeman is also the Chairman of the Lan Kwai Fong Association. Lan Kwai Fong Group in recent years, has expanded to various cities in China which include Chengdu, Shenzhen and Guangzhou. Lan Kwai Fong Chengdu was opened in 2009. Dr. Zeman is also the owner of Paradise Properties Group, a property developer in Thailand which includes the award winning Andara Resort in Phuket. Dr. Zeman serves as an Independent Non-Executive Director of Sino Land Company Limited, Tsim Sha Tsui Properties Limited, Global Brands Group, Television Broadcasts Limited (“TVB”), Fosun Tourism Group and is the Non-Executive Director of Pacific Century Premium Developments Limited, all of which are listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Dr. Zeman is also the Non-Executive Chairman of Wynn Macau Limited, a prominent gaming operator in the US and Macau. Dr. Zeman is a director of the “Star” Ferry Company, Limited. Having lived in Hong Kong for over 45 years, Dr. Zeman has been very involved in government services as well as community activities. He was the Chairman of Ocean Park from 2003 to 2014 and is now the Park’s Honorary Advisor. During his tenor at Ocean Park, Dr. Zeman managed to raise visitor numbers despite the opening of rival Hong Kong Disneyland, making the park more attractive and generating record profits. A 2007 article in Forbes magazine, referred to Zeman as "Hong Kong's Mouse Killer" because of the success that Ocean Park enjoyed.

Today's podcast is with Michaela Browning Australian Consul General for Hong Kong and Macau. Ms Browning is a senior career public servant and was most recently Head of Investment, Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade). She has held a range of senior positions including Head of Established Markets and Special Adviser to the CEO on Strategy and China (Austrade) and Senior Adviser to the then Defence and Foreign Ministers. Ms Browning was also a Trade Negotiator at the Doha Development Round and for the free trade agreements Australia negotiated with the USA and Singapore. She has previously served overseas in Thailand and Singapore. Ms Browning holds a Masters in Foreign Affairs & Trade and a Bachelor of Economics with Honours, both from Monash University.

Today's podcast is with Fritz Demopoulos who has been involved in a number of entrepreneurial and philanthropic activities within the Asian region over the past two decades. He is passionate about establishing businesses and creative disruption, exploring the big ideas behind science and science fiction, and supporting science education. Since 1997 Fritz has been involved in an array of digital ventures in mainland China. He co-founded Qunar, one of China’s largest online travel marketplaces, and Shawei, one of China’s largest digital sports media companies. Fritz currently coordinates his entrepreneurial business activities through Hong Kong-based Queen's Road Capital. Fritz and his wife Elaine co-founded The Queen’s Road Foundation, a non-profit foundation focused on supporting a range of programs in arts and science education. Additionally, Fritz is an avid supporter of The Asia Society and is currently a member of the Board of Trustees.

Today's Podcast is a masterclass on statecraft and diplomacy between Japan, China and the US with Professor Ezra F. Vogel the Henry Ford II Professor of Social Sciences Emeritus at Harvard University. He has had a long association with Harvard, receiving his Ph.D. in Sociology in 1958 and then teaching at the university from 1967 to 2000. Prof. Vogel served as inaugural Director of the undergraduate concentration in East Asian Studies from 1972 to 1991. In 1973, he became the second Director of the East Asian Research Center, and served as Director of the U.S.-Japan Program, Director of the Fairbank Center and Founding Director of the Asia Center. From 1993 to 1995, Prof. Vogel took a two-year leave of absence from Harvard to serve as National Intelligence Officer for East Asia in Washington, D.C. In 1996, he chaired the American Assembly on China and edited the resulting volume Living with China. His book Japan as Number One in Japanese translation became a best seller in Japan, and his book Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China in Chinese translation a best seller in China. Prof. Vogel has received numerous honors over the years, including 11 honorary degrees.

Today's podcast is with General (Ret) David H. Petraeus (New York) Chairman of the KKR Global Institute, which supports KKR’s investment committees, Prior to joining KKR, Gen. Petraeus served over 37 years in the U.S. military, culminating his career with six consecutive commands, five of which were in combat, including command of coalition forces during the Surge in Iraq, command of U.S. Central Command, and command of coalition forces in Afghanistan. Following his service in the military, Gen. Petraeus served as the Director of the CIA during a period of significant achievements in the global war on terror. Since leaving government, he also served for 3-1/2 years as a Visiting Professor of Public Policy at CUNY's Macaulay Honors College and he was for 6 years a Judge Widney Professor at the University of Southern California and a Senior Fellow at Harvard University. Gen. Petraeus has received numerous U.S. military, State Department, NATO, and United Nations medals and awards, including four Defense Distinguished Service Medals, the Bronze Star Medal for Valor, the Combat Action Badge, the Ranger tab, and master parachutist wings, and he has been decorated by 13 foreign countries. Over the past 15years, General Petraeus has also been named a runner-up for Time magazine’s Person of the Year, the Daily Telegraph man of the year, a Time 100 selectee, and one of Foreign Policy magazine’s top 100 public intellectuals.

Today's Podcast is with Jason Yip, community Director at MWYO a Think and do tank in Hong Kong. Previously he was Regional Head of Market at the government affairs and donor relations division of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). During his time at the ICRC, Jason has worked at the Geneva headquarters to develop dialogue and mobilize resources with member states in accordance with the Geneva Convention, and has been stationed in Palestine, Afghanistan and Myanmar as an ICRC Delegate. Jason has been responsible for developing and implementing ICRC’s humanitarian initiatives in the battlefield and engaged in emergency relief. Born and raised in Hong Kong, he began his career as an analyst at Goldman Sachs, and speaks fluent English, Mandarin, French, Japanese and Cantonese. In 2018, Jason was awarded a Medal of Honour by the Hong Kong SAR Government and selected as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons by JCI HK. Like many youngsters in Hong Kong, Jason Yip grew up in public housing estates more interested in hanging out with friends than studying. With a late burst of effort from Form Six onwards, he was accepted by HKU, and upon graduation landed a job with an investment bank in New York providing financial security and achieving the “Hong Kong dream” of property ownership. However, four years later he made a life-changing decision that parents and friends thought insane. He changed career, moving into humanitarian aid. Jason Yip is the one of the very first Hong Kongers at the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross to be hired as an on-the-ground delegate and has been dispatched to conflict zones including Palestine, Afghanistan, Jordan, Syria and Myanmar. There he upholds the ICRC mission - protecting civilians during fighting, helping locate those separated from families, and assisting in rebuilding a post-war infrastructure. Jason has been involved in numerous life-threatening scenarios including negotiating with the Taliban in Afghanistan for the release of 33 kidnapped schoolchildren and their teachers and delivering letters from prisoners in the mountains of Myanmar to their families. Join Jason Yip on how he went from being a lackadaisical, fun-loving kid to an adult filled with unswerving belief in the value of humanitarian work in a world full of tension, and why Hong Kongers should get more involved in international organizations.

Today’s Podcast is with Dee Poon Managing Director of Brands and Distribution at Esquel Group, a leading global textile and apparel manufacturer with operations worldwide. Dee is a Member of the Asia Advisory Board of Christie’s, the International Advisory Committee of Harvard University’s Asia Center, She is also on the Board of Directors of the Esquel – Y.L. Yang Education Foundation. In 2014, she was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and was designated a Fellow of the Aspen Institute’s China Fellowship Program. Actively engaged in the arts, Dee sits on the International Council for London’s Tate and the International Council of New York’s Moma. She serves on the Board of Directors of the China Arts Foundation and the Collectors Circle Committee of Asia Art Archive. She has also been a Member of the Performance Committee at the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), and a Member of the Lincoln Center China Advisory Council (New York), and was a Co-founder of the Ambassadors of Design (Hong Kong). Dee sat down with Asia Society’s Amanda Tung to conduct the following interview.

Esther Wong is Managing Director of SenseTime and Founding Partner of SenseTime’s AI Fund. SenseTime is among the world’s most valuable AI unicorns, focusing on computer vision and deep learning. She previously ran Equity Capital Markets at Bocom International. Ms. Wong began her career as an analyst on Wall Street with ABN Amro. Her last role in New York was Head of Sales and Trading for Cazenove Asia (acquired by JPMorgan), the first Chinese and first woman appointed that position.

Today’s Podcast is with Peter Diamandis the Founder & Executive Chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation, which leads the world in designing and operating large-scale incentive competitions. He is also the Executive Founder of Singularity University, a graduate-level Silicon Valley institution that counsels the world's leaders on exponentially growing technologies. As an entrepreneur, Diamandis has started over 20 companies in the areas of longevity, space, venture capital and education. He is also co-Founder BOLD Capital Partners, a venture fund with $250M investing in exponential technologies. Diamandis is a New York Times Bestselling author of two books: Abundance – The Future Is Better Than You Think and BOLD – How to go Big, Create Wealth & Impact the World. Fortune Magazine recently named Peter Diamandis as one of the "World's 50 Greatest Leaders." He earned degrees in Molecular Genetics and Aerospace Engineering from the MIT and holds an M.D. from Harvard Medical School. Peter’s favorite saying is “the best way to predict the future is to create it yourself.” Peter sat down with Asia Society Hong Kong to conduct the following interview.

In episode three of the Movers & shakers Podcast, Dr. Parag Khanna stops by Asia Society Hong Kong to discuss the bold new ideas in his newest book, The Future is Asian. Parag also shared some invaluable lessons learned from his past travels and how he thinks the youth of today can best prepare themselves for a global future lead by Asian countries. Parag Khanna is a leading global strategy advisor, world traveler, and best-selling author. He is Founder & Managing Partner of FutureMap, a data and scenario based strategic advisory firm. Parag's newest book is The Future is Asian: Commerce, Conflict & Culture in the 21st Century (2019). His books have been translated into more than twenty languages. In 2008, Parag was named one of Esquire’s “75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century,” and featured in WIRED magazine’s “Smart List.”

In episode 2 of the Movers & Shakers podcast we sit down with Oscar-winner Ruby Yang who started her directorial career with films like Citizen Hong Kong (1999) and China 21 (2001). Her most acclaimed work, The Blood of Yingzhou District (2006), won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject. Ruby uses the camera to tell us stories about identity, place, and voiceless people. Her documentaries empowered disenfranchised groups to speak out and brought their stories to the sight of the world. But what is Ruby's personal story? What was her journey to becoming a filmmaker? How did she shape her career in America as a minority? What did she experience from making the documentaries in different countries? ASHK Executive Director Alice Mong sits down with Ruby Yang to talk about her journey as a filmmaker, her thoughts on winning an Oscar, and other interesting life lessons from her creative life.

Mark Thompson sits down with Asia Society Hong Kong for our initial Movers and Shakers Podcast. Mark Thompson is president and chief executive officer of The New York Times Company. He has directed the Company’s strategy and presided over an expansion of its digital and global operations. Under his leadership, digital subscriptions have grown from 500,000 to nearly four million and the Company set a goal to reach 10 million total subscriptions by 2025. The Times has successfully expanded into other digital products like Cooking and Crosswords, has launched one of the world’s most successful podcasts and recently premiered “The Weekly”, a new TV news program for FX and Hulu. Before joining the Times Company, Mr. Thompson served as director-general of the BBC from 2004, where he reshaped the organization to meet the challenge of the digital age, ensuring that it remained a leading innovator with the launch of services such as the BBC iPlayer. He also oversaw a transformation of the BBC itself, driving productivity and efficiency through the introduction of new technologies and bold organizational redesign.