Speakers & Moderators

Mr. Kenneth S. Courtis

Kenneth S. Courtis is Founding Chairman of Next Capital Partners, former Managing Director of Goldman Sachs, and Vice Chairman, Goldman Sachs Asia. He is one of the world's leading investment bankers and analysts of Asian economies.

He has led a number of large, international corporate transactions, and pioneered in several investment banking areas across the Asia.

Widely sought after by the heads of major corporations and investors for his knowledge of how global market forces, finance, politics, and corporate strategy interact, Kenneth Courtis advises major clients throughout the Asia–Pacific region, as well as in Europe and North America.

He also works closely with central banks, ministries of finance, and heads of government. He has been called on several occasions to advise the President of the United States, and the heads of government of countries in Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East.

Kenneth Courtis has lectured at Keio and Tokyo Universities, Japan's two most prestigious educational institutions, l'Institut des etudes politiques, Paris, and at Universities in North America. He is and has been a member of the boards, and advisory councils, of a number of leading international firms, such as Emerson, Capitaland, the Noble Group, China National Off Shore Oil Corporation, Sun International Investment Funds. He is an international councillor of the Asia Society of New York, a director of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, of the Schulich School of Business Management, and has been a trustee of universities and research institutes in Asia, Europe and North America.

He received an undergraduate degree from Glendon College in Toronto and an M.A. in international relations from Sussex University in the United Kingdom. He earned an M.B.A. at INSEAD (the European Institute of Business Administration), and received a Doctorate with honours and high distinction, from l'Institut des etudes politiques, Paris.

Prior to Goldman Sachs, he was previously Managing Director and Chief Economist and Strategist, for the Deutsche Bank Group Asia.

Kenneth Courtis has lived and worked in Asia for more than two decades, and also maintains residences in Europe and North America.


Back to Top, click here

Dr. Victor K. Fung - Chairman of ICC, The Li & Fung Group

Dr. Victor K. Fung is the Group Chairman of the Li & Fung group of companies, which includes major subsidiaries in Trading, Distribution and Retailing, including publicly listed Li & Fung Limited, Integrated Distribution Services Group Limited and Convenience Retail Asia.

He also is Chairman of the Hong Kong University Council and the Greater Pearl River Delta Business Council.

Dr. Fung holds a number of civic and professional appointments. He is Chairman of International Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference; and a member of  the Commission on Strategic Development.  From 1991 to 2000, Dr. Fung was Chairman of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, from 1996 to 2003, he was the Hong Kong representative on the APEC Business Advisory Council, and from 1999 to May 2008, he was Chairman of the Airport Authority Hong Kong.

Dr. Fung is Chairman, Asia Advisory Board of Prudential Financial, Inc (USA), an independent  non-executive Director of Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited and Orient Overseas (International) Limited in Hong Kong, Baosteel Group Corporation in the People’s Republic of China and CapitaLand Limited in Singapore.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Dr. Fung holds Bachelor and Master Degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Doctorate in Business Economics from Harvard University. He also taught as a professor at the Harvard Business School for four years before returning to Hong Kong in 1976.  Dr. Fung is married with three children.

Back to Top, click here

Professor Jean-Pierre Lehmann

In 1995 Jean-Pierre Lehmann founded the Evian Group, a coalition of business, government and opinion leaders from both North and South, committed to an open, inclusive, equitable and robust world economic agenda.

Since January 1997 Jean-Pierre Lehmann has concurrently been Professor of International Political Economy at IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Prior to joining IMD, his career, which has included academe, journalism and strategic consulting, has encompassed activities in virtually all Asian and Western European countries, as well as North America. Recently he has also managed projects in Central and Eastern Europe, in Africa, the Middle East North Africa and Latin America.

He is the author of several books, numerous articles and reports on globalisaton, modern Asian history, global governance, development, trade and the international political economy. He is actively engaged in different capacities in global public policy forums, as well as serving as advisor to educational institutions, international organisations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and multinational firms throughout the world.

Jean-Pierre Lehmann, a French citizen, was born in 1945; he obtained his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University, Washington DC (1966), and his doctorate from Oxford (1976).


Back to Top, click here

Dr. William H. Overholt

William H. Overholt is a Senior Research Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Previously he held the Asia Policy Distinguished Research Chair at RAND's California headquarters and was Director of the Center.

Concurrently he is Visiting Professor at Shanghai Jiaotung University. He also was Distinguished Visiting Professor at Yonsei University in South Korea.

Dr. Overholt ran investment bank research teams for 21 years. He served as Head of Strategy and Economics at Nomura’s regional headquarters in Hong Kong from 1998 to 2001, and as Managing Director and Head of Research at Bank Boston's regional headquarters in Singapore. During 18 years at Bankers Trust, he ran a country risk team in New York from 1980 to 1984, then was regional strategist and Asia research head based in Hong Kong from 1985 to 1998.

At Hudson Institute 1971 to 1979, Dr. Overholt directed planning studies for the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of State, National Security Council, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Council on International Economic Policy. As Director of Hudson Research Services, he did strategic planning for corporations.

Dr. Overholt is the author of six books, including Asia, America and the Transformation of Geopolitics (Cambridge University Pressa and RAND, 2007) The others are: The Rise of China (W.W. Norton, 1993), which won the Mainichi News/Asian Affairs Research Center Special Book Prize; Political Risk (Euromoney, 1982); and (with William Ascher) Strategic Planning and Forecasting (John Wiley, 1983). He is principal co-author of: Asia's Nuclear Future (Westview Press, 1976) and The Future of Brazil (Westview Press, 1978). With Zbigniew Brzezinski, he founded the semi-annual Global Assessment in 1976 and edited it until 1988.

Dr. Overholt was a Governor of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong and Executive Committee member of the Business and Professionals Federation of Hong Kong, both for six years. He serves on advisory boards for Harvard University’s Asia Center; the Hang Lung Center for Organizational Research at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; and Chinavest Ltd.

He has been a consultant on strategic planning and foreign affairs to the Conference Board, the U.S. Army Strategic Studies Institute, the Foreign Service Institute, Dean Witter Reynolds, A.G. Becker, and numerous corporations. He has served as political advisor to several of Asia's major political figures and has done consulting projects for the Korea Development Institute, Korea's National Defense College, the Philippine Ministry of Agrarian Reform, and Thailand's Ministry of Universities.

Dr. Overholt received his B.A. (magna, 1968) from Harvard and his Master of Philosophy (1970) and Ph.D. (1972) from Yale.


Back to Top, click here

Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi

Supachai Panitchpakdi began his four-year term as Secretary-General of UNCTAD on 1 September 2005, following his appointment by the UN General Assembly.
Born in Bangkok on 30 May 1946, Mr. Supachai attended school there at St. Gabriel’s College and Triam Udom School.

He received his Master’s Degree in Econometrics, Development Planning and his Ph.D. in Economic Planning and Development at the Netherlands School of Economics (now known as Erasmus University) in Rotterdam.

In 1973, Mr. Supachai completed his doctoral dissertation on Human Resource Planning and Development under the supervision of Prof. Jan Tinbergen, the first Nobel laureate in economics.

Mr. Supachai began his professional career at the Bank of Thailand in 1974, working in the Research Department, the International Finance Division and the Financial Institutions Supervision Department.

In 1986, Mr. Supachai was elected to the Thai Parliament and appointed Deputy Minister of Finance.

In 1988, he was appointed Director and Advisor, and subsequently President, of the Thai Military Bank.

In 1992, Mr. Supachai was appointed Senator, and that same year he became Deputy Prime Minister, entrusted with oversight of the country’s economic and trade policy-making. In this role, he was actively involved in international trade policy and represented Thailand at the signing ceremony in Marrakech of the Uruguay Round Agreement in 1994. He was also active in shaping regional agreements, including Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM).

In 2001, he was appointed Visiting Professor at the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne. He has published a number of books, including Globalization and Trade in the New Millennium (2001) and China and WTO: Changing China, Changing World Trade (2002, co-authored with Mark Clifford).

Mr. Supachai previously served as Director-General of the World Trade Organization (September 2002 to August 2005).

Mr. Supachai is married to Mrs. Sasai and has a son and a daughter.


Back to Top, click here

Mr. Clyde Prestowitz

Clyde Prestowitz is founder and President of the Economic Strategy Institute. His leadership has propelled ESI into an important role in the public policy process, influencing and often defining the terms of the debate in the areas of international trade policy, economic competitiveness, and the effects of globalization. Mr. Prestowitz has played key roles in achieving congressional passage of NAFTA and in shaping the final content of the Uruguay Round, as well as providing the intellectual basis for current U.S. trade policies toward Japan, China, and Korea.

Prior to founding ESI, Mr. Prestowitz served as counselor to the Secretary of Commerce in the Reagan Administration. There, he led many U.S. trade and investment negotiations with Japan, China, Latin America, and Europe. Before joining the Commerce Department, he was a senior businessman in the United States, Europe, Japan, and throughout Asia and Latin America. He has served as vice chairman of the President's Committee on Trade and Investment in the Pacific and sits on the Intel Policy Advisory Board and the U.S. Export-Import Bank Advisory Board.

Clyde Prestowitz regularly writes for leading publications, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Fortune, and Foreign Affairs. He is the author of the best-selling book on U.S.-Japan relations, Trading Places, and co-author and editor of several other books on international trade and business strategy including Asia After the Miracle; Powernomics; Bit by Bit; The New North American Trade Order; and Rogue Nation. His latest book, Three Billion New Capitalists: The Great Shift of Wealth and Power to the East, deals with the economic rise of Asia and the upcoming rebalancing of the world economic order, and its impact on the United States.

Mr. Prestowitz has a B.A. with honors from Swarthmore College; an M.A. in East-West Policies and Economics from the East-West Center of the University of Hawaii; and an M.B.A. from the Wharton Graduate School of Business. He also studied at Keio University in Tokyo. He is fluent in Japanese, Dutch, German, and French.


Back to Top, click here

Mr. Martin Wassell

Martin Wassell has been First Director of the International Chamber of Commerce since 1997, after 12 years as Economic Director.

Earlier in his career before joining ICC in 1985, Mr Wassell held London-based posts as: Coordinator of Policy to the President of the Confederation of British Industry; Editorial Director of the Institute of Economic Affairs, an independent economic research trust; and General Director of the Centre for Policy Studies, an economic and social research institute founded by Lady Margaret Thatcher.

Mr Wassell, a British national, holds degrees in Economics, International Relations, and Law from University College London. He has written and lectured widely on economic matters. .


Back to Top, click here

Professor Richard Wong

Yue-Chim Richard Wong is Professor of Economics and Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost at the University of Hong Kong. He was Founding Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics.
His main research interest is in the applications of economic analysis to public policy.

His recent publications include The Fifth Dragon: Emergence of the Pearl River Delta (co-author), Port Facilities and Container Handling Services (co-author), On Privatizing Public Housing, Made in PRD – The changing Face of HK Manufacturers (co-author) , Retaking Economic Center Stage, and Made in PRD: Challenges & Opportunities for HK Industry.

He had served on numerous public bodies including the Hong Kong SAR Government’s Exchange Fund Advisory Committee, Hospital Authority, Housing Authority, University Grants Committee, Chief Executive’s Commission on Innovation and Technology, the Commission on Strategic Development - Committee on Economic Development and Economic Cooperation with the Mainland, and the KCRC Managing Board, etc.

He was awarded the Silver Bauhinia Star in 1999 by the Government of HKSAR for his contributions in education, housing, industry and technology development and was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 2000.


Back to Top, click here