Speakers’ Conference Topics and Biographies

Environmental Challenge Panel

Roger RAUFER

Topic: Sustainable Urban Energy Systems in China

Roger Raufer is a consulting engineer with more than thirty years of experience in the environment/energy field. He has extensive experience in obtaining environmental permits for conventional boilers, combustion turbines, district heating, digester gas cogeneration, waste combustion, and other energy-related projects.  In addition to private sector experience, he also served as Technical Advisor for the United Nations Division for Sustainable Development in New York for four years (2001-2005). He has worked as a consultant for the U.N. addressing energy/environmental issues in China since 1990, and for the World Bank and U.S. AID in numerous countries around the world.

Dr. Raufer holds a Ph.D. in Energy Management and Policy from the University of Pennsylvania, with one of the very first doctoral dissertations addressing emissions trading (1984). He also holds degrees in chemical engineering, environmental engineering, and political science. He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania (since 1983), and every summer at the IFP in Paris (since 1989).   He is a registered Professional Engineer in a number of U.S. states, and has written two books on the role of emissions trading in environmental management.

Ellen BRENNAN-GALVIN

Topic: Transportation in China:  Contradictions and Challenges

Brennan-Galvin's research focuses on a range of urban environmental issues, primarily in developing countries. Her current work ranges from the role of small-scale water providers to eco-sanitation to the linkages between alternative transportation systems, air pollution and GHG emissions in developing country cities. Prior to coming to Yale, she was Chief of the Population Policy Section of the United Nations Population Division, where she worked for 25 years. She has conducted research on urban environmental issues and policies in more than 20 developing country cities in Asia, Africa and Latin America and is the author numerous case studies on mega-cities published by the United Nations. In recent years, Dr. Brennan-Galvin served on the National Academy of Science’s Committee on Population, as well as on the Committee on the Geographic Foundation for Agenda 21. She also served on the NAS Panel that produced Cities Transformed: Demographic Change and Its Implications in the Developing World (2003). She was a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. and a Population Council Fellow at the Office of Population Research, Princeton University. She holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Max ZHANG

Topic: Air Pollution in Beijing: a "Particulate" Experience

Dr. Zhang studies the effects of airborne particulate matters (PM) and gaseous pollutants on air quality, climate change and ecosystem, using numerical models and experimental techniques. Before joining the Cornell faculty, he was a research scientist at the Air Quality Research Center, University of California at Davis. He was a visiting scientist to USEPA Atmospheric Modeling Division in 2000 and 2002, One particular area he is working on is environmental nanoparticles. His research in this area focuses on characterizing various emission sources and their transformation in the atmosphere, especially the rapid changes in the first few minutes after emission. One important goal is to establish a source-to-receptor relationship for airborne nanoparticles. The "receptor" refers to either humans or the climate system. Another goal in this area is to improve laboratory engine measurements to represent "real-world" emissions, and to develop optimal control strategies to mitigate human exposures to traffic-generated air pollution. In addition, Dr. Zhang is working on modeling urban, regional and global aerosols. His research in this area focuses on improving physical representation and computational efficiency of aerosol module in regional and global models. An important application of his research is to investigate the atmospheric deposition of nitrogen and Mercury into the ecosystem.

Victor Yue YUAN

Topic: The Change of Environmental Attitude of Chinese People

Victor Yuan is chairman of the board and founder and president of Horizon Research Consultancy Group which was founded in 1992. Mr. Yuan has had 20 years of experiences in professional marketing, social research and policy analysis, and management consulting. He has published more than 400 research reports, papers, books, and translation works on law, economics, sociology, politic science and culture. He has profound experience especially in the areas such as social group culture, branding and empirical methodology of design for marketing strategy and public policy.

Mr. Yuan also serves as a long-term and strategic consultant for renowned multinational and domestic media and corporations both in China and abroad. Mr. Yuan is a highly recognized public figure nationwide and is a frequent speaker on areas of market research, consulting, strategy, social trends, etc. in China. He has been anchor of business TV show “Brainstorming” for two years in Shanghai. This show was recently rated as No. 1 business TV talk show in Chinese in Asia by a Singaporean-based Asian TV Festival.

Mr. Yuan holds a Ph.D. in sociology from Peking University and MPA from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He is Vice President of China Marketing Research Association and President of Beijing Consulting Association (BCA). In addition, he is ESOMAR Representative and Chairman of China area and Director of board and vice Chairman, Association of Management Consulting Firms (AMCF) headquartered in New York.

Finance and Foreign Investment Panel

Bernard Y. YEUNG

Topic: China’s Outward FDI: motivations and implications

Bernard Yeung is the Abraham Krasnoff Professor in Global Business and a professor of economics at New York University Stern School of Business. He teaches courses in MNE economics, global business and international finance.

Professor Yeung has been with NYU Stern for more than five years. His primary areas of research include international trade/investment policies and firms; foreign direct investment and multinational firms; and international corporate finance. His writing has appeared in numerous publications, including the Journal of Financial Economics, Management Science, Economic Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Economics, and Journal of Business. He is also a departmental editorial of the Journal of International Business Studies. In addition, Professor Yeung has been awarded several honors that include the Moskowitz Prize for outstanding research in socially responsible investing, the Eugene Power Award for Career Achievement and the Teacher Excellence Award from the University of Michigan Business School. Prior to joining Stern, Professor Yeung taught at the University of Michigan and the University of Alberta.

Professor Yeung received his Bachelor of Arts in economics and mathematics from the University of Western Ontario, his MBA from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago, and his Doctor of Philosophy in international business also from the University of Chicago.

Yinxin LIAO

Topic: Leveling the Playfield of Enterprise Competition in China

—The Review on China’s New Unified Enterprise Income Tax Law

Dr. Yixin Liao is a Professor of International Law and the Dean of Law School of Xiamen University, a member of the Advisory Committee of National Legal Education of the Ministry of Education of China, vice-president of the Society of International Economic Law of China and vice-president of the Educational Society of Finance and Tax Law of China. In addition to being a legal scholar, Professor Liao also has rich legal practice experience and has been an arbitrator of both the China International Economic & Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), since 1997.  Prof. Liao's academic area focuses on international economic law and tax law. Within the field of international tax law he has published some influential textbooks, monographs, articles, and completed six research projects entrusted respectively by the National Social Science Fund, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Justice of China. From September 1993 to August 1994, Professor Liao was invited to conduct research as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School, and in February 2002 he was a senior visiting scholar at the Faculty of Law of Cambridge University, U.K. Presently, as a Fulbright Visiting Research Scholar and a Senior Global Research Fellow at NYU Law School, Professor Liao is conducting his research project in New York.

Winston MA

Topic: Investing in China – Foreign Investments and Capital Control

Winston W. Ma, CFA, Esq. is associate director of Barclays Capital in New York. Prior to joining Barclays Capital, he was a marketing specialist and products structurer at JPMorgan’s Investment Banking Division in New York.

His career started in 1997 when he joined the UK law firm Freshfields in Shanghai, China with joint-degrees in Chinese law and electronic materials. He came to the US late 1997 as a Hauser Scholar at the NYU Law School for the Master of Comparative Law degree, leading to his current capacity as the 2005 -08 term Secretary of the Foreign & Comparative Committee at the New York City Bar Association (ABCNY). After the NYU law school, he joined the New York office of Davis Polk & Wardwell as a US capital markets lawyer, where he excelled in structured equity transactions with his strong quantitative backgrounds. To pursue a more business-oriented role, he went to the University of Michigan Business School in 2001 for MBA, and the New York Times captured his action-packed career story in a Sunday Business issue.

Mr. Ma frequently publishes articles on financial innovation matters in industry magazines, and he has spoken on a number of global conferences on structured products, convertible bonds, and emerging markets securitization. He is also the author of Investing in China, published in March 2006 by Risk Books, which offers a state-of-the-art coverage on what investment vechicles are available today in China.

Keyong DONG

Topic: Labor Market Problems in China

Keyong Dong is a professor and the Dean of School of Public Administration of Renmin University. He currently also serves as Vice-President of Chinese Labor Studies Association, Vice-President of China Association for Public Administration, Vice-President of China Human Resource Development Association, Chairman of China Association for Human Resource Management, and Adviser of APEC-HRD China Network.

Professor Dong’s primary areas of research include labor economics, human resource management, and social security and social welfare. He has published a number of articles and books in these fields, and is the editor of International Journal of Human Resources management.

The key courses he has taught at Renmin University include Labor and Social Security Policies, Human Resources Management, Labor Economics and Industrial Relations, Public Police during Economic Reform of China.

Professor Dong is currently visiting at University of Michigan. He was a visiting scholar at Gent University in Belgium in 2001, Carleton University in Canada in 1994, and Ohio State University in U.S.A in 1992.