Member Briefing: Insights from 2023 Two Sessions

James McGregor is Greater China Chairman for APCO Worldwide, and author of two highly regarded books: No Ancient Wisdom, No Followers: The Challenges of Chinese Authoritarian Capitalism; and One Billion Customers: Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China. As a journalist, McGregor covered Congress for Knight-Ridder during the Reagan administration, and was bureau chief in Taipei and Beijing for The Wall Street Journal. Switching to business, he was CEO of Dow Jones in China and later founded a China-focused research and advisory firm for hedge funds. McGregor also served as chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, National Committee on US-China Relations, Global Council of the Asia Society and is on the board of the US-China Education Trust. He has lived in China for 30 years and now splits his time between Shanghai and Beijing.

Acting as the senior representative of University of Edinburgh in East Asia, Grace is responsible for raising the profile and advancing engagement across the region, looking after the strategic and ambitious partnership the university has with governments, private sectors, and research institutes. Grace plays a leading role in the China Strategy for the university. She also leads her team to develop diverse activities including alumni engagement, research collaboration, developing connections and opportunities for the university across East Asia.

Prior to the role, Grace worked for the British Consulate General Shanghai for over 7 years as the Senior Political officer, leading the UK Government’s Civil Society and value-based initiatives, while managing the Official Development Assistance fund in East China. Grace has been nominated as a Global Scot by the Scottish Development International, for her continuous efforts in strengthening the links between Scotland and Asia.

Michael Mei, graduated from Beijing Language and Culture University for B.A. and Tshinghua University for MBA, is Vice President of Government Affairs and ESG of Smiths Group China. Michael Mei joined MOFCOM after university graduation, used to be a Chinese foreign commercial diplomat in South Africa. Apart from working in Chinese government, he also has many years of work experience in MNCs like GE and Alstom on government affairs and public policy, mainly focused in energy, low carbon, and environment sector, before joining Smiths Group in 2017.

Professional experience

• Deal sourcing and execution of advisory and transaction support services to capital market and other corporate transactions in the Asia-Pacific region, including IPOs, introductions and reverse acquisitions, as well as private corporate transactions covering fundraisings (start-up to growth capital), acquisitions, disposals and related due diligence and financing
• Transactions cover China, Hong Kong, Europe, US and UK across a broad sector range
• Tim was trained with KPMG China and UK for nine years and was the Corporate Finance Associated Director of BDO UK before joining Mazars in 2011.

Skills

• In depth knowledge of cross-border M&A transactions, corporate restructuring and China outbound investments
• Business oriented approach enabling analysis of targets in a wide range of industries
• Ability to establish strong relationship with corporate functions of the client and other advisors involved (lawyers, consultants, etc.)
• Capability to manage large projects and teams with an international reach and across departments

Main clients include Haier, Fosun, Bel Group, ICICLE, Imerys, Sonepar, Bureau Veritas, Hisense, Alten, etc.

Yoyo is a Partner of Tax and Business Advisory Services in PwC Shanghai office. She has more than 17 years of professional experience in serving multinational and domestic companies in PRC tax and business advisory services, with a wide range of industries coverage including TMT, R&C, real estate, etc.
Yoyo graduated from Fudan University with a bachelor degree in Economics.