Speaker Profiles

	Rt Hon John Hutton, Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform John Hutton entered the Cabinet as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in May 2005. In November 2005 he became Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. He was previously Minister of State with responsibility for Social Care at the Department of Health in 1999. He took on responsibility for Health in June 2001. Before his election to Parliament he was a Senior Law lecturer at the University of Northumbria. From 1994 to1997 he served on the Select Committee for Home Affairs. He was PPS to Margaret Beckett, both while she was President of the Board of Trade and Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1997-8), and in her role as President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (1998). Mr Hutton was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in Oct 1998. Mr Hutton was born on the 6 May 1955 and was educated at Westcliffe High School and Magdalen College Oxford. He has three sons and one daughter.
	Digby, Lord Jones of Birmingham Digby, Lord Jones of Birmingham was appointed Minister for Trade and Investment at the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform and at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on 29 June 2007. Digby served as Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the UK’s ‘Voice of Business’, from 2000 to 2006, where he regularly visited businesses in the UK and worldwide – taking their views back to those who make the rules. During his appointment he took the British business message to 70 different countries. He met on a regular basis political, business and media figures in the United Kingdom and around the world. A law graduate from University College, London, after some time in the Royal Navy he joined Birmingham law firm Edge and Ellison in 1978, making partner in 1984, Deputy senior partner in 1990 and Senior Partner in 1995. He was involved in most of the MBO and M&A activity in the West Midlands in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 1998 Digby joined KPMG as vice chairman of Corporate Finance, acting as close adviser to many public companies across the United Kingdom and in KPMG’s global markets.
	Peter de Wit Peter de Wit was born in Amstelveen, the Netherlands, in August 1949. He graduated in Economics and Political Sciences at Trinity College, Dublin University (B.A. Honours and M.A.). Immediately after graduating in 1971, he joined Shell in the Oil Marketing sector, taking up his first position in Australia. After a variety of jobs within Shell worldwide Peter de Wit was, as from September 1st 2007, appointed President, Shell Nederland B.V. and Country Chair for Shell in the Netherlands. He also holds executive positions at the employers’ federation VNO-NCW (Executive Committee), the chemical industry association VNCI and the oil industry association VNPI, as well as being a member of the Supervisory Board of GasTerra. Peter is married and has two daughters. His leisure interests are sport, travel, music and reading.
	Alderman Sir David Brewer CMG A Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute (F.C.I.I.) Sir David’s career has been in insurance broking and he is now Non- Executive Vice-Chairman of Marsh Ltd. Whilst with Sedgwick (subsequently purchased by Marsh) he opened their offices in Japan in 1976, in China, in 1981 and India in 1986. He is Chairman of the China-Britain Business Council and also a ‘Think London’ International Envoy for London. He was Lord Mayor of the City of London for the year 2005 – 2006.
	Sir David Wright, GCMG, LVO Sir David Wright is a Vice Chairman of Barclays Capital, the investment banking division of Barclays PLC. Sir David is based in London and is a senior relationship adviser for the firm with special emphasis on the UK and Asia Pacific region. He is a member of Barclays Asia Pacific Advisory Committee Sir David was the first Chief Executive of British Trade International in the UK, from 1999 to 2002. Sir David has a wealth of international business experience. He has had a long and varied career in the Diplomatic Service, including positions in Tokyo, Seoul, Paris and London, and he has worked as Private Secretary to the UK's Cabinet Secretary and also as Private Secretary to HRH the Prince of Wales. Sir David has held the positions of British Ambassador in Korea (1990-1994) and Japan (1996-1999); he is fluent in French and Japanese, and speaks good Korean. Sir David was educated at Wolverhampton Grammar School and at Peterhouse, Cambridge where he took a degree in History. He was married in 1968 to his wife Sally and has two adult children both working in companies in the London area. Sir David was Knighted (KCMG) in 1996. He was appointed GCMG (Knight Grand Cross) on 15 June 2002 in the Queen’s Jubilee Honours List.
	Professor Peter Roberts OBE As Chair of the Academy for Sustainable Communities (ASC), Peter is responsible for providing effective strategic leadership and is the link between the ASC Steering Board and the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG), Peter is also Professor of Sustainable Spatial Development at the Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds and advises Addleshaw Goddard on sustainable communities, regeneration, planning and environmental management. He is currently Vice-President of the Town and Country Planning Association, Hon. Vice-Chair of the Regional Studies Association, Chair of the Best Practice Committee of the British Urban Regeneration Association, Chair of the Planning Exchange Foundation and an adviser to the Local Government Association. Peter was awarded the OBE for services to planning and regeneration. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences.
	Dr Xiangyu Sheng Xiangyu has over 15 years’ experience working in the Environmental Sector. She is currently an Associate Director with Scott Wilson responsiable for providing environmental services to UK and internatioanly, e.g. China and South East Aisa. She has gained a wide range of expertise in environmental sustainability, emission reduction, climate change, environment impact assessment, air quality modelling and Geographic Information System (GIS). She was the chairman of Chinese Association of Resources and Environment (CARE) in the U.K.(2002-2005). She is a regular speaker at UKTI Environment Missions to China and appears at BBC Radio China on Climate Change and Environmental issues. She is also an author of numerous environmental sustainability articles to “People’s Daily” and other Chinese environmental journals. She is a Chartered Physicist (CPhys) and Chartered Scientist (CSci), a fellow of Royal Meteorology Society, UK (FRMetS), a member of The Institute of Physics (MInstP), and a member of The Institute of Environmental Sciences, UK (MIEnvSc). Prior to joining Scott Wilson, Xiangyu was a Principal and Team Leader with other UK environmental consultancy firms. She was a ‘Technical Lead’ for the London 2012 Olympic air quality assessment and monitoring project. She was ‘EU expert’ to two major EU funded projects in China and also a consultant to World Bank projects. In addition, she has delivered air quality training courses to over 500 professionals in China and in the UK. She has been a member of the Expert Panel for Environmental Modelling in SEPA, China since 2006. She has published a book titled “Air Dispersion Modelling in Regulatory Applications”, China Standard Publishing House, 2005. She was a Guest Editor for: Future Generation Computer Systems, Special Issue: Geocomputation. She is a reviewer for Journal of Applied Meteorology from the American Meteorological Society and for Journal of Environmental Modelling and Software. She has published about 30 papers in refereed journals and international conferences. She is a guest Professor of Beijing Normal University, Chongqing University and Kunming Science and Technology University, China.
	Richard Lambert, Director-General of the CBI Having studied history at Balliol College, Oxford, Richard joined the Financial Times in 1966. He edited the Lex column in the 1970s, becoming financial editor in 1979. In 1982 he moved to New York as the Bureau Chief, returning to the UK a year later as Deputy Editor. He became Editor of theFinancial Times in 1991 and during his 10 years in this role launched the US version of the newspaper. From August 2002 Richard spent a semester at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He was subsequently asked to write the Lambert Review of Business-University Collaboration. A member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee from Spring 2003 until Spring 2006, Richard took up the post of Director-General of the CBI in July 2006. Richard is a trustee of the British Museum, a member of the UK-India Roundtable and the Franco-British Colloque. He is married to Harriet and has two children. He enjoys the theatre, music and galleries.
	Clare A Hammond, Managing Director, China International Strategic Development, HSBC Holdings plc Since 2001, Clare has served as Special Advisor on China in HSBC Holdings, providing strategic and market advice and looking after senior level China relations, for the Group Chairman, Stephen Green and the CEO Michael Geoghegan also advises a number of the Group's leading CIBM (major multinational) clients on macro-economic and strategic issues for this market. Prior to that, she spent five years overseeing strategy and planning in HSBC's Global Treasury area. She has also headed HSBC's Emerging Markets Origination, working on a number of high profile Asian bond issues, including China's first ever sovereign issue in the international capital markets. Other career highlights included a period as Deputy Head of Project Finance at National Power plc, during which a major focus was on BOT power projects in China, 3 years running the China portfolio in HSBC Project and Export Finance, where she signed the first ever export credit deals to be done with all the major banks apart from Bank of China (ICBC, CCB, Agricultural Bank, CITIC Industrial Bank and Bank of Communications) and, before she became a banker - a year at the British Embassy in Beijing as a commercial attaché, back in the mid-eighties when China was first opening its doors to foreign business, as well as a stint running the then Midland Bank representative office in Beijing in the early 90's. Clare is a French and Mandarin Chinese speaker. Qualifications include a degree in Mandarin and French, Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, FSA registered representative and the ISMA International Bond Dealers diploma.
	Stephen Phillips, Chief Executive, China Britain Business Council (CBBC) Stephen Phillips joined the China Britain Business Council as Chief Executive on 1st June 2006. Stephen has been actively engaged in business in and with China for more than 15 years and his experience spans a number of sectors including aerospace, oil, gas and petrochemicals, infrastructure, ICT and financial services. Before joining CBBC Stephen was International Trade Director, UK Trade & Investment where he was responsible for a team delivering services to companies based in the South West England to further their international ambitions. Stephen instigated an active programme to encourage more businesses to trade with China. Prior to this Stephen was Managing Director and co-founder of iBridge Capital (now known as YQ Global), a group of companies providing IT solutions and financial and business consulting services throughout Asia and the Middle East, with a particular focus, partnerships and representation in China. Stephen also held senior investment banking positions with Deutsche and BZW/Barclays Capital in Asia for over 10 years, where he specialised in structuring and financing cross border investments totalling in excess of £20 billion. In China, Stephen worked with a wide range multinational and Chinese enterprises on major projects, acquisitions and joint ventures. Prior to moving to Asia, Stephen worked for the Barclays Group in the UK and Botswana. He holds a BSc in Chemistry and Law from the University of Exeter.
	Brian Outlaw, Executive Director, China, China-Britain Business Council Brian Outlaw is the China Director for the China-Britain Business Council, the UK’s leading agency helping British companies do business in China. He is responsible for all CBBC’s China activities across a network of nine offices and works with UKTI, the British Chamber of Commerce, the CBI and other partners to provide effective assistance and practical advice to UK companies. He joined CBBC in 2000. Brian graduated from the University of Aberdeen in 1971 and worked as a petroleum geologist with Burmah Oil, the British National Oil Corporation and Britoil in Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the UK. He was appointed Associate President, BP China and General Manager, BP Exploration in 1988 was responsible for exploration programmes onshore and offshore China and BP’s downstream activities in China and Hong Kong. In 1996, after leaving BP, Brian joined PowerGen and continued to live in Beijing where he lead PowerGen’s business in North Asia, including the purchase and operation of a 49.9% interest in a 540MW combined cycle power plant in Korea. Brian was the first chairman of BCCC he was made an honorary life member of the Chamber in 1994. He has four children who all live in the UK and his interests include music and reading.
	Liza Lort-Phillips, Associate Director Liza has over ten years consultancy experience and has worked in both the corporate and non-profit sectors. She has also lived in Greater China for ten years and is a fluent Mandarin speaker. Liza works on a broad range of consultancy issues and is the first port of call for any issues related to China, supply chain or consumer brands. Prior to this she worked for Save the Children UK as private sector advisor, where she was responsible for advocacy work on corporate accountability issues. She also represented the charity on the Publish What you Pay Coalition (PWYP) and the Board of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI). In China Liza was Director for a leading public affairs consultancy (Batey Burn, now APCO China) where she managed a wide range of investment, government relations and CSR projects for both the private and public sectors (including UNAIDS and DfID). She also initiated the first joint British-US Chamber Forum on Corporate Responsibility in China for over 100 representatives of business, NGOs and government. She began her career as Procurement Manager for Carlsberg in Guangdong Province. Liza has an MSc in Business and Environment from Imperial College London and has also worked as a freelance consultant for the International Institute of Environment and Development (IIED). A graduate of Politics and East Asian Studies from Newcastle University, her publications include “Ethical Trade in China: One Country Two Systems?” She also co-authored a Save the Children UK publication “Beyond the Rhetoric: Transparency in the Oil and Gas Industry” (2005).
	Andrew Vallance-Owen, Associate Director Andrew Vallance-Owen qualified at the Birmingham University Medical School, later undertaking surgical training in Newcastle upon Tyne and Melbourne, Australia. His career within the British Medical Association, BMA, started as Provincial Medical Secretary for the north of England followed by promotion to the post of BMA Scottish Secretary. Latterly he moved to London to become Head of Central Services and International Affairs, a role which also developed into Head of Policy Development. In addition, he became Secretary of the BMA Charitable Trusts and frequently acted as a spokesman for the BMA and the medical profession. His experience spans the broad management spectrum in medicine with hands on experience of management, industrial relations, negotiating, political lobbying, public speaking and media communications. He has also developed a specific interest in clinical audit and professional accountability over the last 15 years and has published on the subject. He became Medical Director of BUPA Hospitals in 1994 and, in 1995, became BUPA’s Global Medical Director where he has furthered his interests in the quality of health care, clinical audit and outcomes. He has expertise in health screening and promotion and is a keen advocate of improved doctor/patient communication and shared decision making. He has considerable knowledge and experience in the field of health and medical politics.
	Hai Wen Hai Wen is Inchcape Professor of Economics and Deputy Director of the China Center for Economic Research (CCER) where he specializes in International Economics (Trade), Development Economics, and Transitional Economics (Economic Transitions in Former Planned Economies). He has a Ph.D. & MA in Economics from the University of California, and a BA in Political Economy from Peking University. Hai Wen has lectured at California State University and the University of California. He was visiting professor at the Australian National University, and Assistant and Associate Professor at Colorado State University before joining CCER as Deputy Director in 1994. Hai Wen has had many books published as well as having had papers in numerous prominent journals. In 1997 he was awarded the National Outstanding Returning Scholar Award by the Ministry of Personnel and the State Commission of Education.
	Andrew Hedges, Senior Associate, Norton Rose LLP Andrew is a senior associate in our energy team based in London. He previously worked as a Head of Legal at ScottishPower, giving him in-depth knowledge of the energy industry and markets. Prior to joining ScottishPower Andrew was a senior associate with Clayton Utz, a leading Australian legal practice. As a key part of that firm’s energy practice Andrew advised major local and international energy companies on a wide range of issues. Andrew is a member of our dedicated team of lawyers that focus on projects designed to reduce carbon emissions, carbon aspects of projects generally, policy and strategic analysis for corporate entities contemplating the impact of climate change and the documentation and regulatory structures surrounding domestic, EU and international carbon trading. He also specialises in the development and financing of clean energy projects: ranging from windfarms to biomass generation facilities. Andrew continues to work in the traditional energy sector, with a particular focus on upstream gas including international LNG projects.
	Robert Hodgkinson Robert Hodgkinson is Executive Director, Technical at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW) and is a member of the Board of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). He joined the ICAEW in October 2002 from public practice. Robert heads the ICAEW’s thought leadership programmes and has overall responsibility for its seven specialist faculties (audit and assurance, corporate finance, finance and management, financial reporting, financial services, IT and tax) and for its work in corporate responsibility, corporate governance, professional ethics and liability, and business law. He is also secretary to the Audit Firm Governance Working Group formed by the ICAEW at the request of the UK Financial Reporting Council and he is a member of the Steering Group of the Audit Quality Forum convened by the ICAEW at the request of UK government to promote dialogue amongst audit firms, investors, business and regulators. From 2000 to 2004 Robert represented the UK accounting profession as a Vice-President of the European Federation of Accountants (FEE) and as Chairman of its Auditing Working Party. In 2004 and 2005, Robert acted as Secretary to the UK Financial Reporting Council group appointed to review the Turnbull guidance on internal control. Robert is a Chartered Accountant and was educated at the Manchester Grammar School and Corpus Christi College, Oxford where he graduated with a first class honours degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
	Graham Cartledge Dip Arch (Leics) FCSD, Chairman, Benoy Graham joined Benoy in 1973 and became a Senior Partner in 1975. Following a merger with Fitch & Co in 1987, Graham was appointed Managing Director of Fitch Benoy and a Board Director of Fitch RS Plc. Graham became Chairman of Benoy in 1992 following a successful management buy-out. Since Graham took over as Chairman, the Company has seen phenomenal growth and received impressive recognition within the Industry. Originally undertaking major retail projects in the UK - notable highlights include Bluewater in Kent and the Bullring in Birmingham, Benoy now works in 35 countries throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia with over 450 employees. When Graham joined the Company, Benoy had just one busy office in Newark in Nottinghamshire. Three years after the buy-out, Graham opened an office in London, and Benoy has since expanded into Hong Kong in 2002, Singapore in 2006, and Abu Dhabi and Shanghai in 2007. In December 2006, Benoy received the Cathay Pacific Award for Enterprise in recognition of its rapid growth and financial success in the Chinese market. In January 2008, Graham accompanied Prime Minister Gordon Brown MP and Lord Digby Jones, Minister of State for Trade and Investment, to Beijing for the UK China Business Summit. www.benoy.com