Colm Rafferty is the Vice President – Asia Pacific for Vermeer Corporation and is Chairman of Vermeer China.

Vermeer is a global manufacturer of innovative solutions used to help connect people to the necessities of life, to help manage precious natural resources, and to help feed and fuel the world. Vermeer products are used in a variety of applications from underground utility infrastructure development, to non-blast surface mining, solar field installation, waste material processing, and agricultural mechanization.

Colm started his career in China 18 years ago in the internet space, as Director for Business Development and employee #120 at Alibaba (NYSE: BABA). He also serves as a member of the International Advisory Board for VIPKID, an Internet education company which empowers over 60,000 U.S. teachers to provide high quality ESL instruction to children across China.

Colm is Vice Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.

Colm received an MBA from the Yale School of Management, is member of the Yale School of Management Greater China Advisory Board, and the Yale Asia Development Council.

Tim Stratford is Chairman at AmCham China and Managing Partner in Covington & Burling LLP’s Beijing office and a member of the International Trade, Corporate and Government Affairs Practice Groups. Mr. Stratford’s practice is focused on advising international clients doing business in China and assisting Chinese companies seeking to expand their businesses globally. As a former Assistant U.S. Trade Representative, Mr. Stratford is the most senior former U.S. trade official working as a member of the U.S. business community in China. Except for the five years he spent in Washington, D.C. in government service (2005-2010), Mr. Stratford has lived and worked continuously in the greater China region since 1982.

While at USTR, Mr. Stratford was responsible for developing and implementing U.S. trade policy toward mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao and Mongolia. He worked closely with other senior U.S. and Chinese officials from numerous government departments and agencies to address problems encountered by companies engaged in bilateral trade and investment and co-chaired a number of important bilateral working groups and dialogues established under the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade and the U.S.-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue.

Prior to serving at USTR, Mr. Stratford was General Counsel for General Motors’ China operations, where he was a member of GM’s senior management team in China and oversaw the company’s legal and trade policy work. Mr. Stratford also served previously as Minister-Counselor for Commercial Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and as Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Brigham Young University, and is fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese.