Michael Hart is President of the American Chamber of Commerce in China based in Beijing. He has over twenty-five years of business experience in Asia, including nineteen years in mainland China.

As President, Michael oversees all advocacy, programs, partnerships, and insights provided by the Chamber to support the business growth of nearly 900 foreign corporations operating in China, including most of the U.S. Fortune 500. The chamber’s advocacy includes the impressive American Business in China White Paper and Business Climate Survey each published annually as well as numerous interactions with both the US and Chinese governments on behalf of our members.

Prior to joining AmCham China, Michael spent most of his career in commercial real estate in Taipei, Shanghai and Tianjin including almost 20 years for a NYSE listed property services firm. He started in the research division briefing real estate owners, occupiers and investors on transactions and macro trends, he then opened, built, and led a branch office for the company in one of China’s largest Tier 1.5 cities for over a decade. Following this, Michael opened a private consulting and investment firm that among other projects invested in quick service restaurants.

In addition to this work, Michael was a long-term AmCham member and served on the Tianjin chapter’s Executive Committee for nearly 15 years including several terms as the local Chairman.

Michael holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a focus on finance and banking from the University of Missouri-Columbia in the U.S. He is a fluent speaker of mandarin Chinese. Michael was born and raised near Kansas City, Missouri.

Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD ’98, is CEO of The American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore: the largest and the most active international business association in Singapore and Southeast Asia representing over 650 companies. Lei is also adjunct associate professor at the National University of Singapore Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, a member of the Bloomberg School’s Advisory Board, vice president of the Precision Public Health Asia Society, board member and fundraising committee chair of TalenTtrust, member of the United Women Singapore STEM Advisory Panel, and board committee member of SATA CommHealth.

Prior to AmCham, Lei was vice president of Medical and Scientific Affairs for Medtronic Asia Pacific, where she was responsible for the Medtronic Innovation Centers in Japan and Korea, training and education, and the company’s health systems transformation strategy in the region. Lei has extensive experience in scientific affairs, corporate and healthcare communications, advertising, public relations and government affairs.

Lei has lived and worked in the US, Taiwan, Japan, Vietnam, UK, and is now based in Singapore. She holds a BA (with honors) in Human Biology from Stanford University and a PhD in Epidemiology from the Bloomberg School, where she was the recipient of an NIH Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology Training Grant. Her doctoral thesis explored the genetic epidemiology of end-stage renal disease and type 2 diabetes. She completed her post-doctoral fellowship at National Taiwan University Hospital in the Department of Internal Medicine.

Mr. Travis has twelve years of experience working in Southeast Asia, helping U.S. businesses thrive. Mr. Travis previously served as the Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia, where he facilitated connections between the Royal Government of Cambodia and the private sector, created opportunities for growth and investment, and fostered ties between members of the American and Cambodian business communities. He also worked as an advisor to Dr. Kao Kim Hourn, Secretary General of ASEAN.

His professional research background, combined with his work on policy advocacy, public health and community activism, has helped him to promote the development of trade, investment, and human resources in the region. He was selected as one of the top 50 international voices of Cambodia in 2024 by Cambodia Leadership Review.

Steven Okun, Founder and CEO of APAC Advisors and Senior Advisor to McLarty Associates, is a leader on corporate public affairs, ESG, sustainability, and stakeholder engagement. A 21-year resident of Singapore, he spent the first twelve years of his career in Washington, DC, including in the Administration of President Bill Clinton as Deputy General Counsel at the US Department of Transportation. As KKR’s first Director of Asia Public Affairs from 2011-2017, he was one of the first people in the region working on ESG in private capital. From 2003-2010, he created and led Public Affair for UPS Asia. An in-demand speaker in the corporate and the financial services sector, Steve also appears frequently across global media, provides the weekly International News Review for MONEY FM (Singapore) and contributes commentary to Nikkei Asia, The Straits Times, The Business Times, Eco-Business and Asia Times.