Mr. Klein served as Political Section Chief at the American Institute in Taiwan, as Deputy Director and later Acting Director of the Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs at the U.S. State Department in Washington, DC, and in assignments at U.S. Missions in Kyiv, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, Doha and Jerusalem.

Prior to joining the U.S. Foreign Service, Bill worked in leadership positions in investment banking in Germany for over a decade. He managed the financial derivatives trading operation of a Frankfurt-based bank and later established and led the capital markets division of a universal bank established in former East Germany following German reunification.

A native of Oregon, Mr. Klein grew up in North Ogden, Utah, and holds the equivalent of an M.A. and a B.A. in economics from the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, as well as a B.A. in History and Mass Communications from the University of Utah. He speaks Mandarin Chinese, Russian and German.

Colm Rafferty is the Vice President – Asia Pacific for Vermeer Corporation and is Chairman of Vermeer China Limited. Vermeer is an equipment manufacturer from the Midwest of the United States, with products used for agricultural mechanization, environmental protection, infrastructure development, and non-blast surface mining. The Asia Pacific business includes integrated supply chain operations and dealer networks and company-owned distribution in China, Singapore, Australia, Northeast Asia, and Southeast Asia.

Vermeer advocates for the interests of U.S. businesses around the world. In the U.S., Vermeer is an active participant in President Obama’s Export Council (PEC). Vermeer’s Chair of the Board is the recent former Chairwoman of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), the largest industrial trade association and lobbying group in the U.S. In China, this past year, Colm served as Vice Chair of the Board of Governors of AmCham China.

Colm received an MBA from the Yale School of Management, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in East Asian Studies from Brown University. He currently serves on the Yale University Asia Development Council, the Yale School of Management’s Greater China Advisory Board, and recently served on the Executive Committee of the Beijing Chapter of the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO).

Alan Beebe 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 seventeen years in mainland China.

As President, Alan 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. He leads major advocacy initiatives related to trade tariffs, market access, cybersecurity, Made in China 2025, China’s NGO law and structural imbalances in U.S. – China trade and investment.

In 2018, he launched AmCham China’s Technology & Innovation Initiative, focused on the business and policy implications of disruptive digital technologies - such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain and cloud computing – for U.S. companies in China.

Prior to joining AmCham China, Alan held various senior executive positions in China with EY, IBM, and management consulting firms AT Kearney and PRTM. He also led a Beijing based start-up for five years, the China Greentech Initiative, which merged in 2014 with the Paulson Institute, founded by Hank Paulson.

Alan has advised a wide range of corporations and global investors on investing and operating in China. His clients have included global private equity firms, high technology companies, energy related companies, and major state-owned and private Chinese enterprises.

He holds a Master’s degree from Yale University in International Relations and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Computer Science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the U.S. He is a Board of Advisor of the Yale Club of Beijing and in that capacity promotes academic and cultural exchanges between the U.S. and China. He is a fluent speaker of mandarin Chinese, and reads and writes Chinese. Alan was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska.

Michael has spent over 20 years in greater China including stints in Taipei, Shanghai and Tianjin primarily focused on commercial real estate. In Tianjin he opened and led a branch office for a NYSE-listed commercial real estate business for over a decade.

In 2019 he founded Griffin Business Management, a commercial real estate focused investment and consultancy business which has a division that owns and operates American quick service restaurants.

Michael has spent over a decade on the Tianjin Executive Committee for AmCham China and is its current chairman. He is a regular speaker and author on economic and property issues related to China. He also regularly leads walking tours of Tianjin’s former foreign concessions.

Xu Sitao is Chief Economist and Partner of Deloitte China, spearheading Deloitte's economic and industry research. Prior to Deloitte, he was Chief Representative of China and EIU forecasting director at the Economist Group from 2004 to 2014.

Sitao worked for MMS International of Standard and Poor’s Group in Singapore as the Economist for Indonesia, Korea and Thailand in 1995. He joined Standard Chartered Bank as Regional Treasury Economist in 1996. From 2000 to 2002, he was Societe Generale’s Chief Economist for Asia. In 2003, he became the Head of Economics of ICBC (Asia).

Sitao has written for YaleGlobal Online, the Asian Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Caijing, Caixin and 21st Century Business Herald. He appears regularly on CNBC, Bloomberg, CCTV, and other TV shows as a commentator on China. He is on the Speaker Retainer Program for the Virginia-based CFA Institute, and is often invited by leading MNCs to their board rooms, to present key issues on China.

Sitao holds a B.A. in Economics from Peking University, a M.A. in Economics from the University of Connecticut, and a M.S. in Finance from Boston College. He was a visiting scholar at Hoover Institution at Stanford University in 2012. He is also a guest professor at the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University.