Steve Yates is from St. Petersburg, Florida, and serves as a Senior Fellow and Chair of the China Policy Initiative. He is an analyst and practitioner with experience at various levels of politics, policy, media, and national security affairs. A veteran commentator and trainer for television, radio, and print media opportunities, Yates has navigated policy decision-making processes across agencies, foreign and domestic. Since 2006, he has been a senior advisor to presidential campaigns, a frequent media commentator, and CEO of D.C. International Advisory. He previously served as President of Radio Free Asia and Professor in the Practice of International Business and Politics at Boise State University. Before opening D.C. International Advisory, Yates served in the White House as Deputy Assistant to Vice President Dick Cheney for National Security Affairs from 2001 through 2005, where he provided direct support to the Vice President and his national security advisor for White House deliberations. Yates served as chairman of the Idaho Republican Party from August 2014 to April 2017 and as co-chair of the 2016 Republican Platform Subcommittee on National Security. Yates was a candidate for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor in Idaho’s May 2018 primary. He regularly appears on several national TV and radio stations. He previously served as Senior Policy Analyst at the Heritage Foundation and an analyst at the National Security Agency. He received a master’s degree in China Studies from the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. Yates’ TV career began in 1980 at age 12 on Ed Walker’s WJLA AM Washington show, after winning a coloring contest sponsored by the Muppets, Woodward & Lothrop, and The Washington Post.

Adam Savit is from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and serves as the Director for the China Policy Initiative at AFPI. He previously served as China Program Coordinator at the Center for Security Policy, building the program from the ground up, and has held research and communications roles in the national security policy space for more than a decade. He was President of the Log Cabin Republicans of Washington, D.C. for five years. Savit is a John Quincy Adams Fellow at the Common Sense Society, and holds a B.A. in history and international relations from Penn State University. In his free time, he enjoys music, playing guitar, arthouse and documentary movies, and spending time with his nieces and nephews.

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.