Dr. Yong Gao currently serves as Vice President of Public Affairs and Sustainability for Bayer China. Headquartered in Germany, Bayer is a global leader in life science focusing on healthcare and agriculture. Prior to Bayer, Yong was President of Monsanto China and Director of Corporate Affairs for Asia and Africa at Monsanto which was acquired by Bayer in 2018. For three decades serving in the private sector, Yong has worked in the US, Canada, Singapore and most recently China. His area of professional experiences includes biotech product regulatory policy, R&D, safety assessment and commercialization, international trade, sustainability, public affairs and corporate communication.

Even is a Director and head of ag policy research at Trivium China, a foreign-owned strategic advisory firm headquartered in Beijing and with offices in Washington DC and Shanghai. She leads research on agriculture and agtech, food security, trade, and rural development policy for a client list that includes Fortune 500 multinationals, investors and fund managers, and government and industry groups. Prior to joining Trivium, Even was a senior analyst and head of ag research at consultancy China Policy, where she served as a senior expert to the European Union as part of the EU-CLERA project.

Based in China from 2005-2023, Even has nearly two decades of first-hand experience in China’s business and regulatory context, and has built a career informing and advising global agribusinesses and investors, commodities interests, industry associations, nonprofits, and government bodies on China’s agricultural policy – including stints at the US Department of Agriculture and at the US Energy Foundation. She studied political economy and public policy at Carleton College in the US and Tsinghua University in China.