Everett Wakai currently serves as the Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs at the US Embassy, Beijing. He leads a binational team of American commercial diplomats and Chinese trade experts to promote US-China business development, trade and investment. Before moving to Beijing, Mr. Wakai was the Commercial Counselor at the US Consulate in Shanghai.

Mr. Wakai previously served as the Senior Commercial Officer at the US Embassy in Angola, where his work focused on improving the business climate, diversifying the economy and trade, and foreign exchange payments. As an ex-officio Board Member of AmCham Angola, he led efforts to stand up a corporate compliance program, form policy committees, and formulate AmCham Angola's strategy and positioning.

Previously, he was assigned to the US Commercial Service New Orleans Office where he assisted US companies develop and implement their export promotion strategies. Prior to joining the New Orleans office, he was the Standards Attaché for South America responsible for standards and trade cooperation, market access, and market development at the US Consulate General in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He also served as the Standards Attaché for Mexico, Canada, and Central America responsible for NAFTA rule of origin exports, standards, and regulatory cooperation in the healthcare and the energy sectors at the US Embassy in Mexico. He began his career with the US Commercial Service as the Energy and Cleantech Commercial Advisor at the US Embassy in Paris, France.

Mr. Wakai is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara, holds a master’s degree from New York University and received his MBA from Krannert Business School at Purdue University.

Mark Dreyer is the Senior Director of Marketing and Communications at the American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham China). Before joining AmCham China in July 2018, he was the Senior Communications Manager at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business.

Prior to switching to his current focus on corporate and strategic communications, Mark had various roles in the media. Formerly a football reporter with Sky Sports in the UK, he has also been a reporter and producer for both Fox Sports and AP Sports in the US, before moving to China ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He has since covered seven Olympic and Paralympic Games as an accredited journalist and has reported on sports events in five different continents, and has interviewed stars including Pele and David Beckham.

He has worked with a number of media outlets in China and is regularly asked to comment on the Chinese sports industry for BBC, CNBC, Bloomberg, Financial Times and many others. His book, “Sporting Superpower: An Insider’s View on China’s Quest to Be the Best”, which attempts to unravel the parallel threads of politics, economics and sports in China, was published in 2022.