Melodee Hanes is the spouse of Max Baucus, the U.S. Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China. Ms. Hanes was previously the Acting Director of the Office of Communications (OCOM) at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). She served as Acting Deputy Administrator for Policy at DOJ from June 2009, when she was appointed to the position by President Barack Obama, to January 2012.
Ms. Hanes’ 30-year career in public service and law includes work as a deputy county attorney in the Yellowstone County Attorney’s Office in the U.S. state of Montana, prosecuting child abuse, sexual assault, and homicide cases. She also served as an assistant county attorney in the Polk County Attorney’s Office in the U.S. state of Iowa, prosecuting major felony crimes. Ms. Hanes prosecuted the first child endangerment case in Polk County under Iowa Code Chapter 726 and handled more than 100 child abuse prosecutions during her tenure. In addition, she developed and coordinated the Polk County Child Abuse Trauma Team and Child Death Review Team.
Ms. Hanes taught Child Abuse Law and Forensic Medicine and Law at Drake University Law School. She has lectured extensively and published in these areas of expertise. She also served on the faculty of the National District Attorneys Association's National Advocacy Center in Columbia, South Carolina, and the Child Protection Training Academy in Des Moines, Iowa.
In 1991, then-State Senator Elaine Szymoniak (Democrat of Iowa) appointed Ms. Hanes as chairperson of Iowa’s Special Infant Mortality Task Force, which led to the creation of the Infant Mortality Prevention Project through the state’s Department of Public Health. The project provided services and resources to the community with the objective of reducing the high rate of infant mortality in Polk County.
Before joining the Justice Department in 2009, Ms. Hanes served as state director and counsel in the office of then U.S. Senator Max Baucus (Democrat of Montana).
Ms. Hanes earned a bachelor’s degree in women’s studies from the University of Utah and a law degree from the Drake University Law School.

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. Vermeer’s CEO is the 2015 Co-Chair of the B20 Global SME & Entrepreneurship Committee, is a member of President Barack Obama’s Export Council (PEC), and is former Chair of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), the largest industrial trade association in the United States.

Prior to joining Vermeer, Colm was Director of China Distribution Operations for Cummins (NYSE: CMI), with both operational and P&L responsibility for the company-owned distributors. During his time with Cummins, Colm held a variety of leadership roles including Head of Emerging Markets Strategic Planning, where he oversaw the company's strategy & business development efforts in China, India, and Russia. Before joining Cummins, Colm worked for Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA), where he was employee #120, and Director of Business Development.

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, the Executive Committee of the Beijing Chapter of the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO), and is Vice Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.

Qian is responsible for The Group’s overall business in China and Taiwan. She represents the group in the market, and looks after the group’s strategic steps, while building relationships with MNC’s, government, and local media companies.
Qian was the first Chinese analyst to join The Economist Intelligence Unit, the research arm of the group. Before becoming the Managing Director, Qian was the Director of Global Economics Unit and Director of Access China for the EIU. She also served as the Chair Women for internal review at EIU with European Securities and Market Authority.
Qian adopted econometric models to analyse economic data and produce macroeconomic forecasts. Under her leadership, Access China has expanded into a global team of analysts covering China’s 31 provinces and 287 key prefectures and providing analysis of Chinese outbound investment. Qian has also been involved in The Economist Group’s various China projects, including on CQ Roll Call and Global Business Review.
Qian has also been a guest lecturer at New York University, Tsinghua University, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Fudan University. She is a regular commentator on media outlets including the BBC, CNBC, CNN, CBS, HBO, NPR and CCTV.
Before joining the EIU, Qian obtained her PhD in economics from Uppsala University, Sweden, and spent a year as a visiting researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. Her past research has focused on labour economics, and her fields of interest include education, gender and employment. Qian’s research articles have appeared in publications including the Oxford Economic Papers, the B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy (produced by Berkeley Electronic Press), the China Economic Review and the China Economic Quarterly. Qian is now the co-chair of AmCham China Women's Professional Committee.