William Zarit, based in Beijing, helps Chinese companies invest in the U.S., and advises U.S. companies on working in the Chinese commercial environment.

Until mid-2014 William was Minister for Commercial Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, overseeing the U.S. Department of Commerce’s trade promotion and trade policy activities in its operations in Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenyang. William is one of only two serving Foreign Commercial Service officers worldwide to have attained the rank of Career Minister, which earned him the lifetime “Honorable” honorific.

Before that posting to Beijing William was Deputy Assistant Secretary, International Operations, for the U.S. Commercial Service, overseeing Commercial Sections in U.S. Embassies and Consulates worldwide. Prior to that he served as the U.S. Commercial Service’s Regional Director for East Asia/Pacific. He also served as Deputy Senior Commercial Officer in Taipei and Beijing, and Senior Commercial Officer in Kuala Lumpur.

Tim Stratford is managing partner in Covington & Burling LLP’s Beijing office and a member of the International Trade, Corporate, and Government Affairs practice groups. Stratford’s practice is focused on advising international clients doing business in China and assisting Chinese companies seeking to expand their businesses globally. As a former Assistant U.S. Trade Representative, Stratford is the most senior former U.S. trade official working as a member of the U.S. business community in China. Except for the five years he spent in Washington, D.C. in government service (2005-2010), Stratford has lived and worked continuously in the greater China region since 1982.

While at USTR, Stratford was responsible for developing and implementing U.S. trade policy toward mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao and Mongolia. He worked closely with other senior U.S. and Chinese officials from numerous government departments and agencies to address problems encountered by companies engaged in bilateral trade and investment and co-chaired a number of important bilateral working groups and dialogues established under the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade and the U.S.-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue.

Prior to serving at USTR, Stratford was General Counsel for General Motors’ China operations, where he was a member of GM’s senior management team in China and oversaw the company’s legal and trade policy work. Stratford also served previously as Minister-Counselor for Commercial Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and as Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Brigham Young University, and is fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese.

Patrick Powers has 30 years of experience in international commerce, government relations and trade policy, achieved in a career that has spanned Asia but focused primarily on China. He has lived and worked in China for more than 20 years, in addition to assignments in Singapore, Vietnam, and Taiwan.

He was appointed the Director of Government Affairs for Rockwell Automation China in early 2014. Mr. Powers began his career with Bechtel, Inc., and held successive management positions at Island Creek of China Coal Ltd (Occidental Petroleum), SSM Coal BV, SHV Holdings, Tait Asia Ltd. (Vietnam), Mundoro Mining, Cargill, and Applus+.
Mr. Powers held the position of Vice President for China Operations at the US-China Business Council, the primary organization dealing with Sino-American commercial matters from 1999 to 2006. In that role, he was responsible for business advocacy and advisory services on behalf of 250 American MNC’s operating in the PRC. Mr. Powers has extensive experience in government relations and communications in China and Asia as well as a background in business development and operations in natural resources, large scale retailing, consumer goods warehousing and distribution.

He has spoken frequently on China-related topics at international conferences and appeared on numerous occasions in media, including CCTV, CNN, CNBC, and Bloomberg, as well as contributing articles to The China Business Review. He has a BA from San Diego State University and has pursued advanced language and professional development courses At UC Berkeley, National Taiwan Normal University, and Singapore Institute of Management. Mr. Powers is a fluent Mandarin speaker.

Bing Zhou is the Vice President of Dell’s Greater China Government Affairs team. Prior to Dell, he held senior government affairs positions at GE, Novartis and PayPal. He also served as the Deputy Directory of the Bo’ao Forum for Asia and is an expert on Asian Economic Integration.