Steve Papermaster is an experienced entrepreneur and investor in the private sector as well as an active leader in a number of key public sector roles. As Chairman of Powershift Ventures L.P., an Austin, Texas, USA based venture capital firm, Mr. Papermaster focuses on investments in technology companies, including software and internet, bio and nanotech, and clean energy. Mr. Papermaster has also provided innovative, constructive leadership to several public sector initiatives which impact United States and international policies for science, technology, and economic development.
Primary among these is Mr. Papermaster's role on the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), which he was appointed to by President George W. Bush in 2001. His present and past entrepreneurial experiences include serving as Chairman, CEO and/or board member for several public and private companies. In addition to his PCAST initiatives, Mr. Papermaster serves as chairman of Technology Network Texas (TechNet), as well as being a member of TechNet's National Executive Committee. Mr. Papermaster is a past recipient of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and has served as a national judge and represented the United States as the judge for the World Entrepreneur of the Year awards. He is active as a community leader with organizations such as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Innovation Alliance, and 360 Summits.
A true Dutchman, Arjan started trading early on, selling promotional premiums to fast movers. Realizing his heart lay in marketing, he joined Sara Lee to work on some of their European brands. Three years later he joined Philips where he developed new electric shavers for Asia. His bi-monthly Asian visits did little to slake his thirst for all things China related, so he moved in with a Shanghainese family for six months. Feeling like he’d finally learned something about Chinese consumers, he joined ?What If! Shanghai as an inventor. Arjan is crazy about historic novels, cooking, photography and generally has too much energy.
Chairman Dr. Porat is founder and Chairman of Quiet Solution, a world-class soundproofing building materials company for residential and commercial construction. He works closely with strategic accounts in the construction, transportation, manufacturing and public sectors. Marc graduated from Columbia in 1972, earned a double Masters (economics and communication) from Stanford, and a Ph.D. (awarded with distinction) in 1976.
Marc joined the Department of Commerce as a senior staff economist and was nominated for a Silver Star by the Assistant Secretary of Commerce. He was recruited to the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies as Director. While there, he wrote, hosted and produced a 60-minute PBS documentary, "The Information Society", featuring luminaries such as Walter Wriston, Henry Kissinger, J. Kenneth Galbraith and Dan Yankelovich. In 1983, Dr. Porat founded Private Satellite Network, building and operating business television networks for Fortune 500 companies such as GM, Ford, AT&T and for DoD (U.S. Army). In 1988, Marc went to Apple Computer Advanced Technology Group and spun out in 1991 with key members of the Macintosh team to co-found General Magic, a communication and software company, serving as its Chairman & CEO.
Marc also founded Perfect Commerce, Inc, a leading enterprise supply management company providing e-sourcing and e-procurement software, consulting and expertise to G2500 companies. Marc established Quiet Solution in March 2002.
2004 to present: Senior Writer TIME Magazine/Shanghai
2002-2004: Chief International Correspondent FORTUNE Magazine/New York
2000-2002: Asia Editor FORTUNE Magazine/Beijing
1996-2000: Moscow Bureau Chief Newsweek Magazine
1994-1996: Berlin Bureau Chief Newsweek Magazine
1989-1994: Tokyo Bureau Chief Newsweek Magazine
1985-1989: Senior Writer Newsweek Magazine New York
1979-1985: staff writer Business Week Magazine
Awards: Overseas Press Club award for Best Foreign reporting (twice). Gerald Loeb award for best magazine piece. Various others.
Graduate, 1979, Northwestern University, BA history Lives in Shanghai with wife Junling Cui and daughter Abby.
Jonathan Woetzel is a Director in McKinsey & Company's Shanghai Office and the leader of its Energy and Materials practice in Asia. Dr. Woetzel has extensive experience in corporate finance and strategy, particularly for industrial and consumer companies in China. He has also worked in the Hong Kong, Los Angeles, New York, and Zurich offices. Dr. Woetzel holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Southern California, where his work focused on China's political economy. He has published three books on China: China's Economic Opening to the Outside World (Praeger, 1989), Capitalist China: Strategies for a Revolutionized Economy (John Wiley, 2003), and Operation China: From Strategy to Execution (Harvard Business, 2008). Dr. Woetzel, a U.S. citizen, is proficient in Mandarin, Spanish, and German.
Frank Rexach is Vice President and General Manager of Haworth Asia Pacific, the Middle East & Latin America. Based in the company’s regional headquarters in Shanghai, China, Frank oversees operations for Haworth throughout the Asia Pacific, Middle East & Latin America region, including China, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Australia & Dubai. Frank is responsible for the development of Haworth Asia Pacific, the Middle East & Latin America’s overall strategy, including product portfolio development, global and regional sourcing strategies, manufacturing and supply chain initiatives, new business development, global account management and brand marketing.
Since joining Haworth in 2002, Frank has directed and achieved several key objectives to support Haworth’s business expansion in Asia Pacific, the Middle East & Latin America including: relocating the regional headquarters from Hong Kong to Shanghai, growing sales over fifty percent each year, establishing the company’s first new product development center in Shanghai, and more.
Previously, Frank worked with Avery Dennison, a global leader in self adhesive materials and office products, in senior management regional roles based in France, Hong Kong and Australia.
Frank has an M.B.A. from The American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird) and B.A. from the University of Southern California. He speaks German, Mandarin, French and Spanish.
Gary Rieschel has over 25 years of operating and investing experience in the information technology industry. Most recently, Gary was the founder of SOFTBANK Venture Capital/Mobius Venture Capital in the U.S. (1996), a firm with nearly $2 billion USD under management. In this role, Gary invested in over 50 technology companies leading to successful IPO exits at UTStarcom, Concentric Networks, Verisign, USWeb, Net2Phone, Puma Technology (through acquisitions), Digimarc, Intertrust, and Critical Path, and successful M&A transactions for GeoCities (Yahoo!), Art.com (Getty Images), and Datapower (IBM). Gary has led investments in Chinese companies TopSec, Accelergy, Bokee (Blog China), and Yeelion. Gary has also sponsored the creation of several other top venture firms, including Ignition Partners (partners in Qiming), Grandbanks Capital, and Arrowpath in the U.S., and SOFTBANK Asia Infrastructure Fund I/II (SAIF Partners) in China. Prior to his 10 years as a venture capitalist, Gary held senior executive positions at nCUBE (Sr. VP), Cisco Systems (Director, Worldwide Channels/Programs), Sequent Computer Systems (General Manager Asia Pacific), and Intel Corporation (Quality Assurance Manager). Gary holds a B.A. from Reed College where he serves on the board of trustees, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Gary is also known for his love of wine and sports of all kinds. He and his family moved to Shanghai in January, 2005.
Mr. Schoettle's current leadership role at Optimal is supported by his background in technology and engineering along with over 35 years of business development experience. Prior to launching Optimal Technologies, he founded and successfully led several technology-based companies -- one of which received the prestigious position of Canada's number one re-seller of Sun workstations, and one for which he received an entrepreneurial award. An accomplished speaker and industry recognized expert, Mr. Schoettle's past engagements include guest lecturing at the University of Calgary and California Maritime University along with presenting at such distinguished venues as the Commonwealth Club of California, National Academy of Sciences, the Center for Smart Energy, CleanTech Venture Forums, and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).
Sha Sha graduated from Peking University with a Bachelor’s degree in international economics. She also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Warren Smith is the Director of Cotai Facilities for Venetian Macau Ltd and is responsible for the management of facilities for all the development in Cotai Strip and consults for Venetian Macau Ltds other interests. He provides the technical expertise for the energy management program to continuously improve efficiencies and develop green initiatives
Throughout his engineering career he has been passionate about educating major corporations on clean energy alternatives and reduction of wasteful practices. In 1995 he was a founding committee member of Environmental Hotels of Auckland and in 1997 he received a Green Ribbon Award from the New Zealand Minister for the Environment.
His experience in the geothermal fields of the Philippines led to several technical publications on various subjects in the field of Geothermal Energy. In the last several years he has lived in South East Asia and China where he has provided expertise to major hotel companies.
He is a Professional Engineer and has a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Auckland University.
Prior to his current role, Mr. Sun was the General Manager of a strategic semiconductor account in China for Applied Materials. He was instrumental in establishing an account team and achieved several key accomplishments in this role, including a record year of revenue in 2004. He was also a Board Director and Auditing Board member of AFOP since 2001, a NASDAQ listed fiber optical component company based in Sunnyvale, CA.
Prior to joining Applied Materials, Mr. Sun was a Managing Partner and Representative of North America for Global Investment Management Co. LTD. (GIM), a Venture Capital firm from Taiwan. Before joining GIM, he ran his own consulting partnership since 1998 for raising capital and helping the development of start-up companies. From 1996 to 1998, he was a founding member, Board Director and VP of Business Development at Storm Technology Inc at Silicon Valley. Prior to that, he served as one of the early founding members of Primax, a listed company at Taiwan, as VP of Computer Business Group, later as the US subsidiary President and a Board Director.
Mr. Sun received his Bachelors degree in Industrial Engineering from Chung Yuan Christian University at Taiwan and his Masters in Industrial Engineering from Kansas State University at Manhattan, Kansas.
Matthew is the Asia Pacific Technology Director for INVISTA, one of the world’s largest integrated chemicals and polymers businesses with a global presence.
Matthew has 11 years business experience in China.
He is based in Shanghai and has led a variety of growth initiatives in the region, including set-up of new research & development, technical marketing, technology transfers and successful set-up of manufacturing technology organizations supporting investments in excess of $750 million.
A focus continues to be one of innovation in areas of quality, new breakthrough technology platforms, project execution, intellectual property protection, government approval processes, external technology origination and strategic planning.
Matthew currently serves on the Board of Governors for the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai and has served as the Chair of the Science & Innovation Committee.
Matthew has designed a number of high tech manufacturing symposia in collaboration with industry experts covering China’s evolving National Innovation policy, intellectual property risk assessments and developing technology talent in China.
Matthew has championed efforts within the Chamber to develop position papers on the topics of innovation, energy and the environment.
Matthew also serves as a strategic advisor for the Joint US China Cooperation on Clean Energy with a focus on renewables, especially emerging second generation non-food routes to renewable energy and materials.
Matthew is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D. in chemical engineering). He began his career at DuPont Central Research, in chemical reaction engineering.He has held a variety of R&D and manufacturing technology leadership positions for DuPont in Delaware, Texas, Singapore, North Carolina and China.
