Trade | FSI

Paragraphs

Russia watchers in the West cannot be surprised that Vladimir Putin is on his way back to the Russian presidency. Dmitri Medvedev was always his protégé, and there was no doubt that major decisions could not be made without his approval. This includes signing the New START arms control treaty, cooperating with NATO in Afghanistan and supporting U.N. sanctions on Iran — all of which should provide reassurance that Putin’s return won’t undo the most important accomplishments of the U.S.-Russia “reset.”

Yet the relationship with the West will inevitably change. For one thing, Putin can have nothing like the rapport his protégé developed with President Obama, which was built upon the two leaders’ shared backgrounds as lawyers, their easy adoption of new technologies, and their fundamentally modern worldviews.

The Bilateral Presidential Commission which Obama and Medvedev created and charged with advancing U.S.-Russia cooperation on everything from counterterrorism to health care may suffer. The relationship as a whole is not adequately institutionalized, and depends on the personal attention of Russian officials who will likely avoid taking action without clear direction from Putin, or who may be removed altogether during the transition.

Putin’s return to the presidency will also provide fodder for Western critics bent on portraying Obama and the reset as a failure, or dismissing Putin’s Russia as merely a retread of the Soviet Union.

These critics are wrong — today’s Russia bears little resemblance to what Ronald Reagan dubbed an “evil empire” — but Putin has been far more tolerant of Soviet nostalgia than his junior partner, and his next term will surely bring a new litany of quotations about Soviet accomplishments and Russia’s glorious destiny that will turn stomachs in the West.

Although he has spent his entire career within the apparatus of state power, including two decades in the state security services, Putin is at heart a C.E.O., with a businessman’s appreciation for the bottom line. Western companies already doing business in Russia can expect continuity in their dealings with the state, and it will remain in Russia’s interest to open doors to new business with Europe and the United States. The next key milestone for expanding commercial ties will be Russia’s planned accession to the World Trade Organization, which could come as soon as December.

At home, Putin faces a looming budget crisis. As the population ages and oil and gas output plateaus the government will be unable to continue paying pensions, meeting the growing demand for medical care, or investing in dilapidated infrastructure throughout the country’s increasingly depopulated regions.

This means that while Putin will seek to preserve Russia’s current economic model, which is based on resource extraction and export, he will be forced to assimilate many of his protégé’s ideas for modernizing Russia’s research and manufacturing sectors. Medvedev’s signature initiative, the Skolkovo “city of innovation,” will likely receive continuing support from the Kremlin, although it will have little long-term impact without a thorough nationwide crackdown on corruption and red tape.

Putin’s restored power will be strongly felt in Russia’s immediate neighborhood, which he has called Moscow’s “sphere of privileged interests.” Even though Kiev has renewed Russia’s lease on the Black Sea Fleet’s Sevastopol base through 2042 and reversed nearly all of the previous government’s anti-Russian language and culture policies, Ukraine is unlikely to win a reprieve from high Russian gas prices. Putin will also continue to press Ukraine to join the Russia-dominated customs union in which Kazakhstan and Belarus already participate. He may also take advantage of Belarus’s deepening economic isolation and unrest to oust President Aleksandr Lukashenko in favor of a more reliable Kremlin ally.

Putin and Medvedev have been equally uncompromising toward Georgia. Both are openly contemptuous of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, and it is unlikely that any progress on relations can occur until Georgia’s presidential transition in 2013.

Putin has good reason to continue backing NATO operations in Afghanistan to help stem the flow of drugs, weapons and Islamism into Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Russia itself. Moreover, as China extends its economic hegemony into Central Asia, he may find America to be a welcome ally.

Putin appreciates the advantages of pragmatic partnerships and will seek to preserve the influence of traditional groupings like the U.N. Security Council and the G-8 while at the same time promoting alternatives like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Brics.

The succession from Putin to Medvedev and back again was decided behind closed doors, and the formal transition of power is likely to take place with similar discipline. This should offer the West and the wider world some reassurance. Putin’s return to the presidency is far from the democratic ideal, but it is not the end of “reset.” Many ordinary Russians support him because he represents stability and continuity of the status quo and, for now, that is mostly good for Russia’s relations with the West.

All Publications button

Publication Type

Commentary

Publication Date

September 26, 2011

Journal Publisher

The New York Times

Authors

External URL

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/opinion/27iht-edrojansky27.html

Klaus Mittenzwei

Read more about Klaus Mittenzwei

Encina Hall
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305

klaus.mittenzwei@nilf.no

Anna Lindh Fellow, The Europe Center

Mittenzwei.Klaus.jpg PhD

Klaus Mittenzwei is an agricultural economist at the Norwegian Agricultural Economics Research Institute in Oslo, Norway. He completed his doctorate at the University of Life Sciences, Norway in 2001. His dissertation focused on the role of political institutions as a significant source for explaining agricultural policies. In a current follow-up research project funded by the Norwegian Research Council, he will analyze these findings in greater detail. Other areas of research include modeling the effects of agricultural policies on the economic, environmental and societal objectives of society. In particular, the CAPRI modeling system (covering world agricultural trade and the details of the agricultural policies in the EU-25, Norway and Turkey) is used to understand how agricultural policy reforms affect the often conflicting agricultural policy objectives like farmers’ income, productivity and public goods provided by the agricultural sector.

Politics, Child Mortality, and Health System Development in Tanzania and Uganda

Monday, October 17, 2011 | 12:00 PM -Monday, October 17, 2011 | 1:30 PM

Kevin Croke recently defended his PhD dissertation in the International Development program at Johns Hopkins-SAIS. His dissertation, "Foreign Aid, Child Survival and Health System Strengthening in Tanzania and Uganda, 1996-2009," is based on fieldwork conducted in Tanzania and Uganda in 2009 and 2010. He has previously worked with the World Bank, PEPFAR, Management Sciences for Health, Results for Development, and the East African NGO Twaweza. He is currently working with the World Bank and Twaweza to develop a mobile phone survey platform for high frequency public service delivery monitoring in Tanzania. At SAIS, Kevin has taught Introduction to Development and Comparative National Systems.

Download pdf

Encina Ground Floor Conference Room

Kevin Croke Doctoral student Speaker SAIS - The John Hopkins University

Seminars

The European and Global Economic Crisis: "The Eurozone Crisis and Prospects for Future European Integration or Disintegration"

Wednesday, October 12, 2011 | 12:00 AM -Wednesday, October 12, 2011 | 4:30 PM

Synopsis:

Robin Niblett, Director of Chatham House, delivered the following talk in The Europe Center series “The European and Global Economic Crisis”.

With measured optimism about the prospect for a way out of the current Eurozone crisis, Dr. Niblett argues that the introduction of the common Euro, seen by many in past years as a vanguard tool for European integration, is now potentially a functional wedge between ‘debtor’ and strongly capitalized nations.

Dr. Niblett, arriving directly from participating in the World Economic Forum in Dubai, and based on Chatham House research, described the “perfect storm” of the past two decades of credit-driven growth, divergence within the EU, rising debt-to GDP ratios of member nations especially in the cases of Italy and Greece. His analysis combines these economic details with the following:

Demographics – high levels of unassimilated immigrants
European welfare economies still distributing resources at twentieth-century levels now in the twenty-first century
The rise of anti-immigrant and anti-free-trade populist parties
The weakening of Europe’s center parties
The “Russification” of Europe’s East – especially in recent events in Ukraine
The stalled integration of Turkey into the EU

The totality of the above paints a grim portrait of Europe under the weight of nearly impossible conditions. And yet, Dr. Niblett underlines evidence for measured optimism:

Ireland is making strides to reform its economy
Ireland’s educated and yet unemployed workforce does have the possibility to immigrate to Europe
The UK is finally rebalancing its state budget and market liberalization
France is facing, albeit with massive labor protest, its state budget levels
Spain will likely turn over its government in the face of its massive youth protest
Italy is evaluating in its political process a series of budget reforms

These are the structural side of what Dr. Niblett sees as Europe’s tools for recovery.

On the side of European practice, the Franco-German proposals for European Central Bank “bailout funds” include new rules for transparency of internal government operations. This promises innovation to make the EU into an area of political and financial transparency, and to enable the EU to engage in direct investment, as evidence is beginning to show, in the world’s emerging economies. In this sense, Dr. Niblett sees for Europe a competitive edge over the US in engaging in world markets.

Perhaps most sanguine of Dr. Niblett’s analysis is his reading of the Eurozone crisis as a force to push the member nations of Europe further towards supra-national economic strategies. In order to participate in the investment in emerging markets, the Benelux countries, not to mention France, Germany, and neighboring European states, are responding to the crisis by considering policy that promotes investment and outsourcing for service-sector employment, instead of export commodities which have been undercut in recent years.

There is a risk, in Dr. Niblett’s view, that Europe will respond to the Eurozone crisis by fracturing into rival “clubs” of small and large or debt-restructuring and creditor nation-states. But the European nations, especially those currently participating in the Eurozone, have untapped capacities for growth:

Educated youth
Underemployed female laborers
Outstanding higher educational institutions
Pent-up small- and medium-enterprise markets
Potential for growth in the service sector labor market
Room for more tightly integrating and rationalizing the region’s energy market.

Those interested in further detail and analysis are invited to visit the work and productivity at:

The Europe Center, at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies: http://tec.fsi.stanford.edu

Chatham House, at the Royal Institute for International Studies: http://www.chathamhouse.org/

Speaker bio:

Robin Niblett became the Director of Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International
Affairs) in January 2007. Before joining Chatham House, from 2001 to 2006, Dr. Niblett
was the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Washington based
Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS). During his last two years at CSIS, he
also served as Director of the CSIS Europe Program and its Initiative for a Renewed
Transatlantic Partnership.

Most recently Dr. Niblett is the author of the Chatham House Report Playing to its
Strengths: Rethinking the UK’s Role in a Changing World (Chatham House, 2010) and
Ready to Lead? Rethinking America’s Role in a Changed World (Chatham House,
2009), and editor and contributing author to America and a Changed World: A Question
of Leadership (Chatham House/Wiley-Blackwell, 2010). He is also the author or
contributor to a number of CSIS reports on transatlantic relations and is contributing
author and co-editor with William Wallace of the book Rethinking European Order
(Palgrave, 2001). Dr Niblett is a frequent panellist at conferences on transatlantic
relations. He has testified on a number of occasions to the House of Commons Defence
Select Committee and Foreign Affairs Committee as well as US Senate and House
Committees on European Affairs.

Dr Niblett is a Non-Executive Director of Fidelity European Values Investment Trust. He
is a Council member of the Overseas Development Institute, a member of the World
Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Global Institutional Governance and the
Chairman of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Europe.

He received his BA in Modern Languages and MPhil and DPhil from New College,
Oxford.

CISAC Conference Room

Robin Niblett Director Speaker Chatham House, Royal Institute for International Affairs

Seminars

The role of oversight committees in closed rule legislation

Read more about The role of oversight committees in closed rule legislation

Paragraphs

In this article, Professor Christophe Crombez (Stanford University) and Wim Van Gestel (University of Leuven) formulate a game-theoretical model of closed rule legislation in the presence of informational asymmetries. In the model, an agenda setter with private information proposes a policy to a legislature. The legislature appoints an oversight committee to monitor the agenda setter. Crombez and Van Gestel study the rationale for this appointment, and analyze the equilibrium oversight committee member choices for the legislators. They conclude that it is optimal for the legislators to appoint oversight committee members who are as far from them as is the agenda setter, but in the opposite direction, rather than do the monitoring themselves. The appointment of such oversight committee members represents a credible means for the legislators to commit to reject proposals that they only marginally prefer to the status quo.

All Publications button

Publication Type

Journal Articles

Publication Date

November 20, 2013

Journal Publisher

The Journal of Theoretical Politics

Authors

Christophe Crombez

Jae-Seung Lee

Read more about Jae-Seung Lee

Shorenstein APARC
Encina Hall, Room E301
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

(650) 724-6710

jaselee@stanford.edu

2011-2012 Visiting Scholar

Jae-SeungLee_WEB.jpg

Jae-Seung Lee is a visiting scholar with the Korean Studies Program (KSP) for the 2011–12 academic year, and he is also currently a professor of international studies at Korea University. Before joining the faculty of Korea University, he served as a professor at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security (IFANS) and at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

As a scholar in international political economy, Lee has authored a number of books and articles on Korea, East Asia, and Europe. His current research also includes the energy security and energy diplomacy of Korea, among others. During his time with KSP, he will conduct a research project on the geopolitics of East Asian energy relations.

Lee is currently an editor-in-chief of the Korea Review of International Studies and he also serves as a member of the Policy Advisory Board of the Presidential Secretariat (Foreign and Security Affairs) and as vice director of Ilmin International Relations Institute (IIRI). He was selected as an Asia Society Young Leader in 2006 and as a Young Leader by the InterAction Council, a group of former heads-of-state, in 2008. He has contributed op-ed articles to major Korean newspapers and has commented on international affairs for BBC, CNN, and Korean broadcast stations.

Lee holds a BA in political science from Seoul National University (1991), and an MA (1993) and PhD (1998) in political science from Yale University. He also earned a certificate from the Institut D’Etudes Politiques de Paris (1995). He has taught at Yale University and Seoul National University.

* His on-line expert interview with World Politics Review on South Korea's energy diplomay is available here.

* His on-line interview with BBC World on the Korean DMZ is available here.

The Politics of Nuclear Development: China as a Case Study

Monday, October 10, 2011 | 12:00 PM -Monday, October 10, 2011 | 1:30 PM

Nuclear energy is politically sensitive. For its proponents, nuclear energy is clean and highly efficient and indeed is the only alternative to fossil fuels in providing a base supply of electricity. For its opponents, nuclear energy is nothing but trouble, a symbol of war and weaponry par excellence, and one that creates environmental problems for mankind today and in the future. What is remarkable in this highly emotional debate is the general division between developed and developing countries. Asian and Gulf states are more active than many in other continents in expanding or developing their nuclear energy capacities. China is leading this expansion with 27 reactors under construction now.

Nuclear development in China highlights a series of objectives many developing countries try to balance – energy and economy, energy and development, energy and environment, energy and security, and the need for both clean energy and adequate and reliable energy supplies. It tells a counterintuitive story about Chinese politics – a single-party authoritarian political system with an extremely fragmented institutional structure in nuclear energy policy making, implementation and regulation and with highly competitive market forces in play. It provides a cautionary tale about the Chinese as well as global nuclear future. This paper discusses the challenges of nuclear energy development, using China as an example. It asks who drives it, what technology is selected and adopted, how human capital is developed, what the rules of the games are, and more importantly, which institutions are responsible for issuing licenses, regulating standards, and overseeing the compliance, and what forms of regulation do they use. At the core of these questions is if and how countries can ensure safe, secure and sustainable nuclear development.

Speaker Biography:

Dr. Xu Yi-chong is a research professor of politics and public policy at Griffith University. Before joining Griffith University in January 2007, Xu was professor of political science at St Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Canada. She is author of The Politics of Nuclear Energy in China (2010); Electricity Reform in China, India and Russia: The World Bank Template and the Politics of Power (2004); Powering China: Reforming the electric power industry in China (2002); co-author of Inside the World Bank: Exploding the Myth of the Monolithic Bank (with Patrick Weller 2009) and The Governance of World Trade: International Civil Servants and the GATT/WTO, (with Patrick Weller 2004); and editor of Nuclear Energy Development in Asia (2011) and The Political Economy of Sovereign Wealth Funds (2010). All these projects were supported by the research grants from either Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) or Australian Research Council.

Reuben W. Hills Conference Room

Xu Yi-Chong Professor of Research Speaker Griffith University Center for Governance and Policy

Seminars

Joon-woo Park

Read more about Joon-woo Park

Shorenstein APARC
Encina Hall C324
616 Serra Street
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

(650) 724-6404 (650) 723-6530

jwpark78@stanford.edu

2011-2012 Koret Fellow

ParkJoonWoo_Web.jpg

Joon-woo Park, a former senior diplomat from Korea, is the 2011–12 Koret Fellow with the Korean Studies Program (KSP).

Park brings over 30 years of foreign policy experience to Stanford, including a deep understanding of the U.S.-Korea relationship, bilateral relations, and major Northeast Asian regional issues. In view of Korea’s increasingly important presence as a global economic and political leader, Park will explore foreign policy strategies for furthering this presence. In addition, he will consider possibilities for increased U.S.-Korea collaboration in their relations with China, as well as prospects for East Asian regional integration based on the European Union (EU) model. He will also teach a course during the winter quarter, entitled Korea's Foreign Policy in Transition.

In 2010, while serving as ambassador to the EU, Park signed the EU-South Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in Brussels. That same year he also completed the Framework Agreement, strengthening EU-South Korea collaboration on significant global issues, such as human rights, the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, and climate change. Park’s experience with such major bilateral agreements comes as the proposed Korea-U.S. FTA is nearing ratification.

Park holds a BA and an MA in law from Seoul National University.

The Koret Fellowship was established in 2008 through the generosity of the Koret Foundation to promote intellectual diversity and breadth in KSP, bringing leading professionals in Asia and the United States to Stanford to study U.S.-Korea relations. The fellows conduct their own research on the bilateral relationship, with an emphasis on contemporary relations, with the broad aim of fostering greater understanding and closer ties between the two countries.

Thomas Hertel

Read more about Thomas Hertel

Center on Food Security and the Environment
473 Via Ortega, room 365
Stanford, CA 94305-4205

(650) 721-2203

hertel@purdue.edu

Cargill Visiting Fellow

thomas_hertel.jpg PhD

Hertel is a Distinguished Professor of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University. His research focuses on the economy-wide impacts of global trade and environmental policies with a particular interest in the impacts of energy and climate policies on global land use and poverty. He is also Executive Director, and founder of the Center for Global Trade Analysis, and Past-President of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA).

During his stay at Stanford he undertook research into the impacts of climate change and climate policy on agriculture, food security and poverty. In the winter quarter he co-taught an FSE seminar (with David Lobell) on the long run determinants of global agricultural land use.

Background video on GEOSHARE

China 2.0: Transforming Media and Commerce

Friday, September 30, 2011 | 9:00 AM -Friday, September 30, 2011 | 5:30 PM

The SPRIE conference on "China 2.0: Transforming Media and Commerce" was held at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, in the heart of Silicon Valley, on Friday, September 30, 2011. The conference focused on the driving forces and global implications of the rapid growth of China's internet industry.

China is home to nearly half a billion internet users, twice the online population in the US. Already home to two of the world’s top five internet firms by market valuation, China is giving birth to innovative start-ups and powerhouse billion dollar firms in social networking, games, media, and e-commerce. These companies thriving in China are increasingly impacting the global digital economy. Fueling the rise of China’s internet firms are venture capitalists who are leading new investment models and strategies which are shaping the VC industry and the most dynamic—and profitable—internet sectors in China.

Featured speakers included internet pioneers, trailblazer investors across the Pacific, and young entrepreneurs who are shaping the rise of China 2.0.

Keynotes

Jack Ma, Chairman and CEO of Alibaba GroupContent-Disposition: form-data; name="imgcredit16"

Jack Ma, Chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group

Jack Ma - Chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group, delivered the closing keynote address. Alibaba Group includes online marketplace Alibaba ($4.8 billion market cap,ticker 1688:HK), retail and payment platforms (Taobao, Alipay), cloud computing services, China Yahoo, etc. In 2009, Jack Ma was recognized as one of the "TIME 100: The World's Most Influential People" by TIME, one of "China's Most Powerful People" by BusinessWeek and one of the "Top 10 Most Respected Entrepreneurs in China" by Forbes Chinese edition.

Joseph Chen (MBA '99), Chairman and CEO of Renren Inc.
Joseph Chen (MBA '99), Chairman and CEO of Renren Inc.

Joseph Chen (MBA '99) - Chairman and CEO of Renren Inc. offered a keynote speech. Renren.com is one of China’s leading social networking sites, which completed its IPO on the NYSE (ticker: RENN) in May 2011 and now has a market cap of $2.6 billion. Joseph Chen is a pioneer of China's internet industry. Before founding Renren Inc., he was the co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer of ChinaRen.com, a first-generation SNS in China and one of China's most visited websites in 1999.

China 2.0 Conference Co-Chairs shared sprie's research preview:

Duncan Clark, Chairman of BDA China; SPRIE Special Advisor for China 2.0 Project
Duncan Clark, Chairman of BDA China; SPRIE Special Advisor for China 2.0 Project
Duncan Clark, Chairman of BDA China; SPRIE Special Advisor for China 2.0 Project
Duncan Clark, Chairman of BDA China; SPRIE Special Advisor for China 2.0 Project

Duncan Clark is Senior Advisor for the China 2.0 Project at SPRIE and Chairman of BDA China, a company he founded in Beijing in 1994. An expert on the Internet, e-commerce and telecom sectors in China, he has guided BDA to become the leading technology and media advisory firm in China, with a team of 70 in Beijing serving financial institutions and corporations investing in high-growth sectors in China and neighboring markets.

Marguerite Gong Hancock, SPRIE Associate Director
Marguerite Gong Hancock, SPRIE Associate Director
Marguerite Gong Hancock, SPRIE Associate Director
Marguerite Gong Hancock, SPRIE Associate Director

Marguerite Gong Hancock is the Associate Director of SPRIE where co-leads overall programs and also directs research initiatives on "China 2.0" and "Smart Green Cities". Since joining Stanford in 1987, she has led international research programs at the intersection of business, technology, and policy at the Graduate School of Business and the Shorenstein Asia Pacific Research Center. She is an expert on innovation and entrepreneurship for high technology regional development and has co-edited four books and co-directs an executive education program for international policymakers.

Panel discussion on "china new media & E-commerce investment outlook"

Tim Chang (MBA '01), Managing Director of Mayfield Fund. Tim is a proven venture investor and experienced global executive. He was named on the 2011 Forbes Midas List of Top 100 Dealmakers, was featured by The Deal as one of five emerging VCs to watch and by the AlwaysON Hollywood IT List recognizing technology leaders in the digital entertainment industry.

David Chao, Co-Founder and General Partner of DCM
David Chao, Co-Founder and General Partner of DCM
David Chao, Co-Founder and General Partner of DCM
David Chao, Co-Founder and General Partner of DCM

David Chao (MBA '93), Co-Founder and General Partner of DCM. He has been active in the information technology industry since the 1980s, participating in the fastest growing sectors of computers, communication and the Internet. David serves on the Boards of 51job, 99Bill, BitTorrent, Lumi, Renren.com, RockYou and Translattice. He is also responsible for the investments in Clearwire, eDreams, Fortinet, kabu.com and Sling Media.

Paul Kwan (BAS '96), Managing Director, Morgan Stanley. Paul leads the global Internet and software banking effort at Morgan Stanley. In China, Paul and his team have led the IPOs for Renren, 21Vianet, Phoenix New Media, 51job.com and others. Morgan Stanley has also been the lead left bookrunner on the recent IPOs for LinkedIn, Pandora, Yandex, and Homeaway. In M&A, Paul has been particularly focused on the convergence of internet advertising, commerce and technology, and advised Omniture on its $1.8Bn sale to Adobe, ATG on its $1.0Bn sale to Oracle, aQuantive on its $6.1Bn sale to Microsoft, DoubleClick on its $3.1Bn sale to Google, and Zappos on its $1.1Bn sale to Amazon.

Richard Lim, managing director and co-founder of GSR Ventures.
Richard Lim, managing director and co-founder of GSR Ventures.

Richard Lim (MBA '88), Managing director and co-founder of GSR Ventures, the premier early-stage venture capital firm in China. Mr. Lim focuses on investments in the Internet, digital media and green technology sectors. In the Internet sector, some of the boards where Mr. Lim serves are AdChina, Baihe, Lashou, LightInTheBox and Qunar.

Panel discussion on "China internet entrepreneurs"

Fritz Demopoulos, Founder of Queens Road Capital, Qunar, Shawei

Fritz Demopoulos, Co-Founder and Former CEO of Qunar.com. Fritz Demopoulos has been involved in the Chinese internet and media industries for over a decade. He was recently the co-founder and CEO of Qunar.com, China's largest travel website and venture backed by GSR, Mayfield, Granite and Tenaya. Qunar sold a majority stake to Baidu earlier this year, which was the largest trade sale in the history of the Chinese internet space.

Grace Huang, Founder and CEO of iPinYou.com
Grace Huang, Founder and CEO of iPinYou.com
Grace Huang, Founder and CEO of iPinYou.com
Grace Huang, Founder and CEO of iPinYou.com

Grace Huang, Founder and CEO of iPinYou Interactive Advertising Co. She started her career at P&G as brand manager and was an ex-McKinsey consultant focusing on marketing. She obtained her MBA degree from ULCA business school. She has profound knowledge in brand marketing and internet advertising, especially targeting advertising.

Jianshuo Wang, CEO of Baixing.com. He founded Hotales.net in college, an online marketing site. After six years at Microsoft he launched Kijiji, eBay's classified-advertising business in China in 2005. Three years later Mr. Wang spun off Baixing.com, an online community with listings for houses, jobs and second-hand goods.

Nick Yang, Founder and CEO, Wukong.com; Founder, ChinaRen.com and KongZhong
Nick Yang, Founder and CEO, Wukong.com; Founder, ChinaRen.com and KongZhong
Nick Yang, Founder and CEO, Wukong.com; Founder, ChinaRen.com and KongZhong
Nick Yang, Founder and CEO, Wukong.com; Founder, ChinaRen.com and KongZhong
Nick Yang, Founder and CEO, Wukong.com; Founder, ChinaRen.com and KongZhong
Nick Yang, Founder and CEO, Wukong.com; Founder, ChinaRen.com and KongZhong
Nick Yang, Founder and CEO, Wukong.com; Founder, ChinaRen.com and KongZhong
Nick Yang, Founder and CEO, Wukong.com; Founder, ChinaRen.com and KongZhong

Nick Yang (MS '99), Founder and CEO, Wukong.com; Co-Founder, ChinaRen.com and KongZhong. He is one of China's most successful digital media entrepreneurs. He started his third venture Wukong in 2008, a mobile internet operation support company for telecom operators and mobile internet distribution network. Mr. Yang is an active Angel investor and involved in many internet and media companies in China. He graduated from Stanford University, master’s degree in electrical engineering in 1999.

Presentation and Discussion Topics

How are internet entrepreneurs transforming China’s technology sectors? Are there any lessons from firms in China for the Valley beyond? What is the future for US-based internet firms in China?
Is China giving birth to truly innovative technologies, processes or business models? If so, are any of these innovations exportable?
How is the Venture Capital /Private Equity industry evolving in China? What patterns, strategies and practices distinguish the most active (and successful) investors?
What are the most interesting new developments that will impact the future of China’s internet? Who comprise the next generation of 2.0 start-ups in China?
How is the landscape changing? What are the current key challenges and opportunities?

Conference sponsors