During the past 11 months, 9 VC-backed firms from China have successfully brought their IPOs to NASDAQ. Now that the VC industry in China is heating up, Dr. Zhang will address the following topics: What is the evolving structure and system of the venture capital industry in China? What is the investment process and how do international VC firms make decisions when investing in China? Why have several VC firms outperformed others? What challenges lie ahead?

About the Speaker

Dr. Zhang is an Assistant Professor at the School of Economics & Management, Tsinghua University. During Fall 2004, he is a Visiting Fellow at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. Professor Zhang's research interests focus on venture capital and entrepreneurship in China. He received his B.A. and M.S. degrees in engineering and Ph.D. in Management from Tsinghua University.

Ambassador Charles L. Pritchard, an expert on U.S. relations with Japan and Korea, was a top aide to President Bush in the administration's negotiations with North Korea and the U.S. Representative to the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO). He was also special assistant to the President and senior director for Asian affairs in the Clinton administration. Pritchard joined the Brookings Institution as a visiting fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies program on September 2, 2003. While at Brookings, Pritchard has published "North Korea Needs A Personal Touch", Los Angeles Times (09/10/03); "A Guarantee to Bring Kim into Line", Financial Times (10/10/03); "Freeze on North Korea Nuclear Program is Imperative", The Korea Herald (01/09/04); "What I Saw in North Korea", New York Times (01/21/04), "While the US Looked for Iraqi WMD North Korea Built Theirs", YaleGlobal(01/01/04), and "U.S. Should Confide in Allies on North Korean Nukes", Asahi Shimbun/International Herald Tribune (08/06-07/04).

Following a twenty-eight year career in the army, during which he held military assign-ments with the Office of the Secretary of Defense, as its country director for Japan, and as the U.S. Army Attaché in Tokyo, Pritchard joined the National Security Council in 1996.

Pritchard obtained his B.A. in Political Science from Mercer University in Georgia and his M.A. in International Studies from the University of Hawaii. He is the recipient of the Defense Distinguished Service Medal.

Japan Brown Bag seminar.

Co-hosted with the Center for East Asian Studies.

Seth Faison spent 12 years living in and writing about China. He went to China as a 25-year-old looking for adventure. He spent two years studying Chinese in Xian, attaining fluency. He became a reporter in Hong Kong, and then a correspondent in Beijing, where he covered the events at Tiananmen in 1989. He joined the New York Times in 1991, covering New York City. He opened the newspapers bureau in Shanghai in 1995 and wrote about social and economic change, earning a reputation as a writer with a knack for capturing the moods and flavors of China.

China Brown Bag seminar

Co-sponsored with the Center for East Asian Studies

C. Kenneth Quinones has been involved with Northeast Asia since 1962 as a soldier, scholar and diplomat. He has lived and worked in South and North Korea; ten years in the South and nearly one year in the North, and in Japan for three years. As a U.S. dip-lomat, he witnessed South Koreas struggle to democratize during the 1980s and then, during the 1990s, played a role in the opening of North Korea to the outside world. After retiring from the U.S. Foreign Service in 1997, he worked with U.S. humanitarian organizations to arrange educational and agricultural exchanges between the United States and North Korea.

Dr. Quinones is the director of Korean Peninsula Programs at the recently organized International Action (successor to International Center), a non-profit Washington, D.C. research institute. He recently organized a new forum on the internet, the International Forum for Innovative Northeast Strategy, to encourage international dialogue about innovative strategies to promote a durable peace in Northeast Asia.

A buffet lunch will be available to those who RSVP by 5:00 p.m., Monday, November 1 to Debbie Warren at dawarren@stanford.edu or at 650-723-8387.

Dr. Kiyoshi Kurokawa received his MD degree in 1962 from the University of Tokyo Faculty of Medicine. Currently, Dr. Kurokawa serves as president of both the Science Council of Japan and the Pacific Science Association. He is also adjunct professor at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology of the University of Tokyo and of the Institute of Medical Sciences of Tokai University. He is professor emeritus of the University of Tokyo and serves as a member of the Committee for Science and Technology Policy of the Cabinet Office and several committees for Prime Minister Koizumi's office.

Co-sponsored with the Center for Health Policy/Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research.