Jack Harrison is the Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of ArcOn Brands, an established brand management and consultancy company that helps brands launch successfully in the East. Originally from the United Kingdom, Jack has spent the last 14 years in Greater China and speaks fluent Mandarin having studied at the National Taiwan University. Originally a strategy consultant with Accenture in Beijing, Jack joined Jardine Matheson as Development Director for KFC Taiwan and then left to bring Jamie Oliver Restaurants to Greater China before co-founding ArcOn Brands.
ArcOn Brands is an established Brand Management Consultancy with a key focus on APAC including Greater China. Some of the world’s most iconic brands, including Fortnum & Mason, Charbonnel et Walker, Varley, Aman Resorts, Bremont, and Tusting, have entrusted ArcOn Brands to scale their businesses in Greater China. The company prepares their clients to enter the world’s fastest-growing market; from detailed market-entry plans to strategic execution, ArcOn Brands acts as an extension of the brand team.
Tommy Crooks founded the Edinburgh Natural Skincare Company in 2010, with the simple goal of creating a 100% natural handmade skincare brand here in Scotland. Today his company has exactly the same ethos, and their basic recipes have stayed the same since the very beginning. From making bars of soap at the kitchen table in 2010, the company now sells worldwide. In addition to signing up as a seller on Alibaba.com, the company also launched a flagship store on Tmall Global last month – becoming the first Scottish brand to do so.
Sunny is an international digital & eCommerce business innovator, GM and executive coach. Within her 15 years of rich experience in Nestle and Unilever, Sunny founded 4+ new digital businesses across China and global markets including Unilever China eCommerce, Alibaba global partnership, etc. In her current role, Sunny is heading Unilever’s global new digital growth and capability development including social commerce, quick commerce, etc. In her free time, Sunny is passionate to coach managers and business owners to reach their highest potential.
Ran leads CBBC’s China Consumer Economy team to provide business support services to UK consumer products companies. Ran works closely with partner UK government departments and trade associations to deliver research reports, trade missions, and local showcasing events. She also organises and participates in sector trade shows around China.
Prior to joining CBBC, Ran worked in the consulting industry in Shanghai and Beijing for six years, where she developed her specialties in primary market research, company due diligence, and competition intelligence analysis. Ran has excellent research skills and a thorough understanding of the various obstacles international companies face when entering the China market.
Antoaneta has lived and worked in China for more than 20 years. In her most recent role as a Director, Consumer Economy for the China Britain Business Council, she has supported numerous British consumer companies entering and expanding into the Chinese market.
Prior to joining CBBC, she worked as a Beijing-based reporter for several international media publications including the Economist Intelligence Unit and USA Today, covering China’s economic and social affairs. She has reported on some of the main trends and policies that have defined China’s economic trajectory over the years 2000-2010 including China’s state-owned enterprises reforms, the emergence of free trade zones, the rise of digital economy and ascendence of Chinese consumer.
Antoaneta is a fluent Mandarin Chinese speaker. She holds a Bachelor’s in Chinese Language and Literature and a Master’s in Chinese Contemporary Literature & Film from Peking’s University.
Sharon Gai currently serves as the General Manager of China at Pattern, an ecommerce accelerator that helps brands expand their business in China. She is a China-born Canadian who has had 10+ years in ecommerce, digital marketing and branding. In her tenure at Tmall, China’s largest ecommerce platform, she has advised large to emerging internet-viral brands in crafting their digital marketing and online e-commerce strategy in China. She has been the keynote speaker in over 100 ecommerce and retail conferences such as Shoptalk, Ecomworld, Etail, and Ecommerce Asia with over 40,000 attendees as well as the presenter to governments and heads of states on the developments of the tech industry in China. She has appeared on CCTV, Techcrunch, Retail Asia, The Next Web, and the Singularity University sharing with the world the latest trends from China. She is the author of the book, Ecommerce Reimagined: what we can learn in retail and ecommerce from China. Sharon has an Honors Bachelor’s degree in International Development from McGill and a Masters in Information Management from Columbia University.
In 2002, he started his first eCommerce startup and expanded the business to multiple top platforms. Then he joined Alibaba Group as one of the founding members of Taobao’s Marketing team. He served as Head of Innovation Department from 2013 to 2015. After that, Alex had several senior management roles in technology consulting, retail & wholesale industries in AsPac region. Prior to joining BP, Alex served as Chief Digital Officer AsPac & India at one of the biggest European conglomerates. As a firm advocate of digital transformation and new technology adoption, Alex is leading the digital product management team and driving customer-centric, product-led transformation at BP.
David Buchanan leads strategic customer engagement across the EMEA region and actively supports customers with strategies for success in China in partnership with Alibaba. David has held leadership positions in Salesforce for 10 years helping many customers with global digital transformation and achieving business success with Salesforce. David is based in London and alongside his China responsibilities, is also a Professional Leadership Coach within Salesforce.
Frans started in the 1970s as a hobby brewer of Dutch and Belgian specialty beers. The many experimental beers that he brewed in his spare time were popular with his friends and family right from the start.
In the early 1990s, when the microbrew industry took off in the USA, Frans quickly became the expert in the field of brewing Belgian specialty beers in the USA. Around 1995 he moved to the Caribbean to set up a new brewery that, in addition to the local market, also provided export to America. During this period he developed many new beer types, including the locally known ‘Salsa’ and ‘Pirata’ beer. In 1999 he sold his brewery and returned to the Netherlands, where the interest in microbreweries started to take serious shape. He started another brewery and Frans’s award winning beers were mainly sold to America.
During his time in the Caribbean, Frans had already experimented with distilling spirits, but that had always been secondary to brewing beer. After he sold the Dutch brewery to a business partner, he started his current distillery in Almere in 2011 because of his lifelong love for special whisky.
After completing a Masters in e-commerce in the US and working for several Silicon Valley start-up firms during the high-tech boom, Eva made her way to London in 2001. Following the demand for a healing serum created for the patients of her husband, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon Dr Yannis Alexandrides MD FACS, Harley Street Clinic, Eva astutely expanded and built a unique skincare brand: 111SKIN.
Under her guidance, 111SKIN, now a decade old, can be found at luxury retailers around the world, including Harrods, Selfridges, Bergdorf Goodman, Violet Grey, Saks Fifth Avenue, MECCA, and Joyce Beauty – and 65 international spas. It has cemented itself as a leading, global brand that bridges the gap between plastic surgery and skincare, utilising medical delivery systems and innovative ingredients to deliver clinical results.
After graduating from Northwestern Polytechnical University in China with a Master of Computer Science, Raymond Ma began his career at IBM, where he spent the following ten years working across the IBM IT consulting arm, before moving on to run product portfolio of IBM Smarter Cities.
In search of a new challenge, Raymond departed IBM to work on a public health start-up venture. Alongside another co-founder, Raymond created Dayima, a menstrual management app for women that tracks periods, highlights ovulation time and offers additional health services. The app was a huge success becoming China’s largest female mobile app with over 100 million registered users.
Raymond was appointed General Manager of Alibaba Cloud ASEAN in 2015. In this role he specialized in providing cloud and data analytic services to the ASEAN market.
In 2016, Raymond was appointed General Manager Alibaba Cloud ASEAN and ANZ. The expanded remit sees Raymond heavily invested in varied levels of Australian and New Zealand businesses working alongside startups, SMEs, corporations and public sector organizations to demonstrate the many capabilities Alibaba Cloud can deliver.
Raymond is currently General Manager of Europe and ANZ for Alibaba Cloud Intelligence.
Francesco began his career working in the small business sector in the banking world for more than 10 years, where he closely followed the internationalisation processes of several small and medium-sized Italian companies. He has specialised knowledge of the Alibaba.com marketplace, managing shop windows for Azienda Agricola Ciccio Zaccagnini, a winery that produces over 7 million bottles each year and exports to over 60 countries, and Rosso Fine Food, a start-up specialising in the export of Italian food & beverage products.
Thanks to its constant commitment on the platform, Rosso Fine Food was first awarded Alibaba Italia’s ‘Top Performer’ award in 2021 in its first year of activity on the platform, then won Alibaba’s Ecommerce Master Competition, and is now one of the top performing companies in global B2B trade on the platform. He is currently a silver lecturer at Alibaba.com.
After 18 months and a fast growing year in 2022, Rosso Fine Food is already exporting to more than 30 countries, with more than 70% of its turnover from leads generated through the Alibaba.com platform.
Mark Tanner is the founder and managing director of Shanghai-based China Skinny, one of China’s best known marketing and research agencies. China Skinny has delivered research, strategy and trends analysis for more than 200 international brands including Nike, IKEA, Panasonic, Colgate, Reckitt Benckiser, Tourism Australia and IHG. China Skinny publishes the most-read weekly newsletter about marketing to Chinese consumers. Mark has been quoted in more than 200 international media outlets including Bloomberg, Reuters, FT and Forbes, where he writes a regular column.
Ntola has a passion for digital, e-commerce, building partnerships and collaborating with stakeholders to ensure sustainable & tangible growth, with a focus on brand USP & customer/partner engagement.
She has experience in strategic e-commerce planning & execution with a focus on international business development, marketplace models and cross-border e-commerce.
Ntola led the onboarding and strategic launch of Emma Bridgewater in China.
J. Michael Evans has served as the President of Alibaba Group since August 2015. As President, Michael is responsible for leading and executing Alibaba Group’s international strategy for globalizing the company and expanding its businesses outside of China. He has also served as a member of Alibaba’s Board of Directors, since Alibaba’s initial public offering in September 2014.
Prior to joining Alibaba, Michael spent 30 years in global finance. He served as Vice Chairman of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. from February 2008 until December 2013. He served as Chairman of Asia operations at Goldman Sachs from 2004 to 2013 and was the Global Head of growth markets at Goldman Sachs from January 2011 to December 2013. He also co-chaired the Business Standards Committee of Goldman Sachs from 2010 to 2013. Michael joined Goldman Sachs in 1993, became a partner of the firm in 1994 and held various leadership positions within the firm’s securities business while based in New York and London, including Global Head of equity capital markets and Global Co-Head of the equities division, and Global Co-Head of the securities business.
In August 2014, Michael joined the Board of Barrick Gold Corporation. In December 2020, he joined the Board of Farfetch Limited as a non-executive Director. He is also a trustee of the Asia Society and a member of the Advisory Council for the Bendheim Center for Finance at Princeton University, and a board member of City Harvest.
Michael received his bachelor’s degree in politics from Princeton University in 1981, a master’s degree in Finance in 1984 from Oxford University and won an Olympic gold medal for his home country Canada as a member of the men’s eights rowing team in the Los Angeles 1984 Summer Olympics.
Ada XU began her career with Alibaba Group in 2016 by leading Tmall Business Development for
France. In this role, she was responsible for helping French brands enter the Chinese market and
build their business by connecting them to over 650 million annual active consumers on Alibaba’s
platforms.
In 2019 Ada was appointed to develop Fliggy, the travel platform of Alibaba Group, for the EMEA
region. With more than 270 million customers in China, Fliggy is a 360 degree travel platform that
spans categories from hotels, air transport and holidays to shopping and visa and payments. Ada’s
role is focused on creating new tours, setting up hotel partnerships, highlighting new destinations
and developing innovative services for Fliggy customers in China.
During the pandemic, when the borders closed, Ada created the ‘Fliggy Virtual Tourism Series’,
which involved livestreaming sessions in partnership with Alibaba’s network of worldwide famous
attractions. The livestreamed sessions offered customers virtual tours of museums such as the
Louvre, Versailles Palace, the British Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Colosseum and the
Prado.
Prior to joining Alibaba, Ada set up her own business that helped French companies learn how to
work and invest in the China market, all while studying for her master’s degree in International
Business and Entrepreneurship. Ada has also set up an online marketplace specialising in selling
cashmere products in Europe.
Now based in Paris, Ada has lived in China, Mauritius and Madagascar. She speaks Mandarin,
Cantonese, French, English and Spanish.
Miss Carmen Chiu joined Fortnum & Mason in August 2019 as the Regional Managing Director for the Asia Pacific region. Her responsibility is to open the first international flagship store in Hong Kong outside London, to solidify the brand reputation and develop new business opportunities in the key markets including the most recent launch of Tmall Global.
Carmen has over 20 years of experience in brand management in the food industry across FMCG, E-Commerce, HORECA and Luxury Retail & Hospitality channels, including 6 years based in China. A native of Hong Kong who grew up in the UK, she has built a career that spans the globe.
During her tenure at GODIVA, Carmen led the marketing and merchandising team to develop brand building strategies to cover a wide array of markets (including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Mongolia and Australia), through sound marketing plan, PR communications, visual merchandising, and product innovations to capture the markets’ needs. She played a significant role in building the China expansion plan and opened a 100 company-owned stores in 3 years.
David started his career at the House of Commons working for a member of
the UK Parliament. He swapped politics for the cut and thrust of advertising.
Joining Bates Dorland, he became main Board Director for strategy and Managing
Director of the consulting and digital divisions and CEO of the worldwide retail and technology centre of
excellence. David joined Kingfisher’s B&Q plc, one of Europe’s largest retailers sitting on the main board of
directors as UK and International Marketing Director. David was on the management team that led B&Q’s
international expansion to Eastern Europe and Asia including China where he lived in Shanghai for a while.
David is now at WPP as the CEO of The Store, the WPP Global Retail Practice and Chairman, BAV Group.
David is an acknowledged expert in Branding and Consumer change in China. He is a leading authority on
digital, Artificial Intelligence and Voice in retail.
David has authored a number of books and studies, including “A History of Retail in 100 Objects”; “The
Third Era of Digital Retailing”; “Smart Shopping – How Artificial Intelligence is transforming the retail
conversation”; “Retailing to the customer of one. How mass customisation and IoT makes the personal
possible and profitable”; “The Thoughts of Chairmen Now: Wisdom and Insights from China’s Business Leaders
and Entrepreneurs”; “The China Dream”; “Brand Stories” celebrating the enduring power of iconic brands, “Do
you hear what I hear- our voice activated digital future”, “Dates with Destiny- Understanding China’s Shopping
Festivals” and his latest book “LOOK – A Book of Changes” a pictorial reflection of China over the past 10
years. David is the creator and narrator of a documentary film on Alibaba “ Open
Sesame – the Birth and Rise of Alibaba”
He broadcasts and lectures around the world including BBC, CCTV China, CNBC, Davos The World Economic
Forum, Yale, CKGSB and Cambridge Universities.
David is a former non-executive director of the NGO, “TFT”, an organisation dedicated to sustainable
production. He is Chairman of the Centre for International Business and Management
(CIBAM) where Academics, Business and Policy Makers meet with activities taking place at
Queens’ College, University of Cambridge. He is a board member of China-Britain Business Council.
Roland Palmer has been Alibaba Group’s General Manager for UK, Benelux and Nordics since December 2021.
Roland joined Alibaba Group in May 2016 as Managing Director for Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, where he was responsible for all Alibaba Business Units across the three markets. From 2017 to 2018 Roland then set up and led the Europe business for Tmall Direct Import, helping brands and merchants across Europe sell their products to Alibaba who then sold them to Chinese consumers. In 2018 he was appointed Head of Europe for Alipay, part of Ant Group.
Roland has an extensive knowledge of European retail, e-commerce and FMCG, having worked as a strategy consultant for Bain & Company. Prior to that, he held various senior management roles within leading FMCG companies including Coca Cola and Unilever. Roland was also CEO of Blokker Holding, where he played a pivotal role in transforming a traditional offline retail company into an omnichannel group. Roland holds an MBA from the IMD Business School in Switzerland.
A fluent Mandarin speaker, Ellie and her team at QIVA lead the operations for some of Europe’s best-loved brands in China. Prior to founding QIVA, Ellie worked for both Thomson Reuters and Deloitte. She is a graduate of Tsinghua (Beijing) and Durham Universities.
Chris Tung joined Alibaba Group as the Chief Marketing Officer in January 2016. He commands a huge amount of influence in the global marketing community.
He has helped to build strong Alibaba’s brand portfolio by combining best-in-class creativity with the latest technologies. As a result, Alibaba has been ranked as the most valuable brand from China by many recent independent surveys.
He presided over the phenomenally successful “Double 11 (Singles’ Day)” extravaganza; spearheaded the company’s global Olympics sponsorship and created the “Uni Marketing” methodology and tools to support over 180,000 global brands to run marketing campaigns on Alibaba platforms effectively.