1740 Massachusetts Ave, NW Washington, DC 20036

RSVP: Seating limited. To RSVP please send your name and affiliation to rsvp@projectpengyou.org by June 12.

AGENDA:

MODERATORS:

Mei Yan, China Senior Partner, Brunswick Group; Former Managing Director, MTV Networks Greater China and Chief Representative, Viacom Asia

Prior to that, Mei Yan was one of the most decorated international journalists and TV producers from China. For 14 years, Mei was a reporter and manager at CNN Atlanta HQ, where she and her team won three Emmy Awards and two Awards for Cable Excellence for her coverage in war zones.  She also served as VP of Marketing and Distribution for Turner International Asia Pacific Ltd., and as the Chief Strategy Officer, Chief Representative, and Chief Public Affairs Officers at News Corp. and STAR TV (China). Mei Yan was named one of five most powerful women in China by the Daily Beast.

Holly Chang is concurrently serving as the Executive Director of the Committee of 100 and President of the Golden Bridges Foundation, which houses the Project Pengyou initiative. As a Chinese-American social entrepreneur, she has served hundreds of nonprofits in China as an international bridge-builder supporting diverse projects in climate change, education, health and philanthropy. Ms. Chang began her career as a civil engineer at the United Parcel Service working on cutting-edge and fast-tracked engineering projects budgeted over $1 billion.

The Committee of 100 is an international non-partisan leadership organization of prominent Chinese Americans in business, government, academia, and the arts. For over 25 years, the Committee has been committed to a dual mission of promoting the full participation of Chinese Americans in all fields of American life, and encouraging constructive relations between the peoples of the United States and Greater China.

SPEAKERS:

Serena (Shiyun) Lin, Television producer, CCTV America; Miss Chinese American DC 2010

Serena (Shiyun) Lin is a current affairs talk show producer for CCTV America. She is also the first China-born winner of Washington Metropolitan Miss Chinese American Beauty Pageant (2010). She was born and raised in China, and later adopted US permanent residency. She was educated in China, the United Kingdom and the United States. She completed her bachelor’s degree at Xiamen University, China, and obtained her master’s degree in Public Communication from the American University in Washington DC. She later received her post-graduate certificate in Business Journalism from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Serena frequently contributes to Chinese American television, magazines and blogs including the Washington Chinese Media, and Asian Fortune Magazine on the matters related to Asian American community and US-China relations. She directs her passion and unique background to promoting China-US relations through producing high profile interviews at CCTV America. She has produced interviews with former US President Jimmy Carter, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and former US Ambassador to China Gary Locke among many others.

Travis Thompson, Executive, Brunswick Group

Travis has experience across a range of sectors including M&A, public affairs, consumer goods, agriculture, TMT, energy, real estate, cross-border trademark litigation, cybersecurity and e-commerce. His focus at Brunswick is on public affairs, crisis (including pre-crisis planning) and US-China issues as well as broader business critical areas such as capital markets advisory, investor relations and profile-raising. He is currently working on the China National Chemical Corporation’s $43 billion acquisition of Syngenta, the largest ever Chinese acquisition of a foreign company, helping the firms to navigate the regulatory environment in the U.S. He has had clients on both sides of the Pacific including Syngenta, Whirlpool, JD.com, iQIYI, Chevron, Trina Solar, Century 21 China and Noah Wealth Management among others.

Prior to joining Brunswick in 2014, Travis worked at Cubic Applications Incorporated, where he provided in-depth research for client projects and logistics implementation. Before Cubic, Travis worked for IES Abroad at Beijing Foreign Studies University, a Chicago-based study abroad consortium with centers at universities in 22 countries, where he provided cross-cultural communications and crisis management for Chinese, American and European staff and students. He has been published in his university’s undergraduate history journal the James Blair Historical Review and the American Chamber of Commerce in China’s monthly magazine Business Now. 

Travis earned a Bachelor of Arts in History from The College of William and Mary, concentrating in modern East Asia, with a minor in French. He graduated from the Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies (IUP) full year intensive language program at Tsinghua University in 2014 and is fluent in Mandarin.

ORGANIZERS:

About SAIS China: A division of The Johns Hopkins University, The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, DC, is a global institution that offers students a truly international perspective on today’s critical issues. The SAIS China Studies Program is second to none in the number of courses offered on contemporary China. The Program’s hallmark is its academically superb faculty, with considerable experience outside of academia, from work in government and multilateral organizations to NGOs and foundations. SAIS students also have the option to pursue coursework in China, at the unique Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies or at Tsinghua University in Beijing. SAIS China offers unparalleled training for future leaders and thinkers who will address China’s evolving role in the world.  Learn more: https://www.sais-jhu.edu/content/china-studies#overview