***RSVP by Tues. March 3rd*** Come join us for a moderated discussion with Julie Makinen (Fast Company contributor), Frances Du (Microsoft Ventures Greater China Region Director), Ella Zhang (Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers investment director) and Dr. Yusheng Zhang (CEO of Apricot Forest), to find out more about how these companies are powering China’s drive to become a leader in global innovation. We will also be examining and discussing the current economic forces and technological trends that are helping create exciting new opportunities for both entrepreneurs and investors alike.

The State of Innovation in China

Julie Makinen, Beijing Correspondent, Los Angeles Times
Frances Du, Greater China Region Director, Microsoft Ventures
Ella Zhang, Investment Director, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Dr. Yusheng Zhang, CEO, Apricot Forest
Red Pagoda Resources
Swiss Residence, Embassy of Switzerland | Free | ID Required | Registration

Fast Company recently published its ranking of the ten most innovative companies in China, the results of which may well surprise you! In addition to the usual suspects of Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, the list includes a real estate company, a logistics company and even a mobile health care start-up. There also features the surprise inclusion of a major American tech titan.

Come join us for a moderated discussion with Julie Makinen (Fast Company contributor), Frances Du (Microsoft Ventures Greater China Region Director), Ella Zhang (Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers investment director) and Dr. Yusheng Zhang (CEO of Apricot Forest), to find out more about how these companies are powering China’s drive to become a leader in global innovation. We will also be examining and discussing the current economic forces and technological trends that are helping create exciting new opportunities for both entrepreneurs and investors alike.

Julie Makinen is a seasoned and highly respected journalist responsible for Fast Company’s ‘Most Innovative Companies in China 2015’ article. She is also the Beijing correspondent for the Los Angeles Times and the former Deputy Business Editor for Asia at the International Herald Tribune. She has served in several editorial roles at the Washington Post and the Hollywood Reporter as well as film editor for the LA Times. Julie holds an MA in East Asia studies from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and a Bachelor’s degree in Human Biology from Stanford University.

Frances Du is the director of Microsoft Ventures (MV) in Greater China Region (GCR), charged with support and investment works for GCR startups, and dedicated to build MV into a strategic partner for promising startups around the world. Before joining Microsoft, Ms. Du was a founding partner in GRC Sinogreen fund, a China-based venture capital fund focused in green investment area.  As a successful entrepreneur, Ms. Du co-founded JL McGregor in 2005, which is an expert in securities market research and financial consultancy with investors including Goldman Sachs Group. Ms. Du has an MBA from Guanghua School of Management, Peking University.

Ella Zhang is an investment director at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers China. Since joining KPCB China TMT team in 2010, she has focused on investments in Internet, mobile, consumer and enterprise services. Her TMT industrial experiences and rich network sustain her long-last passion in finding out visionary entrepreneurs and helping them to establish valuable companies. Before joining KPCB China, Ella earned cross-disciplinary perspectives from Google, Tencent and UTStarcom (NASDAQ:UTSI) as sales representative, marketer and engineer, respectively. Ella received bachelor’s degree in electronic engineering from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China.

Dr. Yusheng Zhang is the CEO and Founder of Apricot Forest, a mobile healthcare start-up which provides a suite of apps that improve the productivity of doctors in China. He worked as clinical research manager at Wellpoint – one of the largest health care companies in the US by number of users – and has also worked at Resolution Health, a leading data analysis company. In the past Dr. Zhang also co-founded a start-up which provided IT and media services to the medical community in China. He completed his medical degree at Peking Union Medical College and graduated from John Hopkins University with a Masters in Public Health administration, and has been a Beijing Tech Hive alumnus since July 2012.

Andy Mok, the discussion’s moderator, is the founder of Red Pagoda Resources, a company that provides complete professional services for start-ups in China. His previous experience includes working for Morningside Ventures and the RAND Corp, where he helped research and publish ‘The United States and a Rising China: Strategic and Military Implications’. Andy holds an MBA from the Wharton School and an MA in China Studies from the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies.

To register, please click here. Please note, registration ends on Tuesday March 3 at 6pm.

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