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Thomas Grunzke (Managing Director Beiersdorf, North East Asia (mainland China, HK, TW and Korea) of Beiersdorf)

Thomas Grunzke

Managing Director Beiersdorf, North East Asia (mainland China, HK, TW and Korea) of Beiersdorf

Key Responsibilities:
- Leading the North East Asian (NEA) business units of Beiersdorf from Shanghai
- building strong, profitable market positions for the brands NIVEA (106 years brand heritage; global #1 mass skincare brand), Slek/Maestro (Chinese hair brands acquired in 2007; #1 local brands in shampoo and styling) and Eucerin (dermo-cosmetics; only online today)
- Developing the current and future leadership of the business
- Sharpening the strategic roadmap in a highly dynamic and competitive NEA market context
- Optimizing the Supply Chain footprint in NEA with currently 3 sourcing units in China (Shanghai and Hubei province)

Passionate about:
- Building strong brands that combine functional expertise and emotional bonding, surprising consumers with relevant innovations while staying rooted in heritage
- Creating new and relevant consumer insights that offer real differentiating opportunities
- Running healthy businesses that are both outpacing market growth and deliver adequate returns for the shareholders (majority family owned)
- Developing talent from within by providing diverse opportunities to learn and grow
Job history
- Took over role in August 2015
- Started with Beiersdorf AG (Hamburg, Germany) in August 2014 in role of SVP Global Business Controlling
- Prior to BDF, 23 years with Unilever in a large number of Finance leadership roles, including local and Regional Controller/CFO roles in China, Eastern Europe, Vietnam and more recently Benelux.

Raymond Kok (Attorney at Law at Schindhelm Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH Repraesentationsbuero Shanghai)

Raymond Kok

Attorney at Law at Schindhelm Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH Repraesentationsbuero Shanghai

Raymond Kok works in the area of investment law and advises German companies in their business activities in the People’s Republic of China. Focus areas of the legal consulting are corporate law, IP / IT law, commercial law and cross-border M&A transactions. In addition to legal support of German companies in the People’s Republic of China, Raymond Kok also advises in particular Chinese companies with regard to investments in Germany. Raymond Kok regularly holds workshops on Chinese law and is co-author of International Advertising Law, Third Edition, published by Wolters Kluwer.

Jean-Paul Schmitz (Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of AsiaAssist)

Jean-Paul Schmitz

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of AsiaAssist

Jean-Paul Schmitz is born in an entrepreneurial farmers family from the Nothern regions of The Netherlands. He has a degree in Business Administration and Econometrics. After his studies, he started working at Coolblue which is an e-commerce company in the Benelux that has experienced a consecutive 50%+ growth for the last 7 years and reached a turnover of one billion euro. Here Jean-Paul developed new business teams and was responsible for a group of data scientists that developed a logistics, financial and commercial forecasting platform for this fast-growing company. Now he is the Co-Founder and CEO of AsiaAssist. Together with his team, he helps to bring European brands online in the Chinese market via a lean & agile approach that minimizes risks and sets brands up for success in the Chinese e-commerce market.

Xiaolong Hu (Moderator) (Managing Director of Unity Business Consulting (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.)

Xiaolong Hu (Moderator)

Managing Director of Unity Business Consulting (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.

Xiaolong Hu is the Managing Director of UNITY China, he grew up in China and has spent many years living in Germany.
After studying at the University of Hannover he worked for a short while in the engineering profession. Since 2003 he has worked for various technology oriented management consultancies, including TMG Consultants in Stuttgart. In his last position, as the managing director of StaufenAG’s subsidiary in the country, he helped drive strong business growth in China. His areas of responsibility there were sales, project business, and human resources.
His present consulting work focuses on Industrie4.0 strategies, innovation management, operational excellence as well as on managing large implementation projects in a cross-cultural context.