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Hong Chow
Head of China & International, Healthcare at MerckHong Chow joined Merck in October 2021 as Executive Vice President, Head of China & International, responsible for leading Merck’s healthcare business in China, Japan as well the regions Europe, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Middle East, Africa and Russia, and the global franchise of cardiovascular metabolism and endocrinology (CM&E), and the global business innovation team. She serves as a member of the Healthcare Executive Committee and is based in Shanghai, China.
Hong was Chief Executive Officer for Roche Pharmaceuticals China from March 2015 to September 2021. Prior to joining Roche, she held various leadership roles at Bayer across China, Asia-Pacific and Europe. Hong is also member of the Supervisory Board at Beiersdorf AG. In addition, she served as Vice Chair of RDPAC, an industry association representing R&D based pharmaceuticals companies in China.
Hong holds German citizenship and was honored with China’s First Foreign Permanent Resident ID Card. She is the recipient of the Magnolia Award from the Shanghai Government.
Selena Chu
Vice President, Greater China at DowSelena Chu is currently the Vice President for Greater China. She provides leadership and general management of Dow Greater China - oversight of country strategy, sites management, and people & culture development. She also serves as Asia Pacific CIO for Dow to drive digital solution development and implementation, covering areas of Digital Acceleration, Enterprise Service, and Information Security. Partners with businesses and functions to enable regional business strategies.
Selena Chu has over 20 years of consulting and industry experience covering various leadership roles including R&D Operation, Business/Innovation Strategy, Technical Information Service, and Digitization. She worked for GE (General Electric), KPMG Consulting Co, with working assignment the US prior to joining Dow in 2008. She was listed as “Top 50 Women in Tech 2021” by Forbes China, and “Top 50 Future MPW 2021” by Fortune China.
Allan Gabor
President, Merck China & MD, Merck Electronics China at MerckAllan Gabor has been appointed as the President of Merck China, and Managing Director of Merck’s Electronics business sector in China, since February 1st, 2018. He is also a permanent member of Merck’s Electronics Executive Committee (ELEC), responsible for topics in China. As President of Merck China, he is responsible for developing and driving growth strategies in this key country and building on the company’s 353-year presence and reputation. China is one of the Group’s top-selling countries with all the three Business Sectors of Merck developing rapidly. Prior to this role, he was the President of Asia Pacific for the biopharma business of the Merck Group. He assumed this position since January 2016.
Before Mr. Gabor was promoted to President of the Asia-Pacific region, he was the President and CEO for the biopharma business in China and was instrumental in expanding Merck’s Asian footprint with a series of investments including establishing Merck’s new €170 million world-class pharmaceutical manufacturing facility located in the Nantong as well as building an extensive network of collaborations with leading academic and medical institutions, thereby enhancing Merck’s commercial presence in China.
Prior to joining Merck, Mr. Gabor spent 25 years at Pfizer in leadership roles including Chairman and General Manager for China, and Regional President for North Asia, Russia, India, Turkey and Eastern Europe, across many different businesses and geographies with responsibilities within sales and marketing, strategy, mergers and acquisitions and general management. Mr. Gabor successfully directed the launch of many of Pfizer's innovative medicines into China and opened the China Regional Investment Center and a state of the art research and development center in Shanghai. In recognition of his tireless contribution towards the economic construction, social development and international exchange and cooperation of Shanghai, Mr. Gabor has been awarded the Magnolia (Baiyulan) Award twice by the Shanghai municipal government.
Mr. Gabor is a highly seasoned executive with an extensive knowledge of strategy, commercial operations and business development. He holds a BA in Communications from the College of Wooster and pursued further education at the University of Tennessee and Harvard Business School.
Kathy Gong
Co-founder & CEO of WafaGamesAs a serial entrepreneur, Kathy co-founded WafaGames in 2017. Acknowledged by MIT Technology Review for WafaGames’ technological advancement on game Artificial Intelligence, Kathy was featured as its global 35 Innovators under 35 in 2017. WafaGames’ flagship game Swords of Glory was launched in 2020. Since then, Swords of Glory has grown into a community of more than 300,000 gamers, streamers and contributors globally.
Prior to cofounding WafaGames, Kathy founded ai.Law, a legal robotic start-up that reduces the barriers and makes legal services affordable. Until its acquisition of 11 Million USD in 2017, ai.Law has served 3 million people, 67% of them being women. Kathy was the youngest national chess champion at the age of 10 in 1996 and again at 12 in 1998. She is also one of the youngest chess masters in China. Kathy was final-listed by Space for Humanity as 1 of the civilian astronauts to launch to the Space. Among her experiences, Kathy is Member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Council (CPPCC) in Chengdu, the home city she was born; Member of the Foundation Board of Global Shapers Community World Economic Forum (2013-2016); Co-chair of APEC Women Leadership Forum (2013-2014); and, Image Ambassador of Chengdu’s Young Entrepreneurs.
In 2013 and 2020, she was awarded as one of the Top Ten Young Entrepreneurs of China by China Federation of industry and Commerce. In 2012, Kathy founded an independent non-for-profit organization, World’s Young Voices to sponsor young grassroot students who are academically and socially outstanding to globalize the young minds in advancing innovation, social entrepreneurship, and raising the voices of China’s young generation. Kathy actively advocates on the importance of failures in entrepreneurship. She still passionately and intensively plays Chess on chess.com with Chess masters around the world.
Su Cheng Harris-Simpson
Founder & CEO of SCHSAsiaSu Cheng Harris-Simpson is the Founder and CEO of SCHSAsia and President of the Women Empowerment Council (WEC). SCHSAsia is an impact-driven consultancy that offers consulting, training, and projects focused on women empowerment. Su Cheng applies her exemplary client relations and project management skills, along with her 25 years of experience in China, to driving the change towards gender equality in businesses. SCHSAsia focuses on this mission through independent consulting projects and the Women Empowerment Council, an engaged and impactful network of corporate leaders and decision-makers who are committed to sharing, learning, and participating in this essential endeavour.
WEC members are comprised with multinational organizations who understand that gender equality, sustainable development, and business success are inextricably linked. Members have opportunities to propose and test innovative women empowerment initiatives that can be incubated and developed into impactful, sustainable projects; all of which are implemented by the SCHSAsia team with support from members. These include the Women Empowerment Awards in China, the Gender Pay Project, Girls in STEMM, and much more.
Since moving to China in 1997, Su Cheng has been actively involved in the Beijing business community, served on the Board of AmCham, and is the founding co-chair of the AmCham Women Professional Committee. She has forged relationships with the American, British, Japanese, and Australian Chambers of Commerce, the U.S. Embassy, and a range of Beijing civic groups. Before becoming an entrepreneur, she was engaged in the corporate arena and held management positions at The Boeing Company, United Technologies Corporation, and The Capital Club in Beijing.
Diane Ho
Partner at Women Empowerment CouncilAfter 30+ years in the corporate world, Diane Ho is a certified coach, and investing her knowledge and experience to coaching executives as well as advancing gender equity as a partner of the Women Empowerment Council.
Her advocacy of women started in her 20’s when she led the Los Angeles Chapter of the Organization of Chinese American Women, a national non-profit organization in the USA. Born in Hong Kong, she immigrated to the US when she was four years old, and returned to Hong Kong in 1992. She has lived in China since 1998, and is keen to work and support China as it makes a greater impact on the global stage.
Prior to coaching, she spent 11.5 years in marketing leadership roles at JLL, a leading real estate services company. She worked with business partners in Asia Pacific and Greater China, and was part of the global marketing team. Prior to JLL, she led teams and created innovative programs for Fortune 500 clients as the Managing Director for H&K Strategies in China, and General Manager for Edelman in Shanghai, both leading international PR agencies.
Marc Jaffre
Managing Director of Merck Life ScienceMarc Jaffré is the Managing Director of Life Science business of Merck in China since April 1, 2021, heading the Lab Water Solutions businesses in the APAC region. Marc has been with Merck’s Life Science business for more than 30 years, spending more than 20 years with Millipore until the acquisition by Merck in 2010. Before his time with Millipore and Merck, Marc was a sales representative at Waters Corporation. Since that time, Marc has held roles of increasing responsibility in marketing and sales, including Marketing Service Manager; Director of Marketing Services; Head of Lab Water Marketing; and Head of Lab Water Strategic Marketing and Innovation. He moved to his current role as Vice President and Head of Lab Water Solutions and Field Services for the APAC region in 2017, and soon after took on the additional responsibility as the Applied Solutions Representative for APAC.
Marc is very experienced in building an inclusive and strong team from different geographies and across organizations, leading to business acceleration. While in China, he has spent five years in Shanghai and has built solid stakeholder relations aimed at fostering biotechnology industry development and regulation advancement in China.
Marc graduated in Physics and Chemistry from Rennes University (France), obtained an Executive Master’s degree in Marketing from the ESSEC business school (France) and completed the AMP program at INSEAD.
Rogier Janssens
Managing Director & General Manager of Merck Healthcare ChinaRogier Janssens is the Managing Director and General Manager of Merck’s Healthcare Business in China responsible for all of its commercial operations nationwide. Rogier also holds the position of Vice Chairman (term 2020-2021) within the Executive Committee of the R&D-based Pharmaceutical Association (RDPAC) in China. He was recognized as one of the “Top 10 Healthcare Figures in 2018” at the 11th Healthy China Forum jointly held by people.com.cn and Health Times.
Since his arrival in China in August 2017, Rogier has dedicated himself to expanding Merck’s footprint within China’s pharmaceutical industry. Part of this has seen him leading the landing and development of the company's core corporate strategies in terms of “Innovation, Transformation, Digitalization and Organization”. Key achievements include leading the China team to be further localized, enabling Merck China to work closely with government and other stakeholders within China’s pharma ecosystem. He has also driven Merck China to make excellent progress in product and business model innovation and collaboration, market access, and accessibility to innovative drugs.
Prior to his current position, Rogier was the General Manager of Merck Biopharma Russia having joined Merck in 2013. In this position, he was responsible for leading Merck’s Russia strategy to establish a fully-fledged legal entity for Merck Biopharma, setting up the repatriation of its General Medicines portfolio from third-party companies and driving efforts to localize product manufacturing in line with official Russian policies.
Rogier is an industry professional with over 30 years of experience in pharmaceutical sales and marketing. Prior to joining Merck, Rogier held numerous senior positions including that of General Manager and Managing Director for Alcon in Russia. In addition to Russia, he has lived and worked in numerous other countries, including the USA, Denmark, Switzerland and his native Netherlands.
Rogier graduated from the Dr. Struyken Institute in the Netherlands and holds degrees in Sterile Pharmaceutical Manufacturing and Marketing. He also completed a Harvard Business School program dedicated to Emerging Market Healthcare strategies.
Married with two children, Rogier now lives with his family in Beijing.
Roberta Lipson
Founder and CEO of United Family Healthcare/New Frontier HealthRoberta Lipson is CEO and founder of United Family Healthcare (UFH) and the CEO of New Frontier Health (NYSE:NFH). She has over 40 years of experience as a pioneer in the healthcare industry in China. She originally co-founded United Family Healthcare’s predecessor company Chindex in 1981, expanding the business from China’s top medical equipment distribution company into China’s first and largest foreign-invested healthcare system. After almost two decades, UFH has established itself with hospitals and clinics in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Qingdao, and Hangzhou, as the provider of choice for those seeking premium, personalized healthcare.
Ms. Lipson is an active leader in the business community in Beijing, currently serving for the seventh year as a director of the U.S. China Business Council, as well as her fifth term on the Board of Governors of the American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham), and as Co-Chair of the AmCham Healthcare Forum and founding Chair of US-China Healthcare Cooperation Program (HCP) . She also chairs the Board of the United Foundation for China’s Health (UFCH), and is a co- founder of Beijing’s Jewish Community - Kehillat Beijing. Because of her outstanding contribution in China, Roberta Lipson received “The Great Wall Friendship Reward” in 2009, the highest honor that Beijing government gives to foreign experts in Beijing. In 2014 Roberta was honored by AmCham as the inaugural recipient of the China Pioneer Award. She was named as a “Top 10 Business Leader of China” by Sina.com in 2015, and earlier she led the company to win the U.S. State Department ACE Award for Corporate Excellence. With 40 years living and working in Beijing, in 2017 Ms. Lipson received Foreign Permanent Resident Card. Ms. Lipson holds a BA from Brandeis University and an MBA from Columbia University.
Gloria Xu
China Country Manager and Vice President, External Affairs at AlbemarleGloria Xu is China Country Manager and Vice President, External Affairs of Albemarle. In this role, Gloria represents Albemarle in China and is charged to develop a strategic vision and effective engagement plans for the company to grow sustainable in the country.
Before joining Albemarle in Feb, 2022, Gloria Xu worked for Dow Inc for more than 7 years and her last role was Vice President, Greater China, serving as Dow’s corporate representative with government, trade associations and other key external stakeholders. Before joining Dow in 2014, she led the China government affairs functions of DuPont and Standard Chartered Bank respectively for 13 years. Gloria was China Public Relations Manager of Alibaba.com Group in 2000-2001 and helped build up brand awareness of the new company in its early years. From 1993 to 2000, Gloria was a political correspondent with China Daily, covering legislative and foreign affairs, military, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan news. She was elected to the Board of Governors of AmCham China in 2017-2020 and again in 2022. She was a vice Chair of AmCham China in 2020 and was re-elected in 2022.
Gloria graduated from Nanjing University with a BA in English Language and Literature.
Diane Zhu
Country HR Head at Merck ChinaWith the graduation from Beijing Normal University, Diane started her first job as a teacher in Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology. In 1995, Diane joined Beijing FESCO and has started the career in HR field since then. In 2000, Diane went to the US and studied the MBA in the University of Illinois at Chicago. After returning to Beijing in 2002, Diane joined Hershey Food Company as HR manager. In 2005, Diane joined Stago Diagnosis Technology Company as HR manager. In 2007, Diane joined Bayer Healthcare as HR Business Partner. In 2011, Diane joined Merck Healthcare China as HR Business Partner Head. Since July of 2018, Diane has taken the role of Country HR Head for Merck China and sit in Country Council.