Afleveringen
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Welcome to the era of friend shoring and nearshoring. The breakdown of the supply chain during the pandemic highlighted the risk of concentrating your manufacturing base half way around the world. For many years now there have been growing headwinds for China-based exporters. Rising US-China tensions, increased labor costs, and less favorable local policies meant that factory owners needed to consider alternatives. While before that often meant another Asian country like Vietnam or Bangladesh, the passing of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in 2019 cemented Mexico's role as a key supplier to the US market.
We were fortunate to speak with an expert in this emerging trend, Andrew Hupert. Andrew has a unique background, combining academic understanding of trade, investment and negotiation, with many years living in China and other parts of Asia along with his current focus on how to navigate Mexico's industrial opportunities.
He explains how the focus from Just in Time to Just in Case is shaping the the global logistics industry as well as China's involvement in Mexico.
Andrew Hupert is an accomplished entrepreneur, lecturer, and writer who has over 25 years of international experience. He has lectured and taught courses on cross-cultural negotiation at some of the world’s top business schools such as NYU’s Stern School, Strathclyde University, and Hult International Business School. Now he spends his time in Mexico working with international businesses to improve their North American supply chains, and writing on the future of globalism, cross-culture negotiation, and trends in international supply chains.
Andrew lived in Asia for over 20 years, with over 10 years of direct China experience. His first overseas experience was in the historical Japanese city of Kyoto, but he has also lived and worked in Taipei, Hong Kong, Chiang Mai, Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh City. He returned to North America in 2021, when he moved to Mexico to assist international firms transition supply chains to Mexico and the US. He is a recognized leader in international negotiation and cross-cultural conflict management.
Andrew has published books, including The Fragile Bridge – Conflict Management in Chinese Business, and regularly writes for well-known sites like China Law Blog, in addition to maintaining his site about North American Strategy Planning.
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E 38 / Cooperation, Competition and Conflict: Scott Moore on US-China relations and Cross-border Threats
The current state of US-China relations is poor to say the least. In addition to concerns over a potential conflict in Taiwan and opposing policies towards the war in Ukraine, we have witnessed a general deterioration in trust and willingness to partner in virtually any sphere. We are seeing a tit-for-tat sanctioning of companies, deemed "unreliable" or a threat to national security and the banning of Chinese app Tik Tok in parts of the US. High level and military-to-military talks are absent as is dialogue on any global issue. How did we get to this point and what path is their forward? To find some answers, join me for an informative discussion with Dr Scott Moore focused on his book, China's Next Act - How Sustainability and Technology are Reshaping China's Rise and the World's Future. Moore does an excellent job of explaining the importance of Public Goods and the importance of US-China relations to the containment of potentially civilization threatening issues. His perspective comes from a career looking at US-China relations through the prism of emerging cross border themes of environmental, technology, and biomedical developments. Having lived in Hong Kong and mainland China, Moore currently leverages his knowledge at the University of Pennsylvania to provide insights and encourage collaboration between various departments. Moore views Authoritarianism, Nationalism, Protectionism in China as the key barriers to achieving cooperation on pressing issues. And he promotes the concept of competition, while not ideal, as a potential useful dynamic to continue to tackle shared challenges.
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Dr. William H. Overholt is a distinguished Asia Expert with five decades of experience in research, analysis, and advisory for leading investment banks, think tanks, government and educational institutions. He is a prolific author with a broad set of knowledge and experience he leverages to bring insights into Asia's complex social and political context. Overholt's assessment of US-China relations is very sober. At the same time, he believes China's growth trajectory is declining and its long-term political structure is not guaranteed. In many ways, the cycle of history continues, something which Overholt has personally witnessed first hand.
Dr. Overholt holds a research position at Harvard's Kennedy School and is Principal of AsiaStrat LLC, a consulting firm. Previously he held the Asia Policy Distinguished Research Chair at RAND's California headquarters and was Director of RAND's Center for Asia Pacific Policy.
During 21 previous years in investment banking, he served as Head of Strategy and Economics at Nomura's regional headquarters in Hong Kong from 1998 to 2001, and as Managing Director and Head of Research at Bank Boston's regional headquarters in Singapore. At Bankers Trust, he ran a country risk team in New York and was regional strategist and Asia research head based in Hong Kong.
At Hudson Institute in the 1970s Overholt directed planning studies for the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of State, National Security Council, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Council on International Economic Policy.
Dr. Overholt received his B.A. (magna, 1968) from Harvard and his Master of Philosophy (1970) and Ph.D. (1972) from Yale.
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Dr. Kumudu Gunasekera is a management consultant and strategic advisor to private equity firms, public and privately held corporations, and Fortune 100 global organizations. Throughout his career he has delivered actionable insights to clients worldwide. A proven problem-solver, his insights and perspectives have been published in multiple peer-reviewed journals and industry magazines. He has also instructed numerous undergraduate, graduate and professional courses while being an adjunct Professor at Boston University.
He is currently is a Managing Director at Stax , a global strategy consulting firm that advices 100+ Private Equity firms and their portfolio companies. Prior to Stax, Dr. Gunasekera was a Principal Economist at Parsons Brinckerhoff (now rebranded as WSP), a leading global infrastructure group, in their Washington, D.C offices. Dr. Gunasekera is also the co-founder of Sri Lanka@100 a private sector led initiative for value creation of mid sized firms in Sri Lanka.
In 2019, Dr. Gunasekera was recognized as one of the top 100 business leaders in the Sri Lanka. He was also a Past President of the American Chamber of Commerce; and is currently serving on the Board of Directors of John Keells Hotels, the largest luxury hotel chain in Sri Lanka with resorts in Maldives.
Kumudu earned his Ph.D. in Economic Geography, and a joint M.A. in International Relations and Environmental Policy from Boston University. He has a B.A. in Economics from Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
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What is China? It is a simple question but one that cannot be properly without the help of reading Bill Hayton's book, 'The invention of China'. And, why is the conflict over sovereignty of the Spratly and Paracel islands and atolls so intractable? To understand this also requires reading another one of his works, 'The South China Sea, The Struggle for Power in Asia'.
Bill Hayton is the prototypical guest on the Reorient! podcast -- accomplished, intelligent and possessing deep expertise and a unique perspective. I know of few authors with comparable breadth of experience reporting on geopolitical issues to a global audience and having a deep understanding of the history of Asia. Mr. Hayton's accomplished career as a journalist for the BBC began in the Middle East. His first assignment took him to Iran in 1995 to interview Ayatollah Ali Akbar Mohtashemi to ask him if he organised the Lockerbie bombing. In 1999, he shifted his coverage to European Affairs where he witnessed the struggle over the fate of the post-Soviet Republics, a focal point for Western audiences and policy makers.
Mr Hayton arrived in Asia in 2006, where he reported from Vietnam, which had recently been re-engaged with the United States. He published his first book 'Vietnam, Rising Dragon' and notes that, even today, Vietnam remains a poorly understood country , despite being the 15th most populous nation and subject of many Hollywood movies. Hayton continues to offer insights into the nuances and rich history of countries in Asia with his soon to be released book 'A Brief History of Vietnam'.
During our conversation Hayton helps to untangle and organise the concepts of peoples, nations, empires, cultures and civilisations. He also explains how narratives, interpretations and definitions of history play into political objectives and become their own source of conflict. His informed realism provides a framework and pathways to enhance our mutual understanding of this fascinating and complicated region.
You can find more information on his website www.billhayton.com
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David P. Goldman is Deputy Editor of Asia Times, where he has written the "Spengler" column since 2000, and a Washington Fellow of the Claremont Institute. His books include How Civilizations Die (2011), It's Not the End of the World -- It's Just the End of You (2011), and You Will Be Assimilated: China's Plan to Sino-Form the World (2020). He publishes in The Wall Street Journal, Claremont Review of Books, First Things, Tablet Magazine, Law and Liberty, PJ Media and many other venues. He was global head of fixed income research at Bank of America and global head of credit strategies at Credit Suisse, among other senior positions in finance. He won Institutional Investor magazine's award for General Strategy, one of the highest honors in investment research.
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James Fok, Author of Financial Cold War: A View of Sino-US Relations from the Financial Markets.
"James Fok’s book highlights the explosive risks in the relationship between the US and China today. It also offers insights into fundamental driving forces of international frictions and is a call to take urgently necessary steps to address the sources of conflict." - Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum
Please click on the following link for more background on Mr. Fok:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-fok-24082237/ -
A diplomat for nearly thirty years, Ted Osius served from 2014 to 2017 as U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, a country he has loved since serving there in the 1990s, when he helped open the U.S. Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City and was one of the first U.S. diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi. Leading a mission team of 900, Ambassador Osius devised and implemented strategies to deepen security ties, sign tens of billions of dollars’ worth of commercial deals, expand educational exchange, conclude agreements on trade, law enforcement, environmental protection, and address honestly a difficult past. Ambassador Osius’ leadership helped bring about a positive transformation in U.S.-Vietnam relations.
As he worked to improve U.S.-Vietnam relations, Ambassador Osius came to know the heroes who sought to reconcile our nations, including John Kerry, John McCain, Pete Peterson and Le Van Bang. Under four Presidents and seven Secretaries of State, Ambassador Osius contributed to reconciliation not just between governments, but between former combatants, and the people of both nations. The first openly gay U.S. ambassador to serve in East Asia, he was only the second career diplomat in U.S. history to achieve that rank.
Ambassador Osius earned a Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, a Master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, and an Honorary Doctorate from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education. A member of the Board of Governors of the American Chamber of Commerce Vietnam, Ambassador Osius loves all kinds of travel, biking, sailing, theater and photography. He is married to Clayton Alan Bond; the couple has a three-year-old daughter and four-year-old son.
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Published April 10, 2022
Josephine Wong is a co-founder and principal at Apogee and co-founder of Make Meaningful Work, as well as the co-founder of UX Hong Kong.
Jo grew up in multicultural Hong Kong, with a Chinese-Burmese father and Chinese-Indonesian mother. She collaborates with global teams conducting research in Cantonese, Mandarin and English.
Jo is passionate about the environment, political and economic systems and how we can live healthier and happier lives while not adversely impacting less fortunate people.
She co-authored Make Meaningful Work with Daniel Szuc.
Daniel Szuc is a co-founder and principal at Apogee and co-founder of Make Meaningful Work, as well as the co-founder of UX Hong Kong.
He has been involved in the UX field for over 20 years, and has been based in Hong Kong for over 20 years. Dan has lectured about user-centered design globally.
He has co-authored three books including Global UX with Whitney Quesenbery, The Usability Kit with Gerry Gaffney and Make Meaningful Work with Josephine Wong. Recorded February 5, 2022.
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Published March 22, 2022
Anthony Elson is an international economist, writer and university lecturer based in Washington, DC. For a number of years, he was a senior staff member of the IMF with responsibilities for organizing and supervising the Fund's macroeconomic surveillance and financial lending operations with countries in the Asia Pacific and Latin American regions. He also served for a time as the Deputy Director of the Fund's Statistics Department and was involved in the development of its Fund-wide Data Dissemination Standards and in the oversight of its data collection and technical assistance activities. He now teaches at the Duke University Center for International Development and the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies.
He is the author of five books: The global currency power of the US dollar: Problems and prospects (2021), The United States in the world economy: Making sense of globalization (2019), The global financial crisis in retrospect (2017), Globalization and development: Why East Asia surged ahead and Latin America fell behind (2013), Governing global finance: the evolution and reform of international financial architecture (2011). Recorded February 8, 2022.
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Published March 7, 2022
In 2012, Mandar Apte influenced Shell’s CEO to start Shell’s GameChanger social innovation program, which would invest in innovative solutions to sustainability challenges (SDG’s) and create both social impact and business returns. Through the portfolio of investments that he made through this impact investment fund, Mandar showcased how global brands, like Shell, can and must play a greater role (beyond just CSR & philanthropy) to enable and scale social impact.
In 2016, Mandar joined George Mason University as a visiting scholar at the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution. He created the Business for Peace Innovation Lab, through which he provided innovation consulting to SDG16 (Peace & Security) and helped organizations to invest in peace.
While at Shell, in 2012, Mandar also won the League of Intrapreneurs award for his efforts to design and facilitate an innovation learning program to over 2000 colleagues at Shell using meditation techniques.
For nearly two decades, Mandar has taught leadership development programs using meditation techniques to thousands of people across the world, including corporate executives, Mayors, police officers, survivors of violence, returning veterans, inner city youth and educators. Mandar is the Founder & Executive Director of Cities4Peace – a not-for-profit consultancy that actively promotes peace in cities worldwide. The flagship program was held in Los Angeles, where so far over 250 community members including LAPD officers, former gang members and victims/survivors of violence have been trained by Mandar as Ambassadors of Peace. Similar programs are now being offered in many other cities and communities worldwide. – that showcases the transformational experience of victims of violence from across America who embarked on a journey to India. The film was inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who had also visited India to study nonviolence in 1959.
In 2017, Mandar produced & directed a documentary film, From India with Love, that showcases the transformational experience of victims of violence from across America who embarked on a journey to India. The film was inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who had also visited India to study nonviolence in 1959.
The film was premiered by the Los Angeles Police Department at Paramount Studios and is now available of Alarm Prime in the US and in the UK.
In 2018, the film was converted into an educational module (Be The Change) in collaboration with the Association for School Superintendents (AASA). This module has been used as a resource by educators from across America to promote peace education in schools.
In 2018, Mandar hosted the inaugural World Summit on Countering Violence & Extremism that brought together law enforcement officers and peace activists from US and India to brainstorm novel solutions to promote peace. Recorded December 31 2021.
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Published February 21, 2022
Herald van der Linde is HSBC’s Chief Asia equity strategist, also known as “The Flying Dutchman” given his frequent travels around the region. He and his Indonesian wife are based in Hong Kong and Jakarta. He is trained as an economist and wrote his Master’s thesis in Jakarta, making this city his home. He later worked as a strategist in South Africa and Taiwan before he became HSBC's Chief equity strategist for Asia. Herald is a certified Financial Analyst (CFA), a member of the advisory board of the Chinese Studies program at Hong Kong’s Baptist University, speaks seven languages, including Bahasa Indonesia, and is a certified lecturer for the Wine & Spirit Education Trust. He has published a book on wine in 2012 titled “A Good Year To Learn About Wine” and one on Jakarta’s history in 2020, "Jakarta: History of a misunderstood city". His new book, published in October 2021, is "Asia's Stock Markets from the Ground Up."
Recorded December 20, 2021.
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Published February 5, 2022
Laszlo Montgomery is an LA-based businessman. He began studying Chinese at the University of Illinois in 1979. He moved to Hong Kong in 1989, and in the following decade worked at two different China manufacturers of light industrial consumer goods for the US mass market. In both companies he was the sole Westerner, gaining a unique appreciation and understanding of Chinese sensitivities and sensibilities. He then leveraged this experience into a successful career as a "bridge" between American and Chinese companies and corporate cultures.
In 2010, Laszlo, an amateur historian with a lifelong passion for Chinese history, took advantage of the emergent podcast medium to launch the China History Podcast. The podcast presents popular curated topics from China's antiquity to modern times. Three hundred episodes later, he has built an audience of Chinese history enthusiasts from Asia to Europe to Africa. He has also since expanded his offerings to include: The Tea History Podcast, The Chinese Sayings Podcast and The China Vintage Hour. Recorded 12 November 2021.
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Published 23 January, 2021
Andrew Leung is a prominent international and independent China Strategist, a second career after thirty eight years as a top Hong Kong bureaucrat. During his illustrious public service career, he held wide-ranging positions, including Assistant Financial Secretary, Deputy Secretary for Transport, Deputy Director-General of Industry, Director-General of Social Welfare, and Director-General London.
Following his retirement, he has been a China Futures Fellow, Massachusetts Berkshire Publishing Group; Brain Trust Member, IMD Lausanne Evian Group; Gerson Lehrman Group Council Member; Thomas Reuters Expert; Senior Analyst with Wikistrat; Member, Royal Society for Asian Affairs; Former Governing Council Member, King's College London; Former Advisory Board Member, China Policy Institute, Nottingham University; Think-tank Research Fellow, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai Campus; Advisory Board Member, The e-Centre, European Centre for e-Commerce and Internet Law; and Visiting Professor, London Metropolitan University Business School.
In 2003, he was invited by Prince Andrew for a private briefing leading to HRH’s first visit to China as UK’s Ambassador for Trade and Investment. He also advised on cross-cultural management in Lenovo's take-over of IBM Computers, and was invited as Editor-at-large by MEC International for a consultancy on China's energies.
He is a regular speaker on China at overseas conferences and on many international TV channels.
He holds graduate qualifications from the University of London, and postgraduate qualifications from Cambridge University, PMD, and Harvard BusinessSchool. He has been included in UK's Who's Who since 2002. He was awarded the Silver Bauhinia Star (SBS) in the July 2005 Hong Kong Honours List. Recorded December 22, 2021.
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Published January 9, 2022
Keiko Sydenham is CEO and co-founder at LUCA Ltd., a digital platform for alternative Investments, private equity, real estate, infra and private credit. Prior to founding LUCA, she was a managing director at Blackstone Japan, where she handled investor relations and business development. She has also held management positions at J. P. Morgan Japan (in their alternative investments division), Russell Investments, Orix Investments, and HC Asset management. She is a graduate of Tokyo University and the School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University. She is fluent in English, Russian and Japanese. Recorded April 22.
Jesse: Well, it's a beautiful day here in Hong Kong, and I'm very pleased to have Keiko Sydenham as our guest on today. Keiko. Very thanks very much for joining the Reorient! podcast.
Keiko: Well, thank you very much for inviting me. It's very exciting.
Jesse: We're really thrilled. You're our first guest, uh, who's Japanese who, um, can discuss Japan. Um, so which is obviously an important part of the Asia Pacific region. So, uh, it's, it's, uh, very special for us to have you on. Um, so Keiko, I'd like to first ask just a little bit about your background. Um, can you share with us sort of where you grew up.
Keiko: Yeah, sure. So I grew up a small city in Nagoya in Japan. Soand afterwards I went to, uh, college in Tokyo. And then afterwards, I actually, I spent a [00:01:00] little bit in multiple places, like in Russia, Moscow, and in Washington, DC, where I graduated, from SAIS Johns Hopkins and then New York afterwards. Uh, I worked there from 2001 to 2003. So now, then afterwards, I went back to Tokyo.
Jesse: Um, so, um, so, uh, you know, uh, most recently, um, uh, Keiko, you were a very senior director of Blackstone group and Japan. Um, so tell us a little bit about what, what type of work you are doing at Blackstone and what, what was the firms, um, sort of main objectives in Japan.
Keiko: Yeah, sure. So, uh, I was always responsible for capital raising. So basically, uh, my title was like, head of client institutional clients solutions, and which is, uh, I'm responsible for advising and supporting capital raising from, uh, institutional investors in Japan. So institutional investors, uh, are mainly like, you know, government, patient funds or like major banks and insurance companies and the corporate pensions.
And then. Blackston Japan actually started as a real estate investment location. So we have a heavy investment, uh, in real estate as Blackstone, Japan. And then, you know, um, afterwards, uh, we decided to do more marketing as a fundraising side, is that it was just like 2013. We kind of like put the resource in there.
And then more recently, uh, we started private equity investment in Japan. So we're pretty active in investment in Japan.
Jesse: So when you were raising funds capital, um, was it primarily for the global funds that are primarily United [00:04:00] States, but they could potentially invest in some of the Blackstone's Japan funds as well.
Keiko: Yes, exactly. So, oh, we don't have actually a regional standalone fund. Blackstone doesn't have it. And so it's, everything is about a global fund, but as a part of, uh, a global, uh, we could invest in Japan.
Jesse: Understood now, um, obviously Japan as the world's or it certainly was the, world's second largest economy. I'm not sure if, if China has surpassed Japan yet, um, it probably depends on how you measure it, but, uh, you know, fair fair to say the world's second largest economy with a huge savings rate. Um, so it makes sense that, um, large institutions would want to tap into this, uh,...
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Published December 26, 2021
Shanghai-based Bryce Whitwam is an adjunct instructor of integrated marketing and communications at New York University. Prior to that he was the China CEO of MRM/ McCann, a leading data science, technology innovation and creatively-driven relationship marketing agency, and before that still, the CEO of Wunderman Greater China. He is a fluent Mandarin speaker and a 25-year veteran of the marketing communications business.
Whitwam is one of Asia's pioneers of non-traditional advertising, specializing in digital and data-driven marketing, retail communications and brand activation. His experience spans key categories, including automotive and telecommunications, and he has held senior management roles at Nielsen, Lowe and Ogilvy.
A keyboardist when he's not working, he has recorded 2 records in China and Taiwan with the band, "Identity Crisis." Recorded September 1, 2021.
Transcript
Jesse: All right, everyone. Good day. Good evening, everyone. Today is the 1st of September, 2021. And today I'm very pleased to have a very interesting guest named Bryce to have a very interesting guest Bryce Whitman, uh, join us who is an expert in marketing and advertising and China.
Bryce. Welcome to the reorient podcast.
Bryce W: Thanks, Jesse. I'm really happy to be here.
Jesse: Great. Well, um, so, uh, Bryce, I think people can tell from your name and your accent, that you're not originally Chinese, but your, uh, you spent a couple of decades, uh, even more in, in [00:01:00] China and the greater China region. Um, but you're originally from, I believe, South Dakota. Uh, so maybe share with us, uh, sort of briefly how a young man from South Dakota sort of unlikely journey to become a, uh, advertising and marketing guru in China.
Bryce W: Okay, so thanks Jesse. Appreciate it. And I will try to answer your question in the briefest, most interesting way possible, because anytime you tell your life story, you always, uh, always this tendency to go on and on and on. And normally my wife is next to me and she'll kick me under the table and say that’s enough.
Um, so yeah, so I, I. It literally, uh, I was, I graduated, uh, from the university of Minnesota with a Russian area studies degree. I was a Russia guy. Uh, I was unable to find any opportunities, uh, to go to the then Soviet union. So a professor [00:02:00] recommended that I go to China instead and it turned out. I found a teaching job in Beijing, uh, and that was a really enlightening experience. Uh, it wasn't a, let's say a financially viable one, but it really essentially changed my life. And after that, I moved to Taiwan, uh, for about three years where I studied Chinese. And later after that, I went back to the US and got my master's degree.
And that kind of started out my whole career plans. It was in my master's degree program that I found a love for marketing. Or you could say, I found that I wasn't very good at finance. So usually at that time you usually have this choice to do marketing or you do finance. And surprisingly, I was really good at marketing.
So I immediately thought, well, that's what I'm going to do. Uh, so I went back to Taiwan after graduating and I got a job at Nielsen, the marketing research company. I was pretty much in [00:03:00] retail software. Uh, I thought it was a very interesting, uh, chance to, to really, to get into, uh, marketing and advertising.
And it was there for about three years before I joined a company in Hong Kong that primarily did retail displays and merchandising for big brands like Coca-Cola and Procter and. And then later I was in Thailand and that was my real first advertising advertising job. I was at Lowe in Bangkok for five years.
Uh, after that, uh, I was recruited to, to China for obviously at that time, my, my, my Chinese is easily better than my Thai. And I took a job,...
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Published December 12, 2021
Noor Sweid is the founder of Global Ventures, a Dubai-based, growth-stage venture capital firm focusing on investing in emerging markets. Previously, Noor was the Chief Investment Officer at The Dubai Future Foundation, where she spent time developing the technology and innovation ecosystem in Dubai, and a Managing Partner at Leap Ventures, a growth-stage venture capital firm based out of Dubai and Beirut.
Noor moved back to Dubai in 2005 after spending time in the US as a biotechnology and pharmaceutical strategy consultant. Once in Dubai, Noor joined her family business, Depa. Implementing best-practice corporate governance and enabling the scaling of the business tenfold in three years to reach US$600 million in revenues, Noor then led the IPO for the company in 2008, on the NASDAQ Dubai and the London Stock Exchange.
During this time, Noor also founded ZenYoga, the first yoga and pilates studio in MENA, which grew to become the largest chain of wellness studios in the Middle East, and which she exited ZenYoga in early 2014 through sale to a private equity firm.
Noor is Chairperson of the Middle East Venture Capital Association, was on the Founding Board of Endeavor UAE, and serves as a Director for MIT Sloan, TechWadi, The Grooming Company, the Collegiate American School in Dubai, as well as the portfolio companies of Global Ventures.
In 2018, Noor was named as one of the World’s Top 50 Women in Tech by Forbes, and received the Arab Woman Award for Finance. Noor has also been named in the Arabian Business 100 Most Powerful Arab Women list three times, and has been profiled on the covers of Forbes Middle East, Entrepreneur Middle East, and Arabian Business magazines.
Noor holds bachelors’ degrees in Finance and Economics from Boston College as well as an MBA from MIT Sloan. Recorded September 2, 2021.
Transcript:
Jesse: Okay, here we go. All right. Hello? Hello everyone. Today is the 2nd of September, 2021. Time goes by quickly. And, uh, today I have the pleasure of a very interesting guest who I met many years ago and really excited to talk to. Uh, and I'm hopefully going to pronounce her name correctly.
Noor Sweid.
Noor: That's perfect. Thanks Jesse.
Jesse: Uh, and Noor, are you joining us from Dubai?
Noor: I'm in Dubai right now.
Jesse: Great, great. So Noor is, uh, joining us from Dubai, who is the founder of Global Ventures, um, which is I think where the most interesting venture capital firms I have come across. So Noor, welcome to the Reorient podcast.
Noor: Thank you, Jesse, for having me and, um, and for giving us the opportunity to share what we're working on here out of Dubai.
Jesse: Well, you have a great story and I'm looking forward to delving into it. So before we go into what, um, sort of the Global Ventures. And what your work is there. Um, give us a little bit of sense. You have a very interesting personal story. So let us know a little bit about your journey of how you came to become a venture capitalist, uh, sitting in Dubai. What was your journey to this point?
Noor: I grew up in a bunch of different countries. I was born in Boston, raised in London. We moved to Saudi Arabia when I was 12. We moved to Dubai when I was 15. I, I then went back to Boston for college. Um, I studied, I worked at Accenture for awhile as a consultant in biotech and pharma, and then I did my MBA and after a time staying in Boston, came back to Dubai in 2005 where my family had remained since I had gone off to do my studies and came back as a consultant with Booz Allen, and then between my first and second projects kind of had three weeks as consultants do, to, to relax or recover depending on how you see it and just kind of zone in on, on home turf rather than continuing to travel every week.
And then within that three...
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Published November 28, 2021
Dr. Kumudu Gunasekera is a Colombo, Sri Lanka-based management consultant and strategic advisor to private equity firms, public and privately held corporations, and Fortune 100 global organizations.
He is currently the Joint Managing Director of Stax Inc (APAC region), a global strategy consulting firm that advices 100+ Private Equity firms and their portfolio companies. Prior to Stax Inc, Dr. Gunasekera was a Principal Economist at Parsons Brinckerhoff (now rebranded as WSP), a leading global infrastructure group, in their Washington, D.C offices. Dr. Gunasekera is also the co-founder of Sri Lanka@100 a private sector led initiative for value creation of mid sized firms in Sri Lanka. His insights and perspectives have been published in multiple peer-reviewed journals and industry magazines. He has also instructed numerous undergraduate, graduate and professional courses while being an adjunct Professor at Boston University.
In 2019, Dr. Gunasekera was recognized as one of the top 100 business leaders in the Sri Lanka. He was also a Past President of the American Chamber of Commerce; and is currently serving on the Board of Directors of John Keells Hotels, the largest luxury hotel chain in Sri Lanka with resorts in Maldives. He is also on the Advisory Boards of Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology, and the National Infrastructure Committee of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.
Kumudu earned his Ph.D. in Economic Geography, and a joint M.A. in International Relations and Environmental Policy from Boston University. He has a B.A. in Economics from Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Recorded August 19, 2021.
Show Notes:
02:25 "If you've never experienced a bomb before, suddenly time stops and you see vibrations in slow motion."
03:20 "In Asia even the trishaw driver has a 20% growth mentality."
05:15 "Working on the Panama Canal expansion gave me an understanding of mega projects"
10:19 "The legacy of colonial divide and rule policies haunted post-independence Sri Lanka."
12:28 "The post-war growth spurt in Sri Lanka hit the dual hurdles of the Easter attacks in 2019 and now, COVID."
14:38 "Sri Lanka's economic growth strategy has never been purely tourism-centric."
15:30 "Not many people know about Sri Lanka's robust and growing knowledge services industry... It is becoming an innovation hub globally, boosted by the rise of remote work."
18:30 "Sri Lanka's comparative advantage is not just natural resources, but also its native capacity for innovation."
22:34 "Positioning Sri Lanka as a global hub is not a new thing--historically it has always been central to East-West trade routes."
23:16 "In the Sixties, Lee Kuan Yew came to Sri Lanka and said he wanted to model Singapore on Sri Lanka."
25:50 "Sri Lanka has the potential to be a hub for India/ South Asia, one of the fastest growing regions in the world."
27:10 "Sri Lanka has highly developed human capital."
29:36 "What Sri Lanka can learn from Singapore on balancing great power interests while maintaining its independence."
31:41 "Sri Lanka has arrived at a good understanding with all its regional neighbours."
33:20 "Sri Lanka's trade agreement with India includes the movement of people."
34:40 "Sri Lanka is very different from...
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Published November 14, 2021
Dev Roy's career has seen more twists and turns than a whodunnit. It took him from India to the United States in the early 1990s, one of many in that country's brain drain, and from there to London, where he became the head of derivatives trading at Barclays up until 2008. Seeing the writing on the wall for the financial industry, he decided to pack up and return to India to become an entrepreneur, following in the footsteps of his own father thirty years earlier. He started a government services company, followed by an edtech company, built a chain of dialysis clinics and then started yet another edtech company. Some of his ventures paid off, some didn't. In the process, he had to unlearn and relearn many lessons about innovation and commerce in the developed versus developing world. After selling his most recent company, he has now gone in house and possibly full circle, heading innovation at Byju's, the multi-billion dollar Indian edtech giant that has seemingly come out of nowhere in the past decade. He is based in London. Recorded 4 June, 2021.
Show Notes:
05:47 "The flight to America: the great Indian Brain Drain of the eighties and nineties.”
13:12 "A banker sees the writing on the wall in 2008."
16:22 "BRIC -- a Bloody Ridiculous Investment Concept."
17:59 "Going back to India with three investment theses."
20:08 "The first venture: providing services to rural populations ancillary to government services."
23:13 "The second venture: the underserved dialysis market in Indian healthcare."
28:35 "Why the first venture failed."
30:34 "Lessons from the first venture which were then applied to the second venture."
33:31 "Cracking the nut: his first entrepreneurial success."
40:00 "Next up, the Indian education sector was ripe for disruption."
42:57 "Innovating for the local market."
45:30 "How the pandemic affected Indian entrepreneurs."
48:15 "Fundraising challenges faced by entrepreneurs in India."
51:53 "The financing difficulty faced by entrepreneurs innovating for the local market."
56:50 "What lessons can the Indian government learn from China in terms of creating a more business-friendly company?"
1:03:15 "What are some ways the Indian government can reduce entrepreneurial red tape in India?"
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