With entrepreneurship running in her blood, Caroline has always been seeking the next big innovative challenge. As a young Canadian lawyer fresh out of McGill Law School, Caroline took the leap in moving to Asia in 1998 and has spent her life becoming an expert in Asian law with the goal to demystify Asia to SMEs and PE firms from the Western part of the world and contribute to their expansion in Asia.

It wasn’t long before she became the go-to source for people and SMEs and PE firms who want to understand how to grow the Asian market and navigate the Asian legal landscape successfully.

Today, she has an established reputation in the international business community as an entrepreneur of 5 start up over the last 2 decades and an expert advisor on M&A cross-border transactions, commercial law, technology transfer and intellectual property matters and has been the managing director of HJM Asia Law for the past 16 years.

In Caroline’s life, the only constant is growth.

She convinced her younger brother, Maxime, a trained industrial engineer, to join her in China in 2005 when they founded their first business, Jade & Co, a consulting firm for SMEs expanding in Asia offering engineering, legal, marketing and accounting services.

Later, in 2007, Caroline and Maxime founded AsiaTech QC, an automated quality control platform for engineering products manufactured in China, and significantly grew the value of the company, leading to its acquisition in 2013.

In 2010, the duo started Komaspec who is now a leading manufacturer of high-end metal and plastic industrial products based in Guangzhou, China. Today, the company boasts three state-of-the-art smart manufacturing facilities, employs 200+ workers, and serves more than 100 customers in more than 25 countries worldwide, recording 30% YoY growth with a turnover of more than USD 17 millions in 2022. At present, Caroline acts as board member of Komaspec.

A few years later, in 2016, she combined her entrepreneurial background with legal expertise, to bring to market ProsocecAsia, an innovative company providing secretarial, accounting, and compliance services for SMEs companies alongside an automated platform for compliance.

In 2015, she was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and became a member of YPO in 2021.

Understanding the role of not just mentorship, but sponsors in achieving entrepreneurial success, Caroline set up her own non profit organisation in 2016. The Young E3 Entrepreneur Fund inspires and supports a new generation of young entrepreneurs between 16 and 25 years old, by connecting them with industry experts and sponsors who can help them build a strong foundation for business success. She raises funds to finance these projects through her runs and many other initiatives.

Viewing growth and knowledge sharing as two parts of the same equation, Caroline is a regular speaker at international conferences and has been a visiting professor at Université Laval (Canada), Bocconi University, and the Sorbonne Assas Law School. She has authored the practical book "Doing Business in China" published in French and English, and has been featured in numerous magazines and newspapers, including Bloomberg, the Straits Times, the Business Times, Les Affaires, and La Presse.

She remains an active member of the international business community, sitting on multiple boards of listed and private companies, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce (President), the South Africa Chamber of Commerce in Singapore, the China Working Group of the International Bar Association, and is the appointed legal adviser of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Singapore. She is an independent director of Savaria (sis.to), a listed Canadian company in the mobility industry.

Yanqing (Kenny) Cai is Co-Founder and CEO of BottleDream. In 2012, he quit his job as an UX designer and travelled the world for 18 months, documenting the stories of young people from more than 20 countries who were changing the world. That experience helped shape his vision for BottleDream, now one of China’s top social innovation platforms. He has inspired more than 150,000 Chinese young people to care about social innovation and sustainable development. He is now building a co-creation community with DAO spirit which dedicates to incubate social innovation actions and projects.

Founder and Managing Partner, Sky9 Capital, early-stage China technology venture capital firm with presence in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Silicon Valley. Board Member of PPDai (PPDF), Tujia, FangDD, eBroker, etc. Named as a Top Chinese Venture Capitalist by Forbes China and CBN Weekly over multiple years. Former: Co-founder of Lightspeed China Partners; Managing Director and Head of China, Lightspeed Venture Partners, started its China operations in 2006; MD of KLM Capital, and Ops/Marketing Manager Intel.

President of the China-United States Exchange Foundation and World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador. Special Advisor to Dr. Margaret Chan, Dean, Tsinghua Vanke School of Public Health. Interviews with world leaders in politics, science and health, including: Nobel laureates Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan, and Muhammad Yunus. Currently, Host of The China Current. Formerly, Guest Presenter, BBC World News and Main Anchor, China Central Television. 2016, appointed by the World Health Organization as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Sustainable Development Goals and Health. 2009-2016, UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador. Frequent public speaker; chair and moderator of high-level international events led by Laura Bush, Bill Gates, Angela Merkel, Erna Solberg, Justin Trudeau. Studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music and graduated from Cambridge University. Trustee, MTV Staying Alive Foundation; Advisor, Global Health 50/50, The Commons Project; Young Global Leader, World Economic Forum.

Bachelor's in Engineering, University of California, Berkeley. Since 1996, with VIA. Began career at the company's Taiwan headquarters, managing the sales and marketing offices of Japan and Korea. Responsible for VIA worldwide business development and strategic partnerships for VIA Technologies, a leading innovator of PC silicon and platform technologies. Besides presiding over VIA's Global Sales & Marketing, serves as technical assistant to the President and CEO of VIA, Wenchi Chen. Board and advisory positions at a number of technology companies. Involved in social ventures, social media, premium content providers, hardware companies at the semiconductor and system level, faith-based endeavours, a premium winery in China as well as being a hobbyist angel investor.

Dr. Calvin Choi is the Global Chairman of AMTD Group, L’Officiel, and The Art Newspaper. Calvin is also the Founder and Chairman of AMTD Charity Foundation. He is a globally recognized entrepreneur and philanthropist as well as a pioneer and contributor in promoting global digitalization.

Calvin was awarded "Knight - Order of Arts and Letters" by the Ministry of Culture of France in 2022. He was named “Asia FinTech Leader”, “Singapore FinTech Leader” and “Top 10 FinTech Leader” respectively in 2019-2021 by the Singapore Fintech Association; granted “Outstanding Contribution Award (Individual)” by the conference of “Pilot 9+2: First Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Development Forum” held by Hong Kong Ta Kung Wen Wei Media Group in 2021; named “Asia’s Most Influential by the Tatler in 2021; “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum in 2017; and awarded by the Institutional Investor magazine as one of the global “Fintech Finance 35” in 2016. He was granted the degree Doctor of Laws honoris causa, and the “International Alumni Achievement Award” by the University of Waterloo in 2021 and 2019, respectively.

Calvin is currently appointed as a member of Hong Kong Cyberport Advisory Panel under the Hong Kong SAR Government and also a member of Hong Kong Government’s Prisoners’ Education Trust Fund Investment Advisory Committee. He serves as the Vice Chairman of China Young Entrepreneurs Association, being the first ever appointed nation-wide Vice Chairman representing Hong Kong and Macau. He is a member of the Executive Committee of All-China Federation of Industry and Commence; He also serves as the President of Hong Kong Islands Federation; Vice Chairman of Greater Bay Area Homeland Youth Community Foundation; Chief President of the Hong Kong Youth Association; Chief President of Hong Kong Island Youth Association; and the Honorary President of the Hong Kong Federation of Journalists. Meanwhile, Calvin also serves as the Board Director of ASEAN Financial Innovation Network, which was founded by the World Bank, Monetary Authority of Singapore, and ASEAN Bankers Association.

Ding Dang began as an immigrant worker in China and later took the initiative to establish an NGO to support immigrant women workers and their children in Shenzhen, a vital manufacturing hub and the “Silicon Valley” of China. Despite the significant contributions of rural women workers to China’s growth, their voices often go unheard. Dang’s NGO amplifies these voices, helping the women’s integration into urban life, fostering confidence and improving living conditions. As a TEDxWomen speaker, Dang founded the Green Rose Social Work Service Center in Shenzhen in 2015, positively impacting thousands of women and children. The centre addresses issues such as health, gender-based violence, education, community support and income stability.

Scholar and entrepreneur to bridge machine intelligence and creativity. Founder of Tezign.com, a leading technology start-up with the mission to build digital infrastructure for creative resources. Founding Chair, Tongji University Design Artificial Intelligence Lab. World Economic Forum Young Global Leader; Aspen Institute China Fellow. Member, IEEE Global Council for Extended Intelligence. Recipient, National DDF Award (2018). Doctorate, Harvard University; Master's degree, Princeton University. Recently published From Universality of Computation to the Universality of Imagination, a book on how machine intelligence would influence human creativity.

Amy Gao comes from Non-profit background. Her passion in making change in the education field led to her own initiative, the May Foundation that focuses on helping college students build capacity. Gao has a masters degree in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Chairlady of the Board, and Founder of Yidu Tech Inc. Ms Gong is responsible for the overall strategy, business direction and management of the Company.

She has previously worked for Credit Suisse First Boston, Global Infrastructure Partners LLP, Deutsche Bank AG and other well-known investment banks and institutions, where she accumulated extensive investment experience and industry insights. Ms. Gong also founded Guizhou Province Xiao Yingying Charity Foundation (贵州省笑盈盈慈善基金会) in March 2019, a charitable foundation focusing on the support of children with rare or major illnesses.

In 2019, she was elected as one of the nine Young Global Leaders from the Greater China region by the World Economic Forum. She holds an Executive Master of Business Administration degree from Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

The founder and CEO of Thirst, Mina is a global leader, entrepreneur and adventurer
committed to making a difference in the world. Following a successful 15-year career in
law, finance and climate change, Mina established Thirst – a YGL initiative non-profit changing the way we think about water.

Since its launch in 2012, Thirst has educated more than 2million students in China, trended
on Chinese Twitter, set a Guinness World Record, run innovation competitions with the
participation of over 700,000 students and now works with thousands of qualified
volunteers and schools across China with the support of the Chinese Government.

Mina is also a keen ultra-distance athlete, having started running only at the age of 22 after
a severe injury. She runs to raise awareness and inspire action around the global water
crisis and in doing so, has set three world firsts. In 2016 in just 7 weeks, Mina ran 40
marathons across 7 deserts on 7 continents, including Antarctica – a continent that left an
indelible impression on her for its critical role in the water cycle. In 2017, Mina ran 40
marathons in 40 days on 6 continents down 6 of the World’s great rivers – to promote the
UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 6 (water). Along each of her routes, Mina interviews
local people and water experts, putting together a real and very visual representation of the
water crisis we are facing. Currently available in short film format, Mina and the team are
documenting these stories so they are accessible to the millennial generation. Incredible
journeys whose messages about water have reached over 5 billion people.

Concerned about the pace of change, in 2018, Mina started #RunningDry – a campaign
involving her running 100 marathons in 100 days for 1 reason – to make saving water so
famous it’s not just the right thing to do, but the only thing to do. After breaking her leg at
marathon 62, thousands of people in more than 160 cities in over 50 countries and
territories rallied in support, donating their miles and collectively building #RunningDry into
a global movement for change.

Mina is a highly acclaimed public speaker and frequent media commentator, featuring in
hundreds of national and global newspapers, magazines and television programs around
the world including the New York Times, Fox, CBS, CNN, BBC, ITV, ABC, Guardian,
Forbes, Fortune, CCTV, Al Arabiya and has spoken at the UN on several occasions.

She is an advisor to the Chinese Government’s sustainability program, on the Academy for
the US$1miillion Global Teachers Prize, a Board Member for the Global Water Partnership
and a member of the inaugural board of the Antarctic Science Foundation.

In recognition of her incredible achievements, Mina received both YPO Global Impact and
Innovation Awards, was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum,
one of Australia’s most influential women, a “Global Visionary” by UBS and by Fortune
Magazine in 2016 as one of the 50 greatest leaders in the world.

Han Cong, a Chinese pair skater, alongside partner Sui Wenjing, boasts an illustrious career. They clinched the 2022 Olympic gold and the 2018 silver, securing two world championships and three world silver medals. Their historic feat at the Beijing 2022 Games set a Guinness World Record for the highest total score in pairs’ figure skating (239.88). Beyond the podium, Han engages in impactful philanthropy and sports outreach. Visiting schools and organizing charity events, he amplifies the Olympic spirit’s influence. His dedication, resilience and sporting achievements make him a remarkable figure, contributing significantly to the global recognition of figure skating.