John Gruetzner founded Intercedent, a business advisory firm in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Singapore. After returning to Canada this year after 38 years in China, he now serves as the Senior Vice President for Global Markets for Syngrafii. He sits also on several public and private sector boards. He lectures in business schools and writes on business issues in China. He is one of the 24 founders of the China Policy Centre. He holds a BA from the University of Toronto and studied Chinese language at the University of Nankai in 1982.

Philip Calvert is a Senior Fellow with the China Institute of the University of Alberta and a Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Asia Pacific Initiatives at the University of Victoria. He served in Beijing as a Trade Commissioner (1984-87), Economic Counsellor (1994-1997) and Minister & Deputy Head of Mission (2004-2008). In Global Affairs Canada he served as Director General for North Asia, Deputy Chief Negotiator for Canada during China’s accession to the WTO and as Director of the Technical Barriers to Trade Division. Most recently he spent 2012-2016 as Canada’s ambassador to Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. He has a Ph.D. in Chinese History from the University of Washington.

The China Policy Centre is a member-driven, not-for-profit, federally incorporated organization comprised of over 150 Canadians who have a combined total of three millennia of direct professional experience in dealing with China as private sector, academic, civil society, and ex-Government actors.

The China Institute (CIUA) is focused on the study of contemporary China, including cutting-edge and policy relevant research on Chinese energy policy, politics, economy, social issues, culture and Canada-China relations. The CIUA’s mission is to advance scholarship of China at the University of Alberta, to enhance and support research on China, and to promote strong academic linkages between the University of Alberta and Chinese universities.