TCA

Paul Fisher, Director, has worked with Tim Cullen since the original incorporation of TCA in 1999 and is a communications expert, with a reputation as a skilled and diplomatic negotiator. He is the founder and principal of Axiom Communications (http://www.axiomcomms.com) the highly regarded public relations and marketing communications agency.

Paul has an in-depth understanding and knowledge of the industries within which he operates and has worked alongside some of the world’s best-known organisations, including the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, IBM, Nokia and British Telecom.

Paul played a key role in TCA’s work for the Commission on Growth and Development and was very actively involved in all of TCA’s early work in China throughout Asia between 2005 and 2008. In the last few years, Paul has specialised in the energy sector.

Mark Shimmin MBE, Director and Company Secretary, is a trained accountant who joined TCA after a 32-year career with the Treasury Ministry of the Isle of Man government, the last ten years of which were as Chief Financial Officer (equivalent to State Secretary or Permanent Secretary).

He established a track record of providing sound financial advice and strategic business guidance to facilitate change, enable robust governance and fuel growth. He led many key international negotiations on behalf of the Isle of Man government and worked closely with Tim Cullen on establishing the Small Countries Financial Management Centre. Mark succeeded Tim in taking on the part-time role of heading the Centre in 2014.

At the Treasury, he controlled an annual budget in excess of £32 million and oversaw revenue spending of more than £1 billion per annum, capital expenditure of £100 million, and Investments of £1.5 billion. In recognition of his key role in government, he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the January 2014 New Year Honours.

Michael Gates, Director, is one of the world’s leading experts and teachers of cross-cultural communications and negotiations.

Michael has an outstanding reputation for his knowledge of the many cultures and negotiating styles in European countries, Russia, the Middle East, India, the USA, South America and, in recent years, he has regularly taught in China.

Michael helped establish the Finnish office of Richard Lewis Communications, which provides cross-cultural, communication skills and business language training worldwide. He is now Vice Chairman for Richard Lewis Communications internationally, and also takes an active role as a speaker and trainer.

Michael was a Scholar of St. Catherine’s College Oxford, where he gained an M.A. in English Language and Literature. He also teaches Cross-Cultural negotiations in the Oxford Programme on Negotiation at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, where he is an Associate Fellow.

Michael Gates, Director, is one of the world’s leading experts and teachers of cross-cultural communications and negotiations.

Michael has an outstanding reputation for his knowledge of the many cultures and negotiating styles in European countries, Russia, the Middle East, India, the USA, South America and, in recent years, he has regularly taught in China.

Michael helped establish the Finnish office of Richard Lewis Communications, which provides cross-cultural, communication skills and business language training worldwide. He is now Vice Chairman for Richard Lewis Communications internationally, and also takes an active role as a speaker and trainer.

Michael was a Scholar of St. Catherine’s College Oxford, where he gained an M.A. in English Language and Literature. He also teaches Cross-Cultural negotiations in the Oxford Programme on Negotiation at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, where he is an Associate Fellow.

Nancy Chen will be a Chinese member of the negotiating teams that TCA deploys and is ideally qualified to help companies that are new to China navigate the pitfalls of doing business there.

Nancy is with Ashridge Business School as a coach on cross-culture and leadership. She worked for Nokia for 17 years, holding senior posts in both Finland and China. As well as being a key member of the negotiating team, Nancy will also teach Chinese culture for TCA clients.

Paul Gillis, a former senior partner with Pricewaterhouse Coopers in Beijing, has over 17 years experience negotiating in China as well as teaching negotiation at Guanghua School of Management.

Paul is Professor of Practice and Co-director of the International MBA Program at Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, in Beijing. As well as his experience as a former senior partner with Pricewaterhouse Coopers in Beijing, he is a regular contributor of articles on China to the Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times.

Giles Chance has more than 30 years experience negotiating at the highest levels in China, is a Visiting Professor at two leading Chinese Universities, and is the author of "China and the Credit Crisis – The Emergence of a New World Order".

Giles is also a Visiting Professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, USA, at the Guanghua School of Management, Peking University in Beijing, and at Lingnan College at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou. Since 1990, he has advised many large European companies and foreign portfolio investors on their China strategies, and introduced many foreign technologies to China. As well as being author of “China and the Credit Crisis – The Emergence of a New World Order”, he is also a regular contributor to China Daily and other newspapers including The Financial Times, and is a frequent opinion columnist for The Economic Daily (a leading Chinese business weekly) and China Daily.

Ian Speakman, who has worked for many of the world’s leading companies on their negototiation activties, is a visiting Professor and co-founder of the International Negotiation and Sales Management track at the IÉSEG School of Management in Lille, France.

As an Associate of Cranfield University School of Management, Ian’s primary research interests include Negotiation, Conflict Management, and Behavioural Game Theory in a commercial context. Prior to joining IESEG, Ian worked for 16 years in a number of industries and, for the past decade, has provided consulting and training to a wide range of leading companies including Oracle, BAE SYSTEMS, Rolls Royce, Tetra Pak, Merck Animal Health, Chr Hansen, National Air Traffic Services and the Ministry of Defence. Ian has been a fellow judge with Tim Cullen for the Warsaw Negotiation Round.

Jim Reiman is an American lawyer and alternate dispute resolution mediator and arbitrator who has immense hands-on experience in the private sector in China.

Jim took on the leadership of a failing Chinese retailer of mobile phones and turned a loss-making business into one of the first Chinese companies to be listed on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market and one of the largest retailers of mobile phones in China. In addition to immense experience as a negotiator in China, Europe and the US, Jim has assisted in the turn-around of many businesses and can give hands-on guidance on the intricacies and the cultural challenges of joint ventures.

Jim is a seasoned manager with considerable experience at board level, who blends the discipline of a lawyer with the vision of an entrepreneur to bring invaluable insights to business negotiation.

Roger McCormick was a partner in the international law firm, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, between 1981 and 2003 and a Visiting Professor at London School of Economics between 2004 and 2014.

At Freshfields, he founded and led its International Project Finance Group and he also taught a Master’s course on project finance and public private partnerships at LSE (where he also founded its Law and Financial Markets Project). During his legal career, he has taken a lead role in negotiations of finance and project documentation for many public and private sector clients in many different countries including China.

Roger remains a Visiting Lecturer at LSE and is also the Managing Director of CCP Research Foundation CIC, which he founded with two colleagues (from the LSE Conduct Costs Project) in 2014. (See website at: http://ccpresearchfoundation).

Li Ma is an Associate Professor in Organizational Behaviour at Guanghua School of Management, Peking University who focuses on Chinese cross-cultural negotiations.

He obtained his Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis, and his undergraduate and master’s degrees at Tsinghua University. He has also taught full time at Tsinghua University, and part time at Washington University in St. Louis in the United States and Yonsei University in Korea. He currently holds a visiting appointment at the Dispute Resolution Research Center at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University in the United States. His research papers have been published in both Chinese and international academic journals.

Jane Macartney is a former Beijing correspondent and bureau chief for The Times of London and for Reuters and is a leading expert on China.

Jane’s other postings have included roles as Reuters Bureau chief in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Japan, but most of her career has been in China. A fluent Mandarin speaker, she was a contributor to a book on the 1989 Tiananmen student movement and delivered the 2008 Morrison Lecture at the Australian National University. She is now a freelance writer, based in London.

Johan Myrsten is a former international economics correspondent and foreign business editor of the leading Swedish daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet.

After having focused on European integration in the 1980´s (including a period as the paper´s correspondent in Brussels 1984-85) he turned to economic development in Asia, especially China, and other emerging economies. This has been his main focus from the beginning of the 1990´s onwards. Since the early 1980´s he has also covered Japan and made continuous visits to that country. Johan lives in Stockholm.

Kai Hammerich is a prominent industrialist and businessman, with a background in consulting, government, industry, international organisations, and journalism, who serves on boards of real estate, health care, and energy companies.

As the former President of the Invest in Sweden Agency (ISA), and Executive Vice President of Saab-Scania AB, Kai has devoted much of his career to foreign direct investment and international business. He was President of the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA) in Geneva from 2004 to 2008.

Earlier in his career, Kai was diplomatic correspondent for European affairs, for press, radio and television, based in Brussels, and was also based in Strasbourg at the Council of Europe, where he was head of the Press and Information Department.

Kai holds degrees in Law, Political Science, Economics, and European Affairs, has written extensively on political matters and amongst the honours he has received are Serafimerordens Band (Sweden), and Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Legion d'Honneur.

Ricardo Tavares is a leading international consultant on ICT policy and regulation, with extensive experience in China.

Ricardo is the former Senior Vice President at the GSM Association (GSMA), the international trade association for mobile operators (2004-2010), and, prior to that he held senior positions with Wireless Facilities Inc., in both his native Brazil and in San Diego, California.

He holds a master’s degree in political science from the Rio de Janeiro University Research Institute (Luperj), and completed course work at the Ph.D. level at the University of California, San Diego’s School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS). He also completed the Oxford Programme on Negotiation at the Saïd Business School, at the University of Oxford and is also a member of the Board of Regents of Harris Manchester College, Oxford.

Stephen Perry, Chairman of the 48 Group Club, has been working on China for more than 40 years when he first took over his father’s import/export business.

Stephen’s father was one of the original so-called “Ice-breakers”, who developed business in China in the 1950’s when the country was otherwise isolated from the West. Stephen himself is widely recognised as one of Britain’s leading experts on China.

The 48 Group Club is an independent business network committed to promoting positive links with China. The Club’s history goes back to the early 1950s, when the founding “Icebreakers” were the first Westerners to break through the worldwide trade embargo on China and establish mutually beneficial trade relations with the newly formed People’s Republic of China.