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.

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.

Ning Wang took up her post as a director of TCA in September 2015. She is a key member of the management team as the company’s senior Chinese-speaking executive.

She is also deputy CEO of TCA’s sister company, TCA Nordic AB, in Malmö, Sweden, with responsibility for Scandinavian countries. Ning has extensive experience helping Nordic municipalities and SMEs to establish government and business relationships in China. She has travelled throughout China, helping Swedish business people and others with their negotiations and relations with their Chinese counterparts and has also accompanied Chinese business executives traveling throughout Europe. Ning grew up in China where she completed her undergraduate studies and worked as a business writer. In 2005, she was selected by the Norwegian Peace Corps to undertake an eight-month exchange programme with an NGO in Bangladesh. In 2006, Ning won a scholarship to pursue a master’s degree in Sweden. She conducted the research for her thesis as a visiting student at Oxford University’s Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies. On completion of her degree, she joined Handelskammaren Värmland, one of Sweden’s leading chambers of commerce, and set up its China Desk to help the region’s SMEs to establish business contacts in China. She subsequently worked for the Swedish arm of a major Finnish technology and production lines company, where she helped to strengthen the company’s business relations and negotiations in China. She has also played an important role in running both the Oxford Programme on Negotiation and the Small Countries Financial Management Programme. In 2018 she was appointed to be a Tutor on the Oxford Programme on Negotiation and has carried out this role for Oxford University in programmes in Oxford and in Thailand. Ning is a Swedish citizen.

Ning Wang, Director, has extensive experience of doing business in China, having worked for an export company, as a business reporter, and having travelled throughout the country advising Swedish business people and others on their negotiations and relations with their Chinese counterpart.

Ning grew up in China where she was a leading journalist at China Economic Times. In 2005, she was selected by the Norwegian Peace Corps to undertake an eight-month environmental reporting exchange with a news agency in Bangladesh, and the following year, in recognition for an article she wrote from Bangladesh,she was awarded a travel grant from the World Water Council and the Asian Development Bank to cover the Fourth World Water Forum in Mexico City.

In 2006, Ningwon a scholarship to pursue a Master’s degree at Örebro University. On completion of her degree, she decided to stay in Sweden and established the China Desk at one of Sweden’s leading chambers of commerce.Shesubsequently worked for a large manufacturing company where she played a key role in strengthening its business relations and negotiations in China.

Ning, who is now a Swedish citizen, is the lead Chinese member of TCA’s negotiation advisory teams, and is also a licensed cross-cultural teacher, having been trained by Michael Gates (who is also a negotiator for TCA and a fellow board member). She has also played an important role in running both the Oxford Programme on Negotiation and the Small Countries Financial Management Programme.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.