Dr Matt Baker is a Scientia Research Fellow in the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences at UNSW Sydney. Matt was a Delegate at ACYD in 2015 in Brisbane and has chaired panels in Research Partnerships at ACYD in 2017 and 2018.

Matt completed a DPhil in Biophysics at Oxford University as a John Monash Scholar studying the bacterial flagellar motor that makes bacteria swim. His research now focusses on investigates the evolutionary origins and self-assembly of molecular machines. He has active research collaborations at Beida, Tsinghua and SUSTech.

Matt has a love of radio: in 2015 he was a Top 5 Under 40 Scientist in Residence at the ABC, and he has produced content for Radio National's Health Report, Science Show, Saturday Extra, and Earshot. He was also embedded at the Sydney Morning Herald as the Google News Initiative Fellow in 2016.

Matt has fenced internationally for some time, he represented Australia at the 2014 Commonwealth Fencing Championships in Scotland in 2014 (CFC2014), switched sides to represent New Zealand in CFC2018 and hopes to represent New Zealand in fencing in Hangzhou at the Asian Games in 2022.

David Bennett is IP Australia’s first Intellectual Property Counsellor to China, based at the Australian Embassy, Beijing. He helps Australians to protect their intellectual property in China, in particular by providing information and guidance on the realities of IP registration and enforcement, which often differ from people’s expectations. He also supports the Australian government’s engagement with China on IP matters.

David has worked in IP Australia’s international, domestic, and trade policy sections, as well as in the private sector. He is a registered Trade Marks Attorney and former biotechnology patent examiner, with a technical background in molecular biology. He has worked and studied in the USA, Japan, Australia and China, and he participated in the Australia-China Youth Dialogue in 2016. David enjoys exploring Beijing, particularly the hutongs and the growing craft beer scene.

Mark Chan

Mark Chan 陈兴万 is the Founder and Principal of the Consseau Institute 孔梭学院. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, the Consseau Institute is one of China’s leading specialist international education service providers, focusing on the design, teaching, organization and management of English Debating & Public Speaking training programs and tournaments. Partnering with high schools like Ningbo Foreign Language School and universities like Zhejiang University, the Consseau Institute has a presence across China from cities like Hangzhou, Ningbo, Guangzhou to Chengdu, and has also created one of China’s most popular online debating and public speaking training platforms.

Prior to establishing the Consseau Institute, Mark was the Head of Risk – Asia, Sales & Project Finance, Global Growth & Operations at General Electric Corporation. With a banking & finance career spanning 10 years working in Sydney and Hong Kong, Mark had significant experience working on Private Equity, Leveraged Finance, Project Finance, Structured Asset Finance and Cross-Border Structured Debt deals, with a cumulative transaction value of USD 120 billion. Prior to working at GE, Mark began his career at ANZ in their Investment Banking division.

In Australia and in Hong Kong, Mark was heavily involved with the Liberal Party. Most recently, he was the Chairman of Australian Liberals Abroad (Hong Kong) branch, and was previously a Vice-President of the NSW Young Liberals. His interest in politics first started whilst he was studying at the University of Sydney, where he was the Vice-President, Board of Directors of the University of Sydney Union.

Mark was born in Malaysia and migrated to Sydney when he was 5 years old. He was educated at St. Aloysius’ College, Sydney and has a Masters of Accounting from Macquarie University and a Bachelor of Economics form the University of Sydney. He spent 10 months studying Chinese at Zhejiang University after arriving in China in 2015.

Mark was an ACYD delegate in 2014.

Cindy Gottinger is the client lead at Google responsible for increasing marketing efficiency and effectiveness of large MNC in China. Recognised by the technology industry as a young leader in her field, Cindy possesses an appetite to explore new markets and gain deeper insights into the evolving trends of Chinese consumers. 

With over fifteen years involvement in the Australia China community, Cindy continues to be an active participant both in Australia and China. She is currently the Executive Director of Australia China Young Professional Initiative (ACYPI) in Greater China where she successfully established a platform for young professionals to engage in bilateral discussions and exchange.

As an experienced presenter fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese and German, Cindy is frequently invited to emcee and moderate a variety of business and community events both in Australia and China including most recently Australia China Alumni Awards in 2014 and 2015. 

Before joining Google, Cindy was a brand manager at Volkswagen Group China where she was responsible for building the brand Skoda for Chinese consumers. Before moving to Beijing, Cindy was an international business development manager at China Radio International, where she managed the expansion of Chinese media properties both domestically and abroad. Cindy has also worked in the Private Wealth Management division at Goldman Sachs JB Were.

Cindy graduated from Monash University in Australia with a Bachelor of Commerce and Arts majoring in economics, Chinese and German.

Tash Jamieson is the Global Founders Program Manager at the University of New South Wales, helping established startups with their international ambitions.

She has previously worked in Strategic Policy at the Australian Department of Defence, was the inaugural China Alumni Engagement Manager for the Australian Embassy, Beijing, and worked for the and China Australia Chamber of Commerce.

After graduating from a BA in International Studies from RMIT in 2011, Tash completed a Masters in International Relations at Tsinghua University. Whilst completing her thesis, Tash received a scholarship from the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network and UNHRC to undertake studies in Thailand on refugees and statelessness, and interned at the UNDP in Beijing.

Tash is the International Youth Representative for Tall Ships Australia and New Zealand, and is a qualified group fitness instructor. Tash has also performed as a professional musician in both Melbourne, Sydney and Beijing, and recorded vocals for Chinese director Jiang Wen’s box-office film Gone with the Bullets (一步之遥).

Christopher Kong

Christopher Kong is Director, Data/Digital Transformation & Insight at Danone Nutricia China. He leads the company’s endeavours to leverage technology & analytics to become more consumer-centric, results-focused & data-driven. Before joining Danone, he advised 30 multinational Consumer Packaged Goods companies at Nielsen China. He previously held leadership positions at Cadbury / Kraft, where he navigated a turnaround business in China to achieve its first year of profitability, and launched a new brand.

Christopher’s background is in Economics & Law, having earned a BCom / LLB (Hons) from the University of Melbourne. He has participated in the Executive Leadership Program at IMD Business School, and is a qualified Chartered Financial Analyst.

In his spare time, Christopher volunteers for Bloom Education, mentoring youth to discover & leverage their strengths.

Clive Lee

Former CEO of Yidan Prize Foundation, a philanthropic foundation established by the founder of Tencent to give the world’s largest education prizes. A senior executive with rich experience in corporate and social sectors, covering philanthropy, corporate social responsibility, foundation, NGO, social entrepreneurship and public relations. Founding Presidents of three international youth organizations including GEILI, a global alliance of youth organizations, DragoNation, a global network of young Chinese professionals and Envision Hong Kong, a social enterprise for providing mentorship programme for underprivileged youth. Currently studying EMBA Global Asia in the Columbia Business School, London Business School and the University of Hong Kong Business School while developing his FinTech venture.

Clive was an ACYD delegate in 2012.

Michael is a senior strategy manager at Tencent, responsible for devising and executing strategic initiatives for Tencent’s Online Media business group, including, but not limited to, content and IP strategy, product strategy and internationalisation. Prior to joining Tencent, Michael was a Project Director at Pingan backed real estate services platform start-up Haofang, based in Shanghai, where he lead the Rental Properties BU and the Overseas Properties BU.

Michael was born in Beijing and later immigrated to Australia where he completed his studies and joined global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, during which he travelled extensively across Asia, Europe and Africa, and worked across a whole range of industries ranging from traditional manufacturing and resources, to TMT and high-tech.

Having experienced first hand the social, economic and technological forces which have transformed China over the past few decades, Michael is passionate about how China will contribute to the region and to the world, the role that technology will play in the future of bilateral and multilateral relations, and promoting cross-border entrepreneurship.

Yen Tan

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Yen developed strong ties to Australia whilst travelling around the country on a working holiday visa at the age of 20.  She went back to Hong Kong to finish university and later joined Morgan Stanley, helping clients in China and Southeast Asia raise capital via overseas listings and mergers.

Yen migrated to Sydney in 2012 and later became an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs Australia.  She provides business intelligence on financial services, consumer retail, technology and natural resources as well as contributing to some of the largest cross-border mandates.

With her broad set of skills, cultural sensitivity and exposure to different markets, she wanted to promote Australia-China economic and cultural exchange via the Australia-China Youth Dialogue (ACYD).  Yen was selected as a Chinese Delegate in 2017 and became the Alumni Country Head (Australia) in 2019.

Following the growing opportunities in Asia, Yen has recently returned to Hong Kong as Regional Director, Trade & Investment (Hong Kong, Macau and South China, Invest Northern Ireland) at the British Consulate-General in Hong Kong.  In her new role, she is responsible for developing market strategy and partnerships to secure trade and investment in the region.

Elva (Jing) Zhang / 张晶

Formally an international student from China, Elva is an Australian-qualified lawyer with a Master of Laws (in International Economic Law) from Geneva, Switzerland.  With a demonstrated history of working in the maritime industry and international trade, she is highly skilled in dealing with cross-border transactions and international dispute resolution.  She currently works as a Corporate Counsel in a Melbourne-based global shipping company directly with the General Counsel, the senior management team as well as colleagues from other jurisdictions such as France, Singapore and China. 

Apart from being a shipping lawyer, Elva is the founder of Peace Lab (www.peacelab.com.au), which curates and facilitates experiential and fun workshops that synthesise ancient Eastern philosophies (such as Chinese Taoism and Zen) and contemporary Western science (such as neuroplasticity) as a unique agent for cultivating well-being and greater human potential.  Peace Lab was essentially born out of Elva’s own journey of dealing with stress, anxiety and negative self-talk, initially as an international student studying in a foreign country and then as a lawyer working in highly stressful jobs.

A long-term meditator, trained in laughter yoga and passionate about neuroplasticity, Elva is committed to sharing the power of mind and brain for positive change from inside out, as she weaves mindfulness, meditation, play and laughter into Peace Lab programme.

As a practising lawyer, Elva thrives in working with high performing individuals and organisations, such as Melbourne Law School, Law Institute of Victoria and Australia-China Youth Dialogue and enjoys helping create sustainable success both individually and collectively.  It is Elva’s strong belief that well-being is the precursor to success, not the other way around.

Although Elva used to be “so” serious (about career and life), nowadays she feels lucky to be a “Laughing Zen Lawyer”, whereby she finds the balance between her passion for law and her love for creating positive human experience through Peace Lab.