China Finance Forum 2022

After graduating with an International Baccalaureate from the Canadian Academy International School in Kobe in 1989, Yuriko Backes obtained a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1992. She then attended the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, where she successfully completed a master’s degree in Japanese studies in 1993. Yuriko Backes obtained a second master’s degree in European political and administrative studies from the College of Europe in Bruges in 1994.

On 5 January 2022, following the resignation of Pierre Gramegna, Yuriko Backes joined the coalition government between the Democratic Party (DP), the Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party (LSAP) and the Green Party (déi gréng) as Minister of Finance.

Yuriko Backes began her professional career in 1994 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and has held various positions, including at the Permanent Representation of Luxembourg to the United Nations in New York, the Permanent Representation of Luxembourg to the Western European Union in Brussels, and the Luxembourg Embassy in Japan.

As attaché at the Directorate of European Affairs and International Economic Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Luxembourg, she was sworn in as a civil servant in 2001.

The career diplomat was then assigned to the Permanent Representation of Luxembourg to the European Union in Brussels from 2001 to 2006.

She continued her diplomatic career as deputy head of mission at the Luxembourg Embassy in Japan from 2006 to 2008 and as deputy head of the Directorate for International Economic Relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Luxembourg from 2008 to 2010.

From 2010 to 2016, Yuriko Backes was the diplomatic adviser and sherpa to Luxembourg Prime Ministers Jean-Claude Juncker and Xavier Bettel.

She was the representative of the European Commission in Luxembourg from 2016 to 2020.

From June 2020 until her appointment to the government, she served as marshal of the Grand-Ducal Court.

Fred Bergsten is nonresident senior fellow and director emeritus at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, of which he was founding director from its creation in 1981 through 2012. He was the most widely quoted think-tank economist in the world for the eight years such data were compiled and was called “one of the ten people who can change your life” by USA Today. Dr. Bergsten was assistant secretary for international affairs of the US Treasury (1977–81), functioned as undersecretary for monetary affairs (1980–81, including as G-5 deputy and G-7 sherpa) and was assistant for international economic affairs to Dr. Henry Kissinger at the National Security Council (1969–71). He was appointed by President Obama to the Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations in 2010 and 2014 and reappointed by President Trump in 2018. He is a member of the board of directors of the Peterson Institute, the Center for Global Development, and the Trilateral Commission.

Dr. Bergsten was chairman of the Competitiveness Policy Council, created by the US Congress, from 1991 to 1995. He was chairman of the APEC Eminent Persons Group from 1993 to 1995, writing its three reports that proposed the creation of “free and open trade and investment in the Asia Pacific region” as adopted by the first two APEC summits and endorsed by all subsequent summits and now being partially implemented via the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

He is the author, coauthor, or editor of 47 books on a wide range of international economic issues including The United States vs. China: The Quest for Global Economic Leadership (Polity Books, 2022).

Dr. Bergsten has received the Meritorious Honor Award of the Department of State (1965), Exceptional Service Award of the US Treasury Department (1981), the Legion d’Honneur from the Government of France (1985), an honorary fellowship in the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (1997), the Distinguished Alumni Leadership Award from the Fletcher School (2010), the Order of the Polar Star from the Government of Sweden (2013), the World Trade Award of the National Foreign Trade Council (2013), the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2014), Swedish American of the Year for 2014, and the First Class of the Order of Diplomatic Service Merit “Gwanghwa Medal” of the Republic of Korea (2017). He was elected to the American Academy of Diplomacy (2018).

Judith Bogner is a television presenter, event facilitator and commentator for international finance, business and geopolitics based between the UK and Germany. For more than ten years she was one of the main European anchors of the financial news channel Bloomberg Global Television in London. Since 2012 Judith runs her own business, offering event and business facilitation, client advisory boards and strategic consulting. She is also a UK accredited mediator.

Judith regularly leads public and private events for corporate and institutional clients in the financial sector and beyond. Her list of clients include the Federation of German Industries, the Euro Finance Week (Frankfurt), Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Bank of New York Mellon, The Brewers of Europe, Luxembourg for Finance, the Dutch Development Bank FMO, Ergo Insurance, State Street, Scope Ratings, the Institute of Culinary Art, Allianz Global Assistance, Wacom and the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Born in Germany, Judith has lived in Switzerland, China, Ukraine, France and Italy. She is bilingual in English-German and also speaks Italian, French and Mandarin Chinese. Judith holds a degree in International Business Management and Chinese from the University of Applied Sciences in Bremen.

Frederic Azemard is a Managing Partner at TR Capital. He joined the firm in 2012 and focuses on deal screening, quantitative analysis, due diligence, deal monitoring and exit of transactions. Mr. Azemard is a board member of a number of TR Capital’s investee companies. Mr. Azemard began his career at Bain & Co. in Los Angeles. In 2005, he joined Electra Partners in Europe, before becoming the CEO of Sunnco GC. Mr. Azemard is also a former Officer of the French Navy.

Mr. Azemard holds a Master in Electrical Engineering from UCLA, and graduated from Ecole Polytechnique and ENST.

Marc-André Bechet is Deputy Director General of ALFI, the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry.

He joined the association in September 2014, initially as Director Legal & Tax. He was elected Deputy Director General in 2019.

Before joining ALFI, Marc-André Bechet was Head of the Investment Funds Services at Banque Degroof Luxembourg, responsible for fund administration and custody. He was also a member of Banque Degroof’s Management Board.

Prior to joining Banque Degroof, Marc-André Bechet worked for 18 years at RBC Investor Services Bank S.A. in Luxembourg, where he held various senior positions including Head of Custody and Network Management, and Head of Business Development and Relationship Management, Legal and Compliance.

Mr. Bechet holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Ottawa (Canada) and a Master’s degree in Finance from the French business school ESCP in Paris. He speaks English, French, German and Luxembourgish.

Julie Becker has been at the helm of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE) since April 2021. She joined LuxSE in 2013 and was appointed to its Executive Committee in 2015, before being named Deputy CEO in 2019, and CEO two years later.

Her career in the financial sector in Luxembourg spans over two decades and includes positions at the Central Bank of Luxembourg and Dexia. In 2016, Julie Becker founded the Luxembourg Green Exchange (LGX), the world’s leading platform for sustainable securities. A recognised expert in the field of sustainable finance, Julie Becker has represented LuxSE and LGX at numerous, international expert forums and conferences over the past years, including the EU High-Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance from 2017 to 2019 and the United Nations High-Level Dialogue on Financing for Development in 2023.

Julie Becker is a member of the board of directors of several Luxembourg-based financial industry associations and the Chairwoman of LuxCMA, a capital markets industry association established in 2019. She was awarded The inventor” by Global Landscape as part of their campaign “16 Women Restoring the Earth” in 2019 and was named the “Most Influential Economic Decision Maker in Luxembourg” in the 2022 edition of the Paperjam Top 100.

Julie Becker played a crucial role in the founding of the Luxembourg Women in Finance Charter. She is a member of the Luxembourg Gender Finance Task Force, launched in 2023, and the EIB’s Women Climate Leaders Network, launched in 2024. She was appointed as a member of the University of Luxembourg’s Board of Governors in 2023.

Julie Becker specialises in regulatory and legal matters linked to capital markets. She holds a Master’s Degree in European & Comparative Law and a Master’s Degree (DEA) in Private Law from the University of Nancy II, France. She is also an alumna of the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania, USA.

David Guo is China CEO of Schroders, responsible for the Group’s business development across all channels in mainland China, including institutional, intermediary and other corporate developments in the country such as the company’s joint venture asset management firm in Shanghai.

David was the Director of China at AllianceBernstein before joining Schroders in 2010. Prior to that, he was the Head of MSCI Barra China, which he helped to establish in 2005. At that time, he led the business development efforts for MSCI indices and Barra analytics and serviced SSF to build up its risk management infrastructure. He was previously the Chief Representative for HSBC Asset Management in China David also provided counsel to industry organizations, such as the Asia Development Bank.

He was a member of the foreign consultation panel for the regulation of the Enterprise Annuity by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (now the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security) in China.

David is a Member of the International Partners Committee of AMAC and the International Expert Advisory Committee of IAMAC. David holds a master’s degree in international finance from the Graduate School of the People’s Bank of China, and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Peking University.

Chris Hollifield is head of business development at Luxembourg for Finance, where his work involves advising FinTech and financial companies looking to develop cross-border activity through Luxembourg-based platforms. He also advises on the development of the ecosystem in Luxembourg and on synergy creation with other key financial centres, with a focus on East Asia.

Prior to working at Luxembourg for Finance, Chris worked in the strategy department of Clearstream Banking SA, an International Central Securities Depository that facilitates the settlement of interbank transactions in over 50 markets worldwide. Here, his work focused particularly on strategic projects concerning distributed ledger technology and other FinTech topics.

Stephane Karolczuk is a Partner of Arendt & Medernach and the Head of the Hong Kong office. Stephane advises clients based in the Asia Pacific region regarding their European projects and their Luxembourg legal and regulatory questions.

As Partner in the Investment Management practice, Stephane advises international clients on all issues relating to Luxembourg investment funds (UCITS or other vehicles) including the structuring, setting-up and marketing of these funds (under UCITS or AIFMD), as well as strategies involving investments in the Asia Pacific region and questions relating to the distribution of funds in the region.

Stephane also specialises in questions relating to the internationalisation of the RMB and the opening of the PRC capital markets (QFII, RQFII, Stock Connect, QDII, QDII2, QDIE, QDLP, etc.) from a Luxembourg perspective.

In 2008, Stephane was seconded to Arendt & Medernach’s representative office in New York with a view to developing an Investment Management Helpdesk advising US clients in relation to Luxembourg investment funds questions.

Stephane has taken part in the activities of the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI), the Hong Kong Investment Funds Association (HKIFA), the Hong Kong Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (HKVCA) and he is regularly invited to speak on Luxembourg funds related topics at conferences in the region.

Stephane graduated from the University of Brussels (Belgium) and the University of Ghent (Belgium). He is admitted to practice in Hong Kong as a Registered Foreign Lawyer, as well as in Luxembourg and Brussels.

Languages: English, French, Dutch and basic knowledge of Mandarin.

Rita Liao has been covering Asia tech at TechCrunch since 2018, with a focus on Chinese companies going global and how web3 is unfolding in the region.

She was an editor for Attention Factory: The Story of TikTok and China’s ByteDance, a book about the rise of TikTok that has been translated into over 10 languages. Before her previous writing stints with Tech in Asia and TechNode, Rita managed marketing and communications for the Asia-based accelerators of SOSV, a global venture capital firm with more than $1.3 billion in assets under management. At one point, she worked for a documentary production house and a mindfulness retreat center in New England.

She studied political science and visual arts at Bowdoin College.

Mr. Lin is the Head of Overseas Non-Bank Institutions Division at CCB’s International Business Department. His job responsibilities include assisting overseas non-bank institution clients in expanding investments in China’s capital market, building long-term relationships with key clients, and coordination across different business lines to facilitate all aspects of clients’ financial needs. During his 20 years at CCB, Mr. Lin has spent most of his career in the area of international business covering overseas strategic planning, forex and FTP management, and FIs, etc.

Before taking up his current position in 2021, Mr. Lin was responsible for formulating CCB’s overseas strategy, carrying out tasks related to establishing overseas branches and subsidiaries, and overseeing European and African institutions at the head office level. CCB’s international presence had doubled to thirty-one countries and regions with overseas banking assets standing at approximately USD 246 billion at the end of his term. Before 2011, Mr. Lin had served the bank with various job positions at the branch and head office level, involving risk management, foreign currency denominated ALM, and business analysis, etc.

Mr. Lin has obtained a master degree in Finance and bachelor degree in Information Systems and Decision Science from E.J. Ourso College of Business Administration, Louisiana State University.

Nicolas Mackel is CEO of Luxembourg for Finance, the Agency for the Development of the Financial Centre, since July 2013.

Nicolas is a career diplomat. He has graduated with a law degree from the University of Aix-en-Provence, and holds two post-graduate diplomas in European law from the Sorbonne University, respectively the College of Europe in Bruges where he then also served as a teaching assistant in the Law Department. He worked as a legal clerk at the European Court of Justice before joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1999. His assignments focused on the successive EU Treaty negotiations (Amsterdam, Nice, Constitution, Lisbon).

Nicolas was consecutively posted at Luxembourg’s Permanent Representation to the EU (2002-07), as Deputy Chief of Mission at Luxembourg’s Embassy in Washington DC (2007-11) and as Consul General in Shanghai (2011-13) where he was in charge of promoting Luxembourg’s economic interests throughout China as the Executive Director of the Luxembourg Trade and Investment Office.

Frederic Neumann, PhD, is Managing Director, Chief Asia Economist, and Co-Head Global Research Asia, based in Hong Kong.

Before joining HSBC in 2006, Frederic was an adjunct professor at a number of US universities, including Johns Hopkins University, teaching graduate courses on Asian sovereign risk analysis, financial markets, monetary policy, and Southeast Asian political culture. He also served as a consultant to international organizations and governments, and as a research associate of the Institute for International Economics in Washington, DC.

A former Fulbright scholar, Frederic holds a PhD in International economics and Asian Studies.

Professor Yao Wang is the Director General of International Institute of Green Finance (IIGF). She also serves as Deputy Secretary General of Green Finance Committee (GFC) of the China Society for Finance and Banking, as Secretary General of the Green Securities Committee (GSC) of the Securities Association of China, as fellow at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), as advisor to the Sustainable Finance Programme at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford and as consultant for the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. She was awarded by Asiamoney China Green Finance Awards 2019 “the Outstanding Contribution to Development of Green Finance in China”.

Prof. Wang worked in investment banks for 7 years, before she became a faculty of Central University of Finance and Economics(CUFE) in 2006.She did her post-doctorate at Bank of Beijing from 2008 to 2010. From 2010 to 2011 she was a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University. Professor Wang is interested in Green Economy, Sustainable Finance, Climate Finance and Green Finance. She is the author of several publications on climate finance and green finance, such as Carbon Finance: Global Vision and Distribution in China (China Economic Publishing House, 2010), and Climate Finance (China Economic Publishing House, 2013).

Dr. Huiyao (Henry) Wang is the Founder and President of Center for China and Globalization (CCG), the leading Chinese non-governmental think tank that ranked 64th worldwide; In addition, he is Vice Chairman of China Association for International Economic Cooperation under Ministry of Commerce; a Director of Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs, a Director of China National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation and the Dean of Institute of Development Studies of Southwestern University of Finance and Economics of China. Currently, he is a Steering Committee Member of the Paris Peace Forum and Metropolis International and also sits on the Advisory Board of Duke Kunshan University and Richard Ivey Business School.

Dr. Wang pursued his PhD studies at University of Western Ontario and University of Manchester. He was a Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, a Visiting Fellow of Brookings Institute. He was once in charge of Chinese companies going global at the then Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation in the early 1980s ; After PhD studies, he worked as Chief Trade Representative for the Quebec Government Office in Hong Kong and Greater China, Managing Director of Asia at SNC-Lavalin, and Vice President at AMEC-AGRA in Canada and an expert for World Bank, IOM and ILO. He has published nearly 100 books in both Chinese and English on global trade and investment, global relations, global governance, global migration etc.

Jörg Wuttke is Chief Representative of BASF China, based in Beijing. Mr. Wuttke is President of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China – an office he already held from 2007 to 2010 and from 2014 to 2017. Mr. Wuttke is a member of the Advisory Board of the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) in Berlin.

He has lived in Beijing for more than three decades.

Ms. YIN Hong, PhD in Economics, Deputy General Director of Morden Finance Research Institute of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Deputy Secretary General of Green Finance Committee in China Society for Finance and Banking, Deputy Secretary General of China Morden Financial Society. She is in charge of research on financial theory and practice of commercial banks, green finance, economic circulation and development, credit risk, social environmental risks, etc.. With 16 years of experience in credit and investment management, she is an excellent expert on credit policy, process design and risk management，especially in terms of personal consumption credit, real estate credit and SME credit.

In recent years, she makes an effort on green finance research,such as the stress test of environmental factor`s effect on commercial bank`s credit risk, ESG rating and green index, these researches are seen as world leading. She takes the lead in writing books of green finance, such as “The Case Study of Chinese Green Finance Development” and “The Case Study of International Green Finance development” etc.

She devotes herself to the China-UK environmental information disclosure pilot project and works as the head of Chinese side, her team has established and implement the framework of information disclosure of environmental institutions. She is also the leader of the first working group(WG1) of the “Belt and Road” Green Investment Principles(GIP).