Keynote Speaker
A China expert and global business executive who has spent his career bridging the gap between the developed and developing worlds, Thomas Manning has served as CEO of four Asia-based companies in the past fifteen years and brings a unique and powerful perspective to global business strategy discussions.
Thomas Manning'S SPEAKING FEE $25K - $40K
Manning lead the Asia business of Cerberus Capital Management as CEO of Cerberus Asia Operations & Advisory Limited and is currently Lecturer in Law at The University of Chicago Law School. Formerly, he served as the CEO of Indachin, CEO of Capgemini Asia, CEO of Ernst & Young Consulting Asia. He was also a Partner with Bain & Company and member of their China board. Earlier in his career, he was with McKinsey & Company and CSC Index. A board director of several public companies in China, he recently completed six years as a board director of China’s fifth-largest bank, Bank of Communications, and continues to serve as a director of China’s leading telecom software company, AsiaInfo-Linkage Holdings, a director of China’s largest retailer, Gome Electrical Appliances, and a director of one of China’s largest IT companies, iSoftStone. He served until recently as an advisor to the World Economic Forum on its Global Agenda for China. He continues as a founding director of the Chicago-China Development Corporation and the founder of The US-China 2025 Project. He is a graduate of Harvard and Stanford, speaks Mandarin, and lives in China—but travels frequently to the US and Europe.
Wise CEOs are watching China carefully, knowing that the China factor could determine the success or failure of their companies in the years ahead. The initial strategy of simply being there is no longer enough. Now, companies need a more nuanced strategy in order to penetrate secondary cities and market segments and to tap China’s vast potential for innovation. Tom Manning challenges the conventional approach, provokes awareness of new techniques, and suggests how every Board and executive team can take their game to the next level, deepening their plan for China and integrating it with their global strategy.
Many of the factors behind Silicon Valley’s rise are now evident in China in places like Haidian, the high-tech district of Beijing. Will China claim its historical role as inventor par excellence? Under-estimating the possibility of China’s ability to innovate could be catastrophic to U.S. competitiveness. Over-estimation will drive paranoia and protectionism. Tom Manning offers a new interpretation of global innovation with China at the epicenter.
In the past decade, the world beat a path to China, but in the decade to come, Chinese companies will increasingly move in the opposite direction, globalizing their operations and acquiring foreign companies. What will this mean to the world’s most important industries? Tom Manning forecasts the competitive impact of this seminal change.
Global corporations and investment firms are putting more investment into China than any other country in the world, and yet, supervision of their investments remains very weak. Most companies short-shrift supervision just when they need it most, and as a result, the list of failed ventures is growing. One of the first Americans to serve on the boards of the largest public Chinese companies, Tom Manning sums up the state of the boardroom in China and the discipline required by corporate investors and private equity firms who want to avoid unfortunate surprises.
The relationship between the US and China is healthy but requires more vision and leadership. Without a framework for cooperation across a myriad of critical issues, both countries run the risk of a sudden falling out. Tom Manning identifies the future scenarios most likely to challenge the relationship between now and 2025.
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