Dr. Albert S. Lai Co-Chairman
Dr. Lai is CEO of the Asia System Media (ASM) Group with offices in Beijing and Los Angeles. Dr. Lai was born and educated in Taiwan, later pursuing graduate studies at the University of California and the San Francisco Theological Seminary where he received a Doctorate in Social Psychology.
His business connections with China date from 1975, three years after Richard Nixon's historic visit, when he set up an import/export company. As China entered its Cultural Revolutionary period, he turned his attention to his next venture, the Maytai Company, focused on providing market analysis and planning, advertising and promotional support to Taiwanese companies in their entry into US markets.
His clients included the very largest Taiwan companies of the time: Evergreen, Wei Chuen, President, Kleenex and HCG, among others. Dr. Lai also began offering translation and corporate communication services to major US corporations for their Asian business needs. These included such diverse organizations as General Electric, Ford, Hughes, AT+T, the J. Paul Getty Trust, the National Football League, UCLA and the US Departments of Health, Commerce and Agriculture.
In 1985, Dr. Lai established Asia System Media (China) where its first publication was The Official Guide to American Business & Industry, which was sanctioned by the Chinese government and distributed to 20,000 high government officials and industry leaders. General Alexander M. Haig served as special advisor to ASM for these purposes and President Richard Nixon wrote a letter in the frontispiece.
Dr. Lai and ASM are best known in the US for publishing the Chinese Yellow Pages which is distributed to virtually every Chinese household and business in North America. He served as Chairman of ASM from its founding in1981 until 2002. During this time, under license from ABC Publications and the Los Angeles Organizing Committee, Dr. Lai published The Official Olympic Guide of Los Angeles 1984 in foreign languages, including Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese.
Through special arrangements and coordination with high government officials, Dr. Lai published a number of books with important international political and economic messages.
Dr. Lai is a member of the prestigious National Committee on United States-China Relations, the organization which initiated the Chinese ping-pong team's visit to the United States and later opened the door to US businesses in China.
For the past ten years, Dr. Lai has concentrated on building his consulting, media, education and travel services business under the ASM Group and his flagship Chinese Business World www.cbw.com . ASM's central mission is assisting foreign companies and businessmen in the development of strategy and implementation of plans in China.
Joseph V. Donahue Founder and Vice-Chairman
Joseph V. Donahue is a founding director of China Gateway Capital Corporation, a Beijing headquartered Merger and Acquisitions firm specializing in taking Chinese companies public on international stock exchanges.
Mr. Donahue also serves on the board of directors and is an owner of ASM Overseas Corporation with Dr. Albert Lai which is a Beijing headquartered firm offering services in trade consulting, media, education and travel with a central theme of assisting foreign companies and their employees in facilitating and adjusting to business and life in China. ASM's portals are well known, such as www.ChineseBusinessWorld.com ; www.ChinaTradeShows.com ; www.ChinaCantonFair.com www.expatsinchina.com ; www.EmbassiesInChina.com ; www.ChineseEMarketPlace.com ; and www.ChinaTravelCenter.com.
Mr. Donahue is a director of PanAm Development Corporation (PDC), a Panamanian holding company founded by Eduardo Vallarino; engaged in real estate development, telecommunications, chemical manufacturing, hydroelectric power generation and free trade zone businesses in Panama. The Chairman of PDC is a former President of the Republic of Panama and Vice President of The World Bank who just completed the official Economic Impact Study for the widening of the Panama Canal.
From 1981 to 1993 Mr. Donahue was the Managing Director of mergers and acquisitions at Sterling & Company, Inc. of Los Angeles an International Investment Banking firm. He was responsible for initiating the first private buyout of a major publicly-traded life insurance company. While at Sterling & Company, Mr. Donahue completed numerous transactions with public and private companies involving many Fortune 500 and New York Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange companies.
Mr. Donahue studied at the University of Mexico and graduated with a B.A. from the University of California. Mr. Donahue maintains residences in Beijing and Connecticut.
Nicolas Ardito-Barletta; Director and Chairman of Advisory Board
Dr. Ardito-Barletta is a well recognized public figure in the Republic of Panama having been elected the Constitutional President of the country in 1984-85 and Minister of Planning and Economic Policy, Chairman of the Banking Commission and Negotiator of the Economic Aspects of Panama's Canal Treaties.
Internationally he was World Bank Vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean, General Director of the International center for Economic Growth (ICEG), Director of the Department of Economic Affairs of the Organization of American States and Founder and First Chairman of the Latin American Export Bank (BLADEX BLX:NYSE).
Dr. Ardito-Barletta is Doctor Honoree of the University of Guadalajara. He was decorated with the Grand Cruz de Boyaca, Colombia; the Order del Aquila Azteca, Mexico; the Order del Sol, Peru; and the Gold Insigne of the Panamerican Society in New York. He has been a frequent speaker on economic issues at universities such as: Yale, Stanford, Chicago, Georgetown, and others and at banking economic and private business conferences in the Western hemisphere and Europe.
His education includes: Ph.D., Economics, University of Chicago; M.S., Agricultural Economics, North Carolina State University; B.S., Agricultural Engineering, North Carolina State University.
Ye Jianmin, Director
Ye Jianmin is probably the most experienced person in China in the development and operation of trade centers around the world. He has served as Deputy General Manager of the Chinamex Exhibition Center (Dragon Mart) in Dubai, as Vice President of the Chinamex Investment Center and one of the main organizers of the annual Chinese Commodities Fair in Sharjah. The fair attracts close to 50,000 visitors from over 50 countries.
Prior to his experience in the Middle East, Mr. Ye worked for twelve years in Hong Kong for Zhongjia Holding HK Group as Director and General Manager and for Amson Development Ltd. as Director and General Manager. During the 1980's, he served with the China Foreign Trade Development Corp as GM and Deputy Director as well as Deputy General Manager of the China Trade Development Exhibition Center.
He has also had program officer responsibilities at the Ministry of Foreign Trade in personnel training. Mr. Ye has taught courses and lectured at the China Business Trade University (Beijing). He obtained his degree from the Shanghai Fudan University Foreign Language Department with a major in English. He has developed teaching materials in English for the United Nations in the areas of Exportation Procedures and Commercial Secretary training.
Mr. Ye is a highly respected member of a group of prominent Chinese executives having extensive experience in foreign trade matters.
John R. Nelson, Director
John R. Nelson has held senior positions in international banking and corporate management, corporate finance and international trade and investment advisory services.
Mr. Nelson spent the first twelve years of his career with Citicorp, five of which as the head of Citibank's Scandinavian area, headquartered in London where he was responsible for all corporate, bank and government sectors in the Nordic region. Mr. Nelson's career with Citicorp also included positions in the investment banking division, during which he held responsibilities for those products in certain Central and South American counties, including Panama.
From 1977 to 1979, he headed the New York office of Scandinavian Bank Limited, a London merchant bank. In 1979, he was recruited by Nordic American Banking Corporation, New York, to be its President and CEO where he served for eleven years. Nordic American was a $1 billion+ merchant bank owned equally by four leading banks in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.
While in New York, Mr. Nelson was elected Chairman of the Finnish and Norwegian chambers of commerce and Chairman of the American Scandinavian Foundation, a national cultural and educational organization.
In recent years, he manages his own firm providing advisory services for corporate clients with a concentration on international trade and investment. Mr. Nelson is a director of BioPrint AS, Oslo, Norway and a founding director of China Gateway Capital Corporation.
He holds a Bachelor's degree in Journalism from Northwestern University, a Master's degree in International Affairs from the University of Denver and a Bachelor of Foreign Trade from the American Graduate School of International Management.
