Dr. Pitman B. Potter
Pitman Potter is a Professor of Law at the University of British Columbia’s Law Faculty and HSBC Chair in Asian Research at the Institute of Asian Research. Dr. Potter’s teaching and research are focused on the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan law and policy in the areas of trade, investment, dispute resolution, intellectual property, contracts, business regulation, and human rights. He is currently the Program Director for the Major Collaborative Research Initiative (MCRI) – Asia Pacific Dispute Resolution program. Dr. Potter serves on the editorial boards of several international scholarly journals, including The China Quarterly, The Hong Kong Law Journal, and National Taiwan University’s Law Review. He has published numerous books, including his most recent co-authorship, A Guide to Business Law in Asia (w/ Ljiljana Biukovic, Lexis/Nexus 2008). In addition to his academic activities, Dr. Potter is a practicing lawyer and a member of the British Columbia, Washington, and California bar associations. As a Chartered Arbitrator, Dr. Potter is heavily engaged in international arbitration work involving China. He has also served on the boards of various public institutions and associations, including the Canada-China Business Council, the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, and the British Columbia Asia Pacific Trade Council.
To view Dr. Pitman Potter’s PPT presentation on negotiating in China, please click here.
Dr. C. D. Alison Bailey
Dr. Bailey was the Director of the Centre of Chinese Research (CCR) at the University of British Columbia from 2003-2011 and is the China Links director. Dr. Bailey teaches university courses on pre-modern Chinese law, literature, and Chinese film and identity. Her research covers a broad range of areas, including Chinese culture and literary history with special attention given to the Ming and Qing dynasties. Dr. Bailey’s recent publications include “Reading Between the Lines: The Representation and Containment of Disorder in Late Ming and Early Qing Legal Texts” and the upcoming A Shield for a Pillow: A Cultural History of Filial Revenge. Dr. Bailey has also been active in organizing the CCR’s ongoing seminar and workshop series. She has extensive experience in China, having worked for a Chinese publishing enterprise and a North American geophysical exploration company operating in China.
Jack Austin
In 2007, Senator Jack Austin retired from a highly esteemed, forty-five year career in Canadian politics and the public service. Senator Austin played a key role in Canada’s first trade mission to China, while he was Deputy Minister of Energy, Mines, and Resources. In 1974, Senator Austin was appointed Chief of Staff to Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. He was then appointed to the Senate in 1975. Senator Austin was also Minister of State from 1981 to 1982 and then Minister of State for Social Development until 1984. Senator Austin returned to Cabinet in 2003 when he was appointed to Leader of the Government in the Senate by Prime Minister Paul Martin.
Senator Austin is currently Special Advisor to the Chairman and CEO of Silvercorp Metals Inc. and is a Director with Tagish Lake Gold Corp. He is also currently an Honorary Professor with the Institute of Asian Research.
Earl Drake
Earl Drake has extensive public service experience related to the Asia-Pacific region and notably China. Mr. Drake is a former Canadian Ambassador to China and Indonesia. Earlier in his career, he served as a senior Canadian representative to the OECD in Paris and the World Bank in Washington. Mr. Drake also served as Deputy Minister at the Department of External Affairs and was Vice President of CIDA. More recently, Mr. Drake was an adjunct professor with Simon Fraser University. His current appointments include director of Silvercorp Metals Inc., as well as being an Honorary Professor with the Institute of Asian Research.
Dr. Ilan Vertinsky
Dr. Vertinsky is the Vinod Sood Professor of International Business Studies at the Sauder School of Business, the University of British Columbia. He currently serves as Director for UBC’s Centre for International Business Studies (CIBS) as well as the Forest Economics and Policy Analysis Research Unit. Dr. Vertinsky’s core research interests include decision theory and corporate strategy, resource and forest management, international business in the Pacific Rim, and political evaluation of policy. Beyond his academic pursuits, Dr. Vertinsky has provided consulting services for the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), the British Columbia Forest Commission, Shanghai Telecom, United Nations Population Fund, Consumer and Corporate Affairs Canada, and Weyerhauser, among others.
Richard Kyle Paisley
Richard Paisley teaches law in the University of British Columbia’s Law Faculty. He is currently the Director for the Global Transboundary International Waters Research Initiative and was the Founding Director of the Dr. Andrew R. Thompson Program in Natural Resources Law and Policy. His current research, teaching, and legal practice interests are primarily in the areas of international law (international waters), energy law, as well as environmental conflict resolution. He has directed a wide range of conferences, workshops, and research projects, and has published extensively. He has also worked as an advisor and trainer on these subjects to several international agencies, governments, non-governmental organizations, and aboriginal groups.
Dr. David Fung
Dr. Fung is the Chairman and CEO of the ACDEG Group of companies. He has partnerships in forest products, biomass energy, clean technologies, chemicals, electrical power cogeneration, agric-foods, marine equipment, OEM parts manufacturing and packaging wastes recycling in North America, Europe and Asia. He obtained his Bachelor, Master and Doctorate degrees in chemical engineering from McGill University in Montreal and completed the senior business executive program at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.
Dr. Fung is currently co-chair of the Members of the Canada Foundation for Innovation, vice-chair of the Canada China Business Council, senior fellow of the Asia Pacific Foundation and past president of the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering. He is also a member of the national board of directors of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (immediate past chair), Canadian Standards Association Group (CSA), Canadian Green Chemistry & Engineering Network, International Science and Technology Partnership Canada (chair of China Sub-committee), CentrePort Canada Inc., Initiatives Prince George and the Western Canadian Transportation System Strategy Group. Dr. Fung is an Investment Champion for the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. He was awarded the 2009 Canadian Asian of the Year (business and public service category) by Asia Network Canada.
Dickson Hall
Dickson Hall is a senior executive specializing in strategy and business development projects in China. He has an extensive career of over 30 years working in Greater China in the mining, forestry, energy and public sectors. Amongst many projects, Mr. Hall helped establish the operations of British Petroleum plc in China in the early 1980s, later directed the trade and investment promotion operations of the BC government in HK and China, and recently played a major role in Continental Minerals Corporation’s (TSX-V: KMK) successful copper-gold exploration and development project in China that was recently sold to a major Chinese state-owned mining company for in excess of $430 million. Mr. Hall directs corporate development efforts in Asia for Hunter Dickinson Inc., a Canadian-headquartered mining group which manages a portfolio of publicly-traded mining companies with world-wide operations and a combined market cap in excess of $5 billion.
Mr. Hall is a graduate of the University of British Columbia (BA, MA), and holds diplomas from the Beijing Language Institute, Beijing University and Central Academy of Fine Arts. Mr. Hall speaks, reads and writes Mandarin Chinese.
Mr. Hall is currently:
- Senior Vice President, Corporate Development, Hunter Dickinson Inc., a Canadian mining management company operating worldwide, including China, through publicly listed mineral exploration and development companies;
- Chairman and Director, ACT360 Solutions Ltd., an e-learning company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange;
- President, Dickson Hall & Associates, a consulting firm specializing in strategy and business development in China.
Dr. Euan Taylor
Euan Taylor is the Head of Patent Practice at Davis LLP in Vancouver, Canada. He is a registered patent agent and trade-mark agent and an experienced arbitrator. His practice emphasizes the prosecution and commercialization of patent rights in the life sciences area, but embraces all aspects of intellectual property. Dr. Taylor received his B.A. in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, and his Ph.D. from the University of London. He held postdoctoral research fellowships before obtaining his law degree from the University of British Columbia and being called to the bar of British Columbia in 1998. Dr. Taylor has a range of experience in China-related legal matters. He is a director of the Vancouver branch of the Hong Kong Canada Business Association, a vice chair of the Biotechnology Committee of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada, and a member of the editorial board for the Canadian Intellectual Property Review.
To view Dr. Euan Taylor’s recent article, Patent Due Diligence: Process and Priorities – A Canadian Patent Attorney’s Perspective, please click here.
Graham E. Fuller
Graham E. Fuller is currently Adjunct Professor of History at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC. He has a BA and MA from Harvard in Russian and Middle East studies. He worked 20 years as a CIA operations officer, seventeen of them overseas in Turkey, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Afghanistan and China. He later became Vice-Chair of the National Intelligence Council at CIA, with overall responsibility for national level strategic forecasting. After leaving government service Mr. Fuller was a Senior Political Scientist at the RAND Corporation for 12 years where, among many publications, he wrote on political Islam in various countries, and on the geopolitics of the Muslim world. He speaks several Middle Eastern languages as well as Russian and Chinese. He has written many books and articles on Middle Eastern and South Asian geopolitics, including The “Center of the Universe: the Geopolitics of Iran”; ”The Geopolitics of Islam and the West”; ”Turkey Faces East: Turkey’s New Geopolitics from the Balkans to Central Asia”; “The Arab Shi’a”; and “The Future of Political Islam”, 2003; “The New Turkish Republic: Turkey’s Pivotal Role in the Middle East”, 2008. His latest book is “A World Without Islam”, (Little, Brown), August 2010.
