Nigel Inkster is the former Director of Operations and Intelligence for the British Secret Service (MI6), which he served for thirty-one years retiring at the end of 2006. Following his retirement from the service he became Director of Transnational Threats and Political Risk at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. His most recent role with IISS was Director of Future Conflict and Cyber Security.

His research portfolio has included transnational terrorism, insurgency, transnational organized crime, cyber security, intelligence and security and the evolving character of conflict. He has written and broadcast on all these topics and has also been engaged in a variety of para-diplomatic activities on behalf of the UK government including leading a Sino-UK Track 1.5 Cyber Security Dialogue.

Mr. Inkster graduated from St. Johns College Oxford with a BA (Hons) degree in Oriental Studies (Chinese).

Lord Trenchard worked for Kleinwort Benson Ltd from 1973 to 1996, as Chief Representative in Japan between 1980 and 1985, and President from 1988 to 1995 and Deputy Chairman from 1995 to 1996. He was Director of Dover Japan Inc from 1985 to 1987, of ACP Holdings Ltd from 1990 to 1994, of the Japan Securities Dealers' Association as well as of Bond Underwriters' Association of Japan from 1994 to 1995.

His other roles include Director of Robert Fleming and Co Ltd from 1996 to 1998, Managing Director, Investment Banking, for Mizuho International Plc from 2007 to 2012 and Senior Advisor to Mizuho Bank, Ltd from 2013 to 2014. Trenchard was also chairman of The Dejima Fund Ltd from 2001 to 2009, from 2002 to 2008 senior advisor of Prudential Financial Inc, and from January to December 2006 director general of the European Fund and Asset Management Association. He was also a Consultant to the Japan Bank for International Cooperation in 2017.

He was educated at Eton College and graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1973. Trenchard served in the 4th Battalion, The Royal Green Jackets from 1972 to 1980. In 2006, he became Honorary Air Commodore of 600 (City of London) Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force. He is a Deputy Lieutenant of Hertfordshire since 2006 and a Lieutenant of the City of London since 2016.

James Stent began his banking career with Citibank, working in New York, Manila, and Hong Kong. Thereafter he has pursued a distinguished career in financial services in both Thailand and China.

He worked for 18 years for Bangkok based Bank of Asia, serving as Deputy President of the Bank until his retirement in 2002, and thereafter continued as a director of the bank until 2004. Commencing in 2006, he served six years as an Independent Director and Chairman of the audit committee of the China Everbright Bank, followed by four years as a member of the bank’s Board of Supervisors. From 2003-2006 he was an Independent Director on the board of the China Minsheng Bank in Beijing. He is presently an Independent Director and Chairman of the audit committee of the XacBank of Mongolia.

In 2017, Oxford University Press published his widely acclaimed work China’s Banking Transformation: The Untold Story, which describes the transformation of the Chinese banking system over the past two decades, and examines the banking system as a prism for under-standing the dynamics of the Chinese political economy.

Mr. Stent received a Bachelor’s degree in History at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master of Public Affairs degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, where he focused on development economics. He speaks and reads Chinese and Thai languages.

Marzuki Darusman is an eminent Indonesian lawyer and politician. After fifteen years as a member of the People's Representative Council with President Suharto's Golkar party, he became Attorney General of Indonesia under Indonesia’s first democratically elected President Abdurrahman Wahid from 1999-2001. Darusman has served on several national and international human rights commissions, and in August 2010, became Founding Director of the Human Rights Resource Centre for ASEAN. Subsequent to his last term as Member of Parliament, which ended in 2009, he was appointed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to a three-member UN Commission of Inquiry to investigate the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. From 2010-2016 he was the UN Secretary General’s Special Rapporteur for North Korea 2010-2016 and also a Member of UN Commission of Inquiry on North Korea. In August 2017, he was appointed Chair of the UN Fact Finding Mission on Myanmar.

In addition, he has held prominent corporate roles. He currently serves as Commissioner for PT Freeport Indonesia, which engages in the mining, processing, and exploration of ores containing copper, gold, and silver. He was previously Commissioner for PT Indonusa Dwitama, a holding company engaged in managing and developing a range of investment portfolios including mining exploration and exploitation, financial services, multi-media interactive and information technology, and trading operations in Indonesia.

He graduated in law at University of Parahyangan and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in law from the same university. In 2017 he received the award of the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun, 2nd Class, Gold and Silver Star.

Leigh has spent more than 30 years in the technology sector in various industries and worked across Europe, Africa and the Asia Pacific regions.

He has operational leadership experience at several multinational technology firms including Unisys, HP Systems, ABB, Oracle and Symantec. At ABB and Oracle, he held executive leadership positions including Managing Director for Oracle in ANZ and Regional President for ABB software in EMEA. More recently he was Vice President Asia Pacific for Blue Coat Systems, which was acquired by Bain Capital and subsequently; Symantec, which was acquired by Broadcom.

Leigh is an experienced consultant and is the current CEO and partner of Warrecon Consulting. He has undertaken executive consultancy and interim roles with blue chip technology organizations including Chief Operating Officer for SAP in North Asia.

He is a partner and director at Solution Access, a Hong Kong advisory and investment group for early stage software companies entering the Asia Pacific market with several successful exits to date, and an advisor to Caldera Pacific, a Southeast Asia-focused private equity firm.

Leigh has also served on the board of several technology companies and is current chair of the remuneration committee at ASX listed Gentrack. He has been a director at Gentrack since 2008 during which time the company has undergone a successful MBO from private equity ownership and subsequent NZX/ASX listing.

Tim has over thirty years of business experience in China with a background in complex corporate governance issues, contract negotiations and dispute resolution. Over that time, he has completed more than 100 transactions with a value in excess of $1 billion. He was one of the founders of Asian Strategic Investments Corporation, which invested more than $400 million into China’s manufacturing industries in the early 1990s. He then led Goldman Sachs NPL recovery business in China, before he co-founded another business to originate carbon offsets in China under the UN Clean Development Mechanism with start-up capital of €100 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust. He also spent six years on the Strategic Advisory Board of Braemar Energy Ventures.

He is currently a director of a London Stock Exchange premium listed investment trust, Henderson Far East Income, and a Senior Research Associate at the Jesus College China Centre at Cambridge University. He is also the co-creator of a non-profit organization seeking to introduce a new A-Level course in Chinese Civilisation.

Tim has written three books on China. The first, Mr. China, was described by Time Magazine as ‘an instant classic’ and has been translated into fifteen languages. More recently, the Commercial Press of China will publish his third book in both English and Chinese. This is the first book written by a foreigner to be launched in China for a Chinese audience and gives a Westerner’s look at Chinese poetry.

Tim graduated Theoretical Physics at Cambridge University in 1982 before qualifying as a Chartered Accountant (ICEAW, 1986) and moving to China.