Profile

• Chairman and CEO, Sparkice Inc.

Graduated from Tsing Hua University in 1985 and completed his MBA program in IT Management in the same university. After he obtained his MA in Finance from University of Toronto, Canada, he returned to China to launch the Sparcice and initiated the Sparkice e-commerce operations. In 2001 he agreed with Ariba Inc. to build the third-generation e-commerce platform to facilitate direct transactions between International buyers and Chinese suppliers, which became the first operational e-commerce system of the kind in China.His publication includes many books on economics and business issues while editing the China Electronic Commerce Blue Paper in 2001. He also serves as the advisor of the Chinese government on its IT development policies as well as teaching at the Tsing Hua University.
He was named a Future Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in 1998.

• President, Kanda University of International Studies Emeritus Professor of Kyoto University

After joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japanese Government (1955-1965), he turned his life into academic field in 1965. After having several professorate at Kyoto University including Director of Center for Southeast Asian Studies (1985-1990), he served as Professor as well as Director of Institute of Asian Cultures at Sophia University and currently he is the President of Kanda University of International Studies since 1997. His specialized fields are research of Southeast Asia including Thai history and Comparative Studies of Theraveda Buddhism.He received Royal Thai Commander of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant in 1987, Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1995, the Japan Foundation Award in 2000. In the same year, he was designated as A Person of Cultural Merits.

• Professor of Economics, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University

B.A. from Osaka University in 1970 and Ph.D. from University of Hawaii. He has worked at ESCAP (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific), Kyoto Sangyo University, and Kobe University before he was appointed as Professor at Kyoto University in 1998.His major publications include Studies on Asian Economics (Ajia Keizai Kenkyu), 1998, and Asia-Pacific Economic Linkages (co-edited), 1999.