Leading Innovation in the Asian Century

CAMP Summit Opening
June 1st, 10.45am-12.30pm, Centennial Hall, Sydney Town Hall

Gain insight into innovation in the Asian Century and opportunities for Australia via our keynotes and panel discussion featuring highly successful innovators and entrepreneurs including:

• Jean Dong, political advisor on the China Australia Free Trade Agreement, whose company Winworld Australia was ranked by BRW in 2014 as one of the top 100 fastest growing companies in Australia;


• Rick Chen, founder of Pozible, the largest crowdfunding platform in the Asia Pacific;


• Jack Zhang of Geek Park;


• Andy Whitford, Westpac Head of Greater China;


• Andrea Myles, CAMP CEO;


• Moderated by Holly Ransom, G20 Youth Summit Chair and global strategist.

Speakers

Rick Chen, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Pozible Rick Chen is an entrepreneur and a social change-maker with a strong focus on new media design. He has a keen interested in web-based technology, user interface design and innovative ideas that change people’s behaviour. Rick co-founded Australia’s first crowdfunding platform Pozible in  2010, which has became the 3rd largest crowdfunding platform worldwide and raised over $18million dollars for the industry. In 2013, Rick was selected by The Australian newspaper as one of the top 20 Australians to watch of the year.

Jean Dong, Founder and Managing Director, Spark Corporation and Winworld Australia
Jean Dong is the founder and managing director of Spark Corporation Group, a company that focuses on Chinese investment in Australian agriculture and resources industry, and expansion of Australian businesses into Chinese markets through strategic partnerships. Prior to her entrepreneur journey Jean worked for 5 years at a world leading consulting firm with operations in Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia, during which she successfully led investment projects for multiple Chinese SOEs and private companies overseas.

Jean was Politcal Advisor on the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement and her company Winworld was ranked by BRW as one of Australia's fastest growing companies in 2014.

Jack Zhang, Founder & President, Geek Park (www.geekpark.net)

The past decade has witnessed a boom of geeks and geek culture in China. With the global resource relocation brought by the Internet to the world, Chinese geeks are no longer a minority hidden in the laboratory or library, who bury themselves in impractical knowledge. Thanks to the fast growth of internet and technology, they have found a new significance in Chinese society and a new approach to communicate with their country and the world, including Europe.

The emergence and boom of geek culture in China has created a major impact on social progress, from technology innovation to social and cultural thinking.

Geek Park was the first organization to bring the concept of a ‘geek’ to China, and provides geeks/innovators with original content, offline events and an accelerator service. Their regular meetups in China see over 1000 geeks attend each meeting.

Andrea Myles, CEO, China Australia Millennial Project

 Andrea Myles loves China. Since travelling there as a young backpacker in 2002 on her first ever adventure overseas, she's been hooked on learning as much as she can about this fascinating country. Since her first trip, she has gained two bilingual Masters degrees in Chinese business & culture, lived in China for 5+ years, worked on social enterprise programs in regional China, headed up the Australia China Business Council, lead the business delegation of then Prime Minister Gillard's second trip to China & co- founded the Engaging China Project - a government-recognised best-practice China engagement program in Australian high schools.

She holds a BSc in Neuroscience and is a fellow of the School for Social Entrepreneurs & the Sydney Leadership Program. She also co-founded the Sydney Roller Derby League. Driven by her passion, a slight frustration of the transactional nature of the Australia- China relationship & her impatience for positive change, she co-founded the highly- successful China Australia Millennial Project to connect leading talent in both nations via a world first incubator & social change program.

In 2014 she was named one of Australia's 100 Most Influential Women by Westpac and the Australian Financial Review. In 2015 Andrea was a finalist in the Emerging Entrepreneur category of the NAB Women's Agenda Leadership Awards. She has also been nominated by Australia's Former Foreign Minister Professor Bob Carr for a 2015 Telstra Business Women's Award.

Andrew Whitford Head of Greater China, Westpac (www.westpac.com)

Andre has responsibility for the bank's operations and strategy in the region, covering mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. 

Building on Westpac’s 40 year presence in Asia, Andrew has led the bank’s operations in China since 2007 with the opening of the first China branch in Shanghai. 

Andrew has extensive experiences across the banking industry in China, working closely with the Chinese Government as it continues to pursue financial market reform. With a career spanning more than 25 years, he has worked for a number of banks in corporate banking and structured finance in both Australia and London.

Andrew is a regular commentator in the media on China related matters such as the Free Trade Agreement, Shanghai Free Trade Zone and Renminbi internationalisation.

Moderator:

Holly Ransom, change strategist
Holly was handpicked by Rio Tinto CEO Sam Walsh, at the age of 21 to support him in creating effective change through the organisation. She was also handpicked by Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott to work on the World Y20 and B20 conferences in Australia in July and September 2014, and was a 2013 finalist for the Young Australian of the Year. The Financial Review named her one of the 100 Most Influential Women in Australia.