Our board
Chair
Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles KCMG LVO, Group Head of Public Affairs
HSBC Holdings Plc
Sherard has been at HSBC since 2013, working as Senior Adviser to the Group Chairman and Group Chief Executive, and more recently heading the Group’s global government and public affairs functions. He also chairs HSBC Bank Oman. Earlier he spent over 30 years in the British Diplomatic Service, including spending working on Hong Kong in the three and a half years up to the handover to China in 1997, and finishing his career as Ambassador to Israel, Saudi Arabia and then Afghanistan.
Sherard is Chair of the China-Britain Business Council; Chairman of the Omani British Business Council; honorary Vice President and immediate past Chairman of the UK Financial Inclusion Commission; an Ambassador for the Money Advice Trust, and for the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust; a Committee Member of The Hong Kong Association; a Board Member of Asia House and the Saudi British Business Council. He is Chair of Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery Trust, and sat on the International Engagement Committee of the British Academy for six years from 2014. He is the author of two books: Cables from Kabul and Ever the Diplomat.
Sherard has been at HSBC since 2013, working as Senior Adviser to the Group Chairman and Group Chief Executive, and more recently heading the Group’s global government and public affairs functions. He also chairs HSBC Bank Oman. Earlier he spent over 30 years in the British Diplomatic Service, including spending working on Hong Kong in the three and a half years up to the handover to China in 1997, and finishing his career as Ambassador to Israel, Saudi Arabia and then Afghanistan.
Sherard is Chair of the China-Britain Business Council; Chairman of the Omani British Business Council; honorary Vice President and immediate past Chairman of the UK Financial Inclusion Commission; an Ambassador for the Money Advice Trust, and for the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust; a Committee Member of The Hong Kong Association; a Board Member of Asia House and the Saudi British Business Council. He is Chair of Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery Trust, and sat on the International Engagement Committee of the British Academy for six years from 2014. He is the author of two books: Cables from Kabul and Ever the Diplomat.
Vice Chairs
Mr David Sayer, Vice Chairman Financial Services & UK Board Member
KPMG
Mr Duncan Clark OBE, Chairman
BDA (China) Ltd
Mr Gordon Orr, Non-Executive Board Member
John Swire and Sons Ltd
Chief Executive
Mr Andrew Seaton, Chief Executive
Board Members
Dr David Pilsbury, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (International Development), Coventry University
Dr Zhi Shengke, Director, Strategy and Development, Wood
Mr David Roth, CEO of The Store, EMEA and Asia (the WPP Global Retail Practice) and Chairman BAV Group
Mr Ed Salt, Managing Director, Delamere Dairy
Mr Jonathan Bewes, Vice Chairman, Corporate and Institutional Banking, Standard Chartered Bank
Mr Kenneth Macpherson, Chief Executive Officer, Europe, Middle East, Asia and Africa, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG)
Mr Neil Sampson, Head of International Business & Partner, Rosenblatt
Mr Philip Thomson, President of Global Affairs, GSK
Mr Simon Yang, China President & Senior Vice President, bp
Ms Catherine Li, CEO, Asia Pacific, EDPM; Leader, APAC Regional Crisis Management Team (RCMT), Atkins
Ms Sharon Cheng, Investment Director, Clyde Blowers Capital IM LLP
Sir Charles Bowman, Senior Partner & Chairman of China Business Group, PwC
Co-Opted Members
Mr Paul Kelleher, APAC Regional Director, Diageo Singapore Pte Ltd
Mr Trevor Millett, Vice President International Strategy and Business Development, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.
Ms Joy Isaacs, Founder & CEO, Argentum Apothecary Ltd
Ms Suwin Lee, Partner, EMEIA EY Private Leader |International Tax and Transaction Services
Appointed Observers
Mr Julian MacCormac, Chairman, British Chamber of Commerce in China
Mr Andrew Pittam, Head of China Department (Bilateral and Strategy), Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
Mr Fang Wenjian, Chairman, China Chamber of Commerce in the UK
Mr Guy Dru Drury MBE, China Chief Representative, Confederation of British Industry
Mr John Edwards, HM Trade Commissioner for China, Department for International Trade
Our Honorary President and Vice-Presidents
Honorary President and Vice-Presidents
Lord Sassoon, Kt, President
Lord Sassoon is President of the China-Britain Business Council (CBBC). He was formerly Chairman of CBBC (2013-19) and President of the EU-China Business Association (2013-17).
James began his career at KPMG, before joining S.G. Warburg in 1985, becoming a Managing Director.
He was a Managing Director in HM Treasury from 2002 with responsibility for Financial Services and Enterprise Policy. In 2007-8 he chaired the Financial Action Task Force. From 2010 to 2013, he was the first Commercial Secretary to the Treasury, and the Government’s Treasury Minister in the House of Lords.
During his career, he has had a consistent focus on business relating to Asia; he participated in each round of the UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue from 2002.
From 2013 to 2020 he was a Director of Jardine Matheson Holdings. He is a member of the International Advisory Council of the China Investment Corporation (CIC) and of the Global Advisory Board of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.
James was knighted in 2007 and joined the House of Lords in 2010.
He was born in 1955 and educated at Eton and Oxford. He is a trustee emeritus (formerly deputy Chair) of the British Museum and a former trustee of the National Gallery Trust.
James began his career at KPMG, before joining S.G. Warburg in 1985, becoming a Managing Director.
He was a Managing Director in HM Treasury from 2002 with responsibility for Financial Services and Enterprise Policy. In 2007-8 he chaired the Financial Action Task Force. From 2010 to 2013, he was the first Commercial Secretary to the Treasury, and the Government’s Treasury Minister in the House of Lords.
During his career, he has had a consistent focus on business relating to Asia; he participated in each round of the UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue from 2002.
From 2013 to 2020 he was a Director of Jardine Matheson Holdings. He is a member of the International Advisory Council of the China Investment Corporation (CIC) and of the Global Advisory Board of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.
James was knighted in 2007 and joined the House of Lords in 2010.
He was born in 1955 and educated at Eton and Oxford. He is a trustee emeritus (formerly deputy Chair) of the British Museum and a former trustee of the National Gallery Trust.
Mr Peter Batey, CMG, OBE, Vice-President
Peter Batey CMG, OBE co-founded Vermilion Partners in 2004. Batey moved to Beijing in 1986 as a representative of Arthur Andersen, subsequently becoming Chief Representative for China. In 1989 he co-founded Batey Burn, a China-focused investment advisory and government relations business. He was a director of Shuijingfang a public company listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange as a nominee of Diageo Plc from 2007-2013, and served as board director of a number of Chinese and joint venture companies. He was Chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in China from 1994 to 1996 and successively Vice President and President of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China 2000-2002. He served as Chairman of the Great Britain China Centre from 2004 to 2014.
Sir Tom Troubridge , Vice-President
Sir Tom has had a 40-year career with PricewaterhouseCoopers. During his career with the firm, he has led the PwC UK firm’s capital markets business, and has been involved in many of the firm’s most significant IPOs and capital market transactions over the last twenty years. He was the Chairman of PwC UK’s China Business Group (CBG) before he retired as a partner in 2015. Sir Tom is a former chair of the Listing Authority Advisory Committee (LAAC), a UK Listing Authority committee which advises the FSA board on the UK Listing Rules. He also served as a board member of the Auditing Practices Board (APB). He has been a board member of St Mark’s Hospital Foundation since 2017.