RUNDOWN

11:45    Registration
12:10    Opening Remarks
12:15    Luncheon
13:00    Fireside Chat
13:35    Q&A
13:55    Closing Remarks
14:00     End

ASHK Members: HKD 580
Non-Member Ticket: HKD 680

Asia Society Hong Kong Center is proud to present a discussion with best-selling author and highly accomplished investor Weijian Shan, on his latest book, Money Machine – A Trailblazing American Venture in China, which completes a trilogy of works describing his fascinating evolution from hard labor in the Gobi to the heights of private equity investing in Asia.

What are the key lessons Shan has learned over decades of working with American firms to invest in China, and in light of Sino-US tensions, how is the Chinese investment landscape changing? How was his team able to accomplish the singular feat of investing a turning around a state-owned bank and can that feat be repeated? In conversation with Tao Wang, author of Making Sense of China’s Economy and head of Asia Economic Research at UBS investment bank, Shan will explore these questions and more.

Weijian Shan is the executive chairman and co-founder of PAG – an Asia-based and focused private equity firm with more than USD50 billion in capital under management.

Between 1998 and 2010, he was co-managing partner of the private equity firm Newbridge Capital (now known as TPG Asia) and a partner of TPG. Shan was a managing director of JP Morgan, where he was concurrently the chief representative for China between 1993 and 1998. He was an assistant professor at the Wharton School, the University of Pennsylvania between 1987 and 1993. He also worked at the World Bank in 1987 as a member of its Young Professionals Program.

Shan is a Trustee of the British Museum. He is also a member of the International Advisory Council of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited, and an independent director of Alibaba Group.

Shan is the author of Out of the Gobi: My Story of China and America (2019), Money Games: The Inside Story of How American Dealmakers Saved Korea's Most Iconic Bank (2021) and Money Machine – A Trailblazing American Venture in China (February 2023). He has published commentaries in the likes of The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Economist and Foreign Affairs.

Shan holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.B.A. from the University of San Francisco. He graduated with a major in English from the Beijing University of International Business and Economics.

Tao Wang is the author of Making Sense of China’s Economy and currently head of Asia Economic Research at UBS investment bank. She is an invited fellow of the China Finance (CF) 40 Forum and a member of the China Global Economic Governance 50 Forum.

Dr. Wang’s research on China covers a wide range of topics including monetary policy, the debt problem, shadow banking, local government finance, US-China trade disputes, supply chain shifts, RMB internationalization, the property bubble, the demographic challenge, the urban-rural divide, and the long-term growth potential. Dr. Wang has been consistently ranked as one of the top China economists by institutional investors. She writes a column for Caixin, and her views have been widely quoted by international and Chinese media.

Prior to joining UBS, Dr. Wang worked as Head of Asian Economics at BP plc.  Before joining the private sector, Dr. Wang worked at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for over eight years, including on the China desk. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from New York University and her bachelor’s degree from Renmin University in Beijing.

About Money Machine:

In his latest book, Shan delivers a compelling account of one of the most significant private equity deals in the industry’s history: the first and only foreign acquisition of a Chinese national bank. The release of Money Machine completes Shan’s bestselling trilogy, which began with Out of the Gobi: My Story of China and America (2019) and continued with Money Games: The Inside Story of How American Dealmakers Saved Korea's Most Iconic Bank (2020).

Taken together, these three books present an unparalleled, up-close perspective on doing business in Asia, charting Shan’s life journey from hard laborer in the Gobi Desert to one of private equity’s most successful dealmakers.

Following the publication of Money Machine, both Out of the Gobi and Money Games will be re-released in paperback, updated with new material from the author.

Buy a copy of Money Machine from our store.

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The views and opinions expressed are those of the speakers and participants and, unless expressly stated to the contrary, do not reflect the opinion, position or official policy of Asia Society Hong Kong, its members, or its committees. Asia Society Hong Kong does not endorse or approve, and assumes no responsibility for the content of the information presented.