Ker Gibbs is the immediate past president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, where he focused on U.S.-China relations and business issues facing American companies operating in Asia. Mr. Gibbs has lived in Asia for more than two decades and is a Mandarin speaker.

In the 1990s Mr. Gibbs worked for the Boston Consulting Group in Shanghai and San Francisco. Since then he has split his time between Asia and Silicon Valley, serving in executive positions with Apple, Disney, and high-growth Internet businesses. He moved to Shanghai in 2002 as head of Asia Pacific for a Nasdaq-listed network security company that was acquired by McAfee. His career in high tech led him to banking, where he became head of technology and media in Greater China for HSBC. As an investment banker, he advised at the board and C-level at Alibaba, Baidu, and other firms engaged in mergers and cross-border transactions.

From banking, Mr. Gibbs moved to direct investments. He was a founding investor in the Crystal Orange Hotel Group, helping grow the company to 130 properties and 1,500 employees in China. He also led successful investments in real estate, e-commerce, and medical technology companies.

Before his appointment as president, Mr. Gibbs served on the Board of Governors of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai for four years, including two years as chairman. He sat on the audit committee, finance committee, and compensation committee. Other board roles include tech/social media companies MyETone and the Asia joint venture of NBC. He served previously on the board of the United Way in China, a joint venture with the Shanghai Charity Foundation.

Currently, he is an Executive in Residence at the University of San Francisco and is a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. He also sits on the Advisory Board of the Shanghai Jiaotong University business school and is an Economic and Technology Consultant to the Wuxi Municipal Government in China.

He is an op-ed contributor to the Wall Street Journal, South China Morning Post, and other publications. Ker Gibbs holds a BA in economics from UCLA and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. He lives in San Francisco and Shanghai.

Bill Russo is the Shanghai-based Founder and CEO of Automobility Limited, a strategy and investment advisory firm helping its clients to create the future of mobility.

His over 35 years of experience includes 15 years as an automotive executive, including 14 years of experience in China and Asia. He has also worked nearly 12 years in the electronics and information technology industries. He has worked as an advisor and consultant for numerous multinational and local Chinese firms in the formulation and implementation of their global market and product strategies.

Bill was previously the regional head of Chrysler in North East Asia, where he successfully negotiated agreements with partners and obtained required approvals from the China government to bring six new vehicle programs to the market in a three-year period, while concurrently establishing an infrastructure for local sourcing and sales distribution.

Mr. Russo has a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University in New York, and a Master of Science in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Mr. Russo is a highly sought-after opinion leader on the development of the China market and the automotive industry.

With over 15 years' experience of advising clients in China, having relocated from Silicon Valley to Shanghai in 2005 (to open the office of a leading Silicon Valley law firm), Don is well regarded and highly experienced in representing private and public companies on a broad spectrum of complex transactional mandates, including cross-border mergers and acquisitions, minority investments and other strategic business transactions. Don has vast experience including advising TMT companies throughout their entire lifecycle from startup to mature public company (VC/PE financing, day to day corporate needs, M&A and capital markets transactions) as well as these companies’ ecosystem, including VC/PE funds and investment banks.

Over the years, Don has a great depth of experience across many industries and served as the primary counsel in numerous high-profile and cross-border transactions. His clients include Acorn, Alibaba, Alipay, Ant Financial Services, Autodesk, BCD Semiconductor, Bridge Pharmaceuticals, Cisco Systems, Cyte Therapeutics, FunPlus Games, Grab, Hanson Robotics, Kuaidi Dache, Newport Corporation, PharmaLegacy, Polycom, RealD, SeaWorld, Sigma Designs, Smarter Micro, and SMIC.

Clients particularly appreciate Don’s hands-on approach to manage complex deals and his responsiveness, experience, and ability to solve tricky problems and dynamics (Chambers Greater China, 2023).

Don has represented venture capital and private equity funds, including Advanced Technology Ventures, Aramco Ventures, BASF Venture Capital GmbH, Chengwei Ventures, DFJ Dragon Ventures, Fidelity/Eight Roads, GGV, Global Founders Capital, GSR Ventures, IFC, JAFCO, KPCB China, Ping An, Sequoia Capital, Qiming Ventures, Rocket Internet and Softbank China Venture Capital, in connection with portfolio investments and other transactions as well as investment banks in connection with public offerings.

Don has been recognized as one of the top China-based private equity/venture capital lawyers by Chambers Asia-Pacific for 15 consecutive years (2009 through 2023). Don has also been recognized as “Leading Individual” by Legal 500 in 2023 and was named a "China Top 15 M&A Lawyer" by Asian Legal Business in 2019.

Don has been active as a committee chair with The American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai for well over a decade and is a member of the Ethics Council of The American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai.