Johanna Stepan is Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) at the newly set up Daimler and Geely Joint Venture, StarRides Technology, in Hangzhou. During her studies of International Business at the renowned Tongji University in Shanghai, Johanna learned to speak Chinese fluently and developed a special interest in the country. After working at Daimler for 7 years in various strategic and operational positions in Germany, Singapore and the US, she moved back to China and took over a leading role in setting up StarRides, the first Joint Venture between Daimler and Geely. StarRides is using technology to revolutionize the premium mobility services industry in China and so far, is available in Hangzhou and Guangzhou.
Mónica Muriel Zurita, entrepreneur and EMBA by HULT International Business School, has lived in China for twelve years and started up, invested, and consulted in several businesses. In 2013, becoming a mother made her realize it was time to pursue her designing dreams and at the same time commit to make of this world a better one for them. Zurita was born of those two purposes combined to bring to Shanghai more durable, made out of natural materials and produced in a fair way. Over time the dream became bigger. Zurita's vision is to create a new standard for the fashion industry. Through integration, digitalization and a deep understanding of green practices, Zurita is creating a new and more efficient sustainable paradigm.
Working in SAP Labs China Management team, Phipps is in charge of R&D collaboration with strategic partners in China (like Alibaba, Huawei, Tencent and Baidu), and in addition to that, drives strategic topics including Blockchain, Industrie4.0/IoT in China. In this role, his project with SIA (Shenyang Institute of Automation) on Industrie 4.0 was presented to president Xi in Dec 2015 WIC, as well as in many other high ranking exhibition events.
Prior to that, Phipps has gained experience in both technology and business through various roles since joining SAP in 2003. Technologically, Phipps has led the end-to-end development the first universal release of SAP Business One, SAP’s flagship ERP product for Small-and-Medium Enterprise, with teams from China, Israel and Slovakia. Years later, He moved to take charge of the global business operation of SAP Globalization Services HCM product unit covering development teams in eight countries. Phipps graduated from the University of Manchester in an MBA degree. Phipps owns several USA patents in the area of enterprise computing.
Ellen Wieck-Mesarosch started her career as a Global Lead Buyer in the Medical Device Industry in Germany before she moved to Management Consulting. For the past 11+ years she worked with McKinsey & Company, consulting clients in a variety of industries such as consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, renewable energy, insurances or hospital chains, predominantly focusing on leading them through broad transformation journeys. She also served the public sector such as the German Federal Chancellery on the topic of Gender Equality in leadership.
Recently Ellen joined Chrysalis 智变 in Nanjing as a principal to build up their Executive Coaching and Training business.
Sue has been the Admissions Director at Nanjing International School for over 7 years where she has continued to build the reputation of NIS as the best international school in Nanjing. She is a qualified UK solicitor and has worked all over the globe over the last 40 years including UK, Egypt, Sri Lanka and China. She was Deputy Director of Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridge, UK for 6 years where she was responsible for Women’s and Children’s Services. Sue also worked at the British Council in Sri Lanka and taught at the Overseas School of Colombo. In UK she was part of a team of educators supporting excluded children and working closely with all stakeholders to keep children most at risk from entering the criminal justice system.