Beyond business as usual

Dr Deborah Elms is the Founder and Executive Director of the Asian Trade Centre. The Asian Trade Centre works with governments and companies to design better trade policies for the region. Dr. Elms is also Vice Chair of the Asia Business Trade Association (ABTA) and sits on the International Technical Advisory Committee of the Global Trade Professionals Alliance and is Chair of the Working Group on Trade Policy and Law. She is also a senior fellow in the Singapore Ministry of Trade and Industry’s Trade Academy. Previously, Dr Elms was head of the Temasek Foundation Centre for Trade & Negotiations (TFCTN) and Senior Fellow of International Political Economy at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her projects include the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and global value chains. Dr. Elms received a PhD in political science from the University of Washington, a MA in international relations from the University of Southern California, and bachelor’s degrees from Boston University. Dr Elms publishes the Talking Trade Blog.

Nick is The EIU’s Lead analyst for covering global trade issues, and has a particular focus on forecasting developments and providing external commentary tied to the US-China trade war. He is also responsible for The EIU’s views on international trade issues more generally, including on US-EU trade relations, USMCA, CPTPP and topics around supply chains and globalisation.

In addition to that role, Nick also concurrently serves on The EIU’s Asia team as lead analyst for China and Macau, as well as supporting analyst for Taiwan. In that role, he conducts analysis on macro-economic and political developments in those economies, as well as specific topics including China’s foreign business environment, cross-Strait affairs and the Belt and Road Initiative. Nick is also a member of The EIU’s Access China team, where he conducts research on China’s 31 provinces and nearly 300 key prefectures. Until 2017, Nick previously served as lead and final editor of The EIU’s now-retired “China Hand” publication, which focused on cross-sector policy and regulatory developments within the mainland Chinese market.

Andrew is the global Editorial Director of The Economist Corporate Network (ECN), the Economist Intelligence Unit’s briefing and advisory service for senior business leaders. He leads and supports a team of Network Directors (NDs) across Africa, the Middle East and Asia, and ensures that editorial consistency and quality are maintained to the highest level.

As editorial director, Andrew ensures that the values and standards of The Economist brand are upheld across all the networks and drives ECN editorial strategy through the innovation of new services and products.

Andrew joined the Economist Group in 2013 and prior to his current role, ran ECN in Tokyo (later North Asia) and South-east Asia.

Andrew provides members with insight and analysis on a range of topics related to ASEAN and the broader East Asian economy. He regularly chairs and moderates major Economist events, delivers custom briefings to senior executives (including Fortune 500 C-suite) and public figures (including heads of states) in his areas of expertise in the international media (BBC, CNN, CNBC, Channel NewsAsia, Al Jazeera).

Prior to joining The Economist Group, Andrew was an associate professor of international business at business schools and leading universities in the UK (University of Sheffield) and Japan (Keio University, Doshisha Business School and Globis University Graduate School of Management).

Andrew has published widely in his areas of expertise and his major publications include Responses to Regionalism in East Asia: Japanese Production Networks in the Automotive Sector published as part of the Palgrave Macmillan Asian Business Series and chapters in edited volumes including Asian Inward and Outward FDI: New Challenges in the Global Economy and popular textbooks including Asian Business and Management. He was also a Senior Editor for the internationally peer reviewed journal Asian Business and Management.

Andrew has an MSc in East Asian Business and a PhD in International Political Economy from the University of Sheffield, U.K., and was a Ministry of Education research scholar at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo (2001-2003).