His research primarily focuses on what he calls “dancing with gorillas” — partnering between large corporations and startups — and on international entrepreneurship.

Jonathan is the global leader of its Cities Special Initiative and the Asia-based director of the McKinsey Global Institute. He has also led McKinsey’s Energy and Materials practice in Asia and is co-Chair of the Urban China Initiative.

Joseph has more than 25 years of experience in digital transformation, technology advisory, big data and artificial intelligence. He joined Deloitte USA in 1999, moved to China later and established our Management Solutions and Enterprise Risks Services practice (MS-ERS) in mainland China. Joseph was later promoted to lead partner for Eastern Region Enterprise Risks Services.

As the Head of Global SAP Labs Network, Neumann is leading the orchestration of investments and cross-organization strategy to grow SAP’s business in fast growing geographies such as China, the Middle East and Russia. Under his leadership, the SLN has grown significantly and has successfully integrated into the network of many research and development locations of SAP acquired companies. Today, SAP Labs is ranked among the best employers in most countries and has transformed its business to support global, innovative product development and local field operations alike.

Mary Boyd is responsible for programme development and client servicing in Shanghai. She also provides research and conceptual support on China for Economist Corporate Network programmes. Before joining the Economist Group Mary Boyd was in the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, serving on assignment in Hong Kong, Thailand, Taiwan and China (in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing). Since leaving government service she has researched and published on economic development and governance issues in China, and has undertaken consultancy work for the World Bank and other international institutions, as well as multinational companies. She has written for a number of Economist Intelligence Unit publications, including Country Report, China Hand and Business China. She co-authored the Economist Intelligence Unit report: Taking on the Competition: Domestic Companies in China. Ms Boyd has an MA (area studies) and an MSc (public policy and management) from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and has also completed language studies at Nanjing University. Her research interests include local governance and decentralisation policies and public-sector reform.