On November 14, a panel of China marketing experts will join Jing Daily and China Luxury Advisors in New York for China in Context: a half-day seminar providing strategic insights that will influence both China strategy and global practices and decisions for brands who are serious about winning the Chinese consumer. Look below for more information on our speakers' experience, and click here to register. We look forward to seeing you there! Lina Lee Emerging Market Strategist Lina is an independent business strategist who bridges an aptitude for financial modeling with a deep-rooted curiosity for consumer sensibilities. She collaborates intuitively with brand owners and fashion entrepreneurs to translate creative concepts into robust, commercially viable blueprints. In addition, Lina works with consumer sector investors to evaluate branded opportunities, and capitalize growth strategies in both developed and emerging markets. Formerly as Head of Strategy for Sunrise Brands, Lina guided planning for a $400 million apparel conglomerate with diverse B2B and B2C operating units. Prior experiences include brand licensing, retail merchandising concepts, brick & mortar rollouts, corporate development, strategic communications, and investment analysis. Born in Harbin in Northeast China and raised between French-Canada and the American Midwest, Lina is an avid watcher of and advisor to China-facing business interests. She firmly believes that profitable growth strategies must be grounded on sound cultural insight and defensible brand positioning; her weekly edits of Greater China developments can be found on Business of Fashion and EditedChina.com. Lina developed an early fascination with global consumer markets while pursuing Urban & International Studies at Yale University. She maximizes every travel opportunity to scout retail concepts, capture behavioral insights and build local human networks. Courtney Harold China Market Entry Specialist Making difficult seem simple. For the past 18 years, Courtney Harold has demonstrated this capability over and over again. She made polyester (Polartec Fabrics) mean something to consumers, coated paper (Sappi Release Papers) relevant to footwear designers, and most recently broke down the steps to entry into emerging markets for fashion brands while working for ENK and Advanstar (Coterie, Magic Market Week, and The Licensing Show). Courtney combines traditional marketing and business development skills with innate curiosity and passion for-on-the ground information. (Courtney’s advice: “Read an article, fly to China and meet the person who wrote it. Attend a fashion event in China with a translator and find out what each attendee’s objective is at the event. Find the Western kid who hangs out with the locals and follow them on a shopping excursion.”)Courtney has approached hundreds of people, brands, and companies on how they have succeeded in emerging markets, but also, more importantly—why they failed. Courtney will discuss what you need to know if your brand is viable for the China market. Some questions that will be answered include: Does your brand resonate with Chinese consumers? Do your expected price points and products work in a single-brand-dominated retail landscape? Should you wait until these markets evolve? How much investment does it takes to enter and what type of ROI can you expect? Jim Prince Senior Vice President, ImmixRed Jim Prince is a Senior Vice President at ImmixRed, responsible for ImmixRed’s relationships with luxury retailers and for new product development. Prior to joining ImmixRed, Jim practiced law in Chicago, where he represented some of the world’s largest corporations and wealthiest individuals, including Fortune 50 companies and members of the Forbes 400 list of the richest people in America. Jim received his BA from Kenyon College and his JD from the University of California-Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law. Founded in 2008, ImmixRed’s mission is to develop new types of relationships between Chinese and American businesses. In 2010, it became one of the first companies to systematically focus on affluent Chinese consumers visiting the United States. Michael A. Zakkour Principal, China/APAC Group, Tompkins Intl. Consulting Michael A. Zakkour is a principal at the global business consulting firm Tompkins Intl., where he heads the China/APAC Practice. He has more than 15 years experience in international market strategy and implementation, primarily in China and Asia. He has assisted more than 250 multinational and SME companies in their assessment of opportunities in China and their resultant entry and growth strategies and implementation, including some of the biggest names in retail, consumer products, technology, fashion, and luxury. Michael is currently writing China’s Super Consumers, a book about China’s consumer market and the brands who are winning their business. The book will be published by J. Wiley and Sons in May 2014. Prior to joining Tompkins he was managing director of China BrightStar, LLC, a leading China-focused strategy consulting firm, and before that, was Vice President of Beijing-Gongmei, a Beijing based manufacturing conglomerate. Before his career in international market strategies, Michael was an early online/e-commerce innovator and marketer. His extensive, hands-on dealings in China and Asia have led Mr. Zakkour to be widely consulted by businesses, universities, and media on such topics as China-based business and investment opportunities; Chinese consumers; marketing, sales, and distribution in the Chinese market; apparel, luxury and premium consumer goods in China; Chinese government policies for business, international business operations, and supply chains; China business culture; trade and political relations; cross-cultural negotiation; and manufacturing/sourcing/supply chain management. He is also regularly called upon as a speaker and lecturer, and has presented before bodies as august and diverse as the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, New York University, Fashion Institute of Technology, The China Institute, The Confucius Institute, The Internationalist Luxury Brand Conferences, Thompson-Reuters’ annual China Conference, and more. Mr. Zakkour has also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Forbes, Women's Wear Daily, Crain’s NY, and on MSNBC, NPR, and The China Business Network.
