30. March 10
This is a short summary, for the full Bulletin in PDF, click the following link:
President John opened the meeting by extending a warm welcome to our guests and fellow members.
Acting Sergeant at Arms Gilbert welcomed:
Visiting Rotarians:
- Rtn. Dave Feicleit, RC Wanganui Daybreak, NZ
- Rtn. Harm Kreaebeink, RC Trollhän, Sweden
- Rtn. Celso Fernando, RC Taquara – Rio De Janeiro Brasil
- Rtn. Alexander Blanco, RC Mercado São SebastiÃo – Rio De Janeiro Brasil
- Rtn. Gary Bertsch, RC Athens, Georgia
- Rtn. Kerry Burton, RC Shanghai
- Rtn. Jacob Eilber, RC Indian Land, SC USA
And visiting guests:
- Ms. Enoch Li, guest of Rtn. Gilbert
- Ms. Merli Lin, guest of Rtn. Dave
- Mr. Gary Permenter, guest of Rtn. Josephine
- Mr. Yang Shi Kun, guest of Rtn. Einar
- Mr. Gian-Marc Widmer, guest of Rtn. Curt
- Ms. Piper Tseng, guest of Rtn. John
- Mr. Rolf Dietmer, guest of Rtn. Ulrike Nieter
- Ms. Jiang Cainian, guest of Rtn. Dave
- Mr. Stefan Ham, guest of Rtn. Thomas
- Mr. Graham Brown, guest of Rtn. Curt
- Mr. Jon Woo-Jung, guest of Rtn. John
- Mr. Augustin Carioni, Intern
Banners were exchanged with the following Rotary Clubs:
- RC Taquara – Rio De Janeiro Brasil
- RC Mercado São SebastiÃo – Rio De Janeiro Brasil
- RC Wanganui Daybreak, New Zealand
Reports & Announcements:
New member induction
Membership committee chair Peter Humphrey introduced: Mr. Gian-Marc Widmer and Mr. Graham Brown, both sponsored by Rtn. Curt Bergstrom.
Gian-Marc Widmer
Gian-Marc is a Swiss national. He has attended more than the 6 required lunch meetings to be proposed for membership. He is Vice-President of Ecolutions New Energy Investment Co Ltd, a developer of renewable energy and carbon assets in emerging markets.
Prior to that, from 2006 to 2008, he was director of China operations for Adecco, one of the largest global HR consulting services company’s in the World. In 2005 he was involved with the Surmang Foundation, a non-profit organization running a clinic in a remote mountain area of Qinghai, in China’s far west. From 2001 to 2004 Gian-Marc worked for the banking group Lazard as an analyst in mergers, acquisitions and restructuring. He has also served as a first lieutenant in a battle tank unit where he commanded and trained a Leopard II battle tank section (three tanks, 3 sub-commanders, 15 soldiers), as part of his Swiss National Service committment.
Gian-Marc holds an undergraduate degree in business administration from the University of St Gallen, an MBA from CEIBS, has participated in the INSEAD MBA program in France and Singapore and a Chinese language education course at Peking University. He speaks English, German, Chinese, French and Spanish.
Gian-Marc’s personal interests include skiing, mountain biking, mountaineering, swimming, running and photography. He is also a licensed pilot.
Gian-Marc already has a history with Rotary. He is a former Rotary Youth Exchange participant to the United States, 1992. He was president of Rotex Switzerland which is an association of Rotary Exchange Students, 1994-1995. At some point in the future he would he will give a talk on the Rotary Youth Exchange program and plans to become as active as possible in championing this area of service.
Graham Brown
Graham is an Australian national, a long-time resident of Beijing, a lawyer by profession and is currently head of the international business practice of Jun ZeJun Law Offices, a local law firm. He has come to more than six of our weekly meetings.
Graham was admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales of Australia in 1985 and began practice as a federal Prosecutor. He worked on fraud cases before turning to commercial law, ultimately with his own practice specializing in Asia related issues.
An interest in teaching led to a career as a legal academic, but he kept his interest in commercial matters by acting as a consultant on Asian and China related cases to Australian firms. Graham ventured to China in 1997 where he taught at two of China’s well known universities in Beijing and then established, managed and taught in one of the first international postgraduate legal education projects here. While in China, Graham assisted a number of Chinese and foreign companies with structuring their projects and also advised on international contractual issues. Although he is a contract law specialist, Graham also takes an interest in intellectual property, information technology and commercially effective structures for international investment. Graham has written extensively on Chinese legal issues for more than a decade and has spoken at academic and commercial conference on topics within his field of expertise.
He is currently Head of the International Business Group at the JunZeJun Law Offices. Together with his professional partner Wei Xin, he established this specialist team in 2002 to provide legal services of international scope and quality from the platform of a Chinese law firm. His International Business Group advises potential foreign investors in China, foreign companies with established business in China, and companies trading with or sourcing from China. More recently the group has advised Chinese firms seeking to establish offshore.
On the personal and community level, in Australia, Graham has been active on refugee issues in Sydney and elsewhere. He has also assisted Vietnamese, Lao and Cambodian communities with the establishment of temples in Sydney. He assisted the Hwa Tsang Chinese Monastery in Sydney with their case to get planning permission for the building of their temple and conducting their academic coaching program.
He as been a contributor and participant in Plan International program in Isaan, northeast Thailand and visited Plan projects on several occasions. He also participated in a United Church program assisting unaccompanied minors from Cambodia to settle in Australia. The program involved active participation in assisting teenagers with frequent visits and family outings, and participation in Cambodian community festivals. Over a three year period he had two separate Cambodian refugee minors living as part of his family.
In China, Graham was formerly president of the Australia and New Zealand Association (ANZA) in Beijing. In that capacity he was responsible for ensuring a charitable component for activities and participated in raising money for various groups operating in China. He was a member of the Ball committee for the Australian Community Ball for three years. And he has provided honorary legal assistance and support to various religious and charity groups working in China.
Gian-Marc and Graham were formally welcomed by the club.
Ambassadorial Scholar from South Korea
Mr. Jon Woo-Jung introduced himself. He is currently an Ambassadorial Scholar from South Korea. Jon is studying International Law at Peking University. He currently holds a law degree from Korea and looks forward to addressing our club in the future. His next speech will be in Chinese.
Ball upates
Ball chair Rtn. Raphael announced that Charles Lagrange is in charge of the tickets. Members who want to buy please contact him or email CA Nancy for reservations. Tickets will be RMB 1000/each, each member is responsible for at least four tickets.
Monthly Birthday celebration
The Birthday cake was cut by Priscilla and Peter Humphrey on behalf of the other members who celebrated their birthdays in March.
Speakers Program:
The Club Secretary introduced the speaker, member Rtn. Alan Babington-Smith who has the distinction of having helmed an America’s Cup racer and being able to quote Homer, in the original Greek of Course. His past work was in the financial field where he set up a number of credit guarantee programs, he currently works as an executive coach, which allows him to combine his Cambridge University education and eastern experience. Alan is also the current co-chair of the Speakers Committee and was willing to step in when our scheduled speaker Rtn. Solomon Rutega was called away due to a death in the family.
Alan gave an excellent talk on the differences in Chinese and Western assumptions and perceptions about leadership. It offered an in depth analysis of the philosophical and cultural differences in approach that separate these cultures. He gave a number of instances where these differences have an impact on business decisions and relationships which were instructive. He concluded that as China is a fast developing country, the standards used now may not be feasible in the near future but that such reasoning was a two edged sword which could also apply to Western concepts.
Alan was given a rousing round of applause and thanked by John for his speech.
