Matthew Forney spent a dozen years in Beijing as a journalist for America’s leading publications. Most recently he served as bureau chief of Time magazine; before that he was a staff correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. In 2003 he won a Luce Award for public service for a series of articles on China’s outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). He has written extensively about China’s oil industry, both its efforts to acquire overseas assets and to maximize domestic production. Mr. Forney is currently an affiliate with Twin Poplars, a Beijing-based  consultancy with expertise in Chinese media and tech industries (www.twinpoplars.com).

Robert J. Kinsella, President, founded Kinsella Group in 1988. Over the past 25 years he has developed a broad range of experience in acquisitions, sales and turnaround management consulting. He currently serves on the board of directors for two client companies.

Mr. Kinsella began his professional career with a Fortune 500 company, negotiating both product and company acquisitions. In 1981, he began acquiring, building and then selling businesses for his own account, in the process gaining significant knowledge of the printing, metal forming and office furniture industries, as well as product sourcing in Asia.

In the 1990's he acquired eight business-form and specialty printing companies, consolidated all operations in Texas, established a focused sales effort, and added digital printing capabilities as well as direct mail distribution of stock and custom forms. Under his tenure, the businesses captured as customers some of the largest property management companies and largest associations in the United States. Mr. Kinsella exited the businesses via successful sales in the late 1990's.

Also in the 1990's, Mr. Kinsella acquired an auto accessory manufacturing company with metal stamping, nickel chrome plating and painting operations. He re-sourced all production from Taiwan, Hong Kong and some domestic sources, while retaining finishing operations and distribution in the U.S. He also began an office furniture importing operation, sourcing product of his design from Taiwan and South Korea and generating a flow of 26 container loads of product per month into the U.S. Both businesses were eventually sold successfully.

As a frequent traveler to Asia, Mr. Kinsella has developed significant, active contact networks in the primary industrialized areas of China, as well as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. In 2004, he joined Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, Mr. William Daley, Vice Chairman JPMorgan Chase, Lester Crown, CEO Material Services, Bob Barnett, Executive Vice President, Motorola, Philip Condit, former President/CEO Boeing Corporation and other business and civic leaders on a trade mission to Shanghai and Beijing, where the delegation met with major Chinese political and business leaders.

Mr. Kinsella also has extensive experience in managing turnarounds in the construction industry and a wide range of manufacturing and distribution industries. He has successfully led a number of acquisition search initiatives for middle-market, privately held clients, divisional searches for billion-dollar-plus publicly traded clients, and platform searches for private equity firms.

Mr. Kinsella has a Master of Management degree from the J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University, and a Bachelor of Science degree with majors in Economics and Finance from the University of Missouri. Upon receiving his bachelor's degree he entered the U.S. Navy Officer training program in Newport, RI, was commissioned an officer and subsequently completed Supply Corp training in Athens GA. He served as supply officer aboard the Destroyer USS Ozbourn in Vietnam. He is also a golfer and private pilot.

Richard Li Tzar Kai is chairman of PCCW Limited, the largest provider of communications services in Hong Kong and one of Asia's leading players in Information and Communications Technologies (ICT).  He is also chairman and chief executive of the Pacific Century Group, chairman of Singapore-based Pacific Century Regional Developments Limited and Pacific Century Premium Developments Limited.

Before founding the Pacific Century Group, Mr. Li built STAR TV, Asia's first satellite-delivered cable-TV service in 1990. The sale of STAR TV to News Corp. in 1993 provided the capital to launch the Pacific Century Group later that year.

Mr. Li is a member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies' International Councilors Group in Washington, DC; and a member of the Global Information Infrastructure Commission.

Mr. Li is also a Council Member of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Richard Leftwich received a Bachelor of Commerce degree (with First Class Honors in Accounting) from the University of Queensland (Australia) in 1968 and was awarded a University Gold Medal for outstanding performance.  He worked in Australia as a financial analyst at the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (now CSR), a chief accountant for a mining consulting firm and a lecturer in accounting at the University of Queensland.  He became a member of the Australian Society of Accountants in 1968 and is now an Australian CPA.

Dr. Leftwich moved to the United States in 1974 to attend graduate school at the University of Rochester, New York in 1974. He received a Masters in Science (Business Administration) and a Ph. D. in Applied Economics and Finance from the Graduate School of Management at the University of Rochester in 1980. 

Dr. Leftwich joined the faculty of the Graduate School of Business (GSB) at the University of Chicago in 1979.  He was granted tenure in 1984 and is now the Deputy Dean for the Faculty in the Graduate School of Business and the Heller and Fuji Bank Professor of Accounting and Finance.  He teaches courses in investments, financial statement analysis and corporate finance to MBA students and Executive MBA students in the U.S., London and Singapore, and to executives in the Executive Education Programs of the GSB.

Dr. Leftwich has published in peer-reviewed academic journals in accounting and finance and has served on the editorial boards of several of those journals. He is currently a co-editor of the Journal of Accounting Research, a prestigious academic journal.

In addition to his teaching and research responsibilities, Dr. Leftwich was the Director of the Center for Research in Security Prices from 1985 until 1989 and Director of the Seminar on the Analysis of Securities Prices from 1985 until 1995.

Dr. Leftwich has received several awards for his research and teaching activities.  He was awarded the AICPA Notable Contribution Award in 1984, the Distinguished Alumnus for Academic Achievement from the Graduate School of Management of the University of Rochester in 1985, and the McKinsey Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1994.  He was also awarded a Marvin Bower Fellowship at the Harvard Business School in 1986-1987.

Dr. Leftwich has consulted to financial institutions and has taught finance and accounting courses in financial institutions’ training programs for both trainees and senior executives.  He has also served as an expert witness in federal, state and local courts.

Dr. Leftwich and his family enjoy tennis, sailing, travel, and music. He is particularly fond of cricket, Vegemite and warm weather.

In his capacity as Chief Trade Counsel, Mr. Pomper has traveled extensively throughout Asia and met with leaders across the continent.  He has been involved in all Asia-related trade and economic issues for the last several years, including existing U.S. Free Trade Agreements with Singapore and Australia; ongoing negotiations with Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand; and possible future initiatives with Japan and ASEAN.  He has also advised on China’s compliance with its World Trade Organization commitments; Vietnam’s entry into the World Trade Organization; and market access issues in China, Japan, India, Korea, and elsewhere.

Mr. Pomper has worked on the staff of the Finance Committee since 2003.  From 1997 until 2003, he worked at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, where he focused on international trade, litigation, and intellectual property matters.  Before entering private law practice, he served as a law clerk for the Hon. Sidney R. Thomas of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Billings, Montana.

A Chicago native, Mr. Pomper earned a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering with honors from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a law degree magna cum laude from the Cornell University Law School, where he was managing editor of the Cornell International Law Journal.  He is also a member of the Patent Bar.  He and his wife Anne Kim – Senior Policy Advisor and Director of the Middle Class Initiative for Third Way – live in Falls Church, Virginia with their infant son Alexander.