Panel D: Marketing and Branding Strategy

Mr. Ken G Kabira is a veteran consumer marketing executive with a background in leading large marketing teams as a chief marketing officer both domestically and abroad.  Mr. Kabira currently serves as Lipman Hearne’s Executive Vice President, Branding and Marketing Consulting Services.  With offices in Chicago and Washington, D.C., Lipman Hearne is the nation’s leading communication and strategy consulting firm which specializes in the nonprofit sector.  The firm’s mission is to help nonprofit institutions of all types and sizes achieve their goals through market research and planning, strategic positioning, and compelling communications.   

Prior to Lipman Hearn, Mr. Kabira served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for National-Louis University in Chicago, Illinois. He led all University-wide planning, marketing and enrollment initiatives, ensuring strong University exposure and meeting enrollment, growth, and retention goals. 

Mr. Kabira's first full-time job was serving as a nurse's aid at a psychiatric hospital in rural Kansas after graduating from Hesston College, a junior college affiliated with the Mennonite Church. After a first-rate introduction to life by his patients, he then moved to Chicago to complete his college education in 1985 at the University of Chicago in behavioral sciences. He later completed his MBA at the University of Chicago in 1992. 

Prior to joining National-Louis University, he was McDonald's Corporation's Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for its operation in Japan, the company's second largest market after the US with over 3,700 restaurants and $3.8 billion in system-wide sales. Mr. Kabira's scope of responsibilities included marketing strategy, brand management, advertising, sales promotion, in-store merchandising, field marketing and product development. 

At McDonald's Japan, his team implemented a turnaround plan centered on the critical 5 P's in retail: People, Product, Place, Price, and Promotion. His creative team won the Best Advertiser Award for the service category in Japan in 2003. In 2004, the team received the prestigious Silver Award in the annual Advertising Festival sponsored by the All Japan Radio & Television Commercial Confederation. The team also won the McDonald's Global Creative Excellence award in two categories in 2004. 

Married with two children, Mr. Kabira and his family live in Naperville, IL. His private passions are bicycle racing and soccer. He raced his bicycle with the University of Chicago Velo Club for many years until his overseas career began. He still says "the worst day racin' is better than the best day workin'." He prefers to be called by his nickname "Kenji," which is his Japanese name although he spells it "Ken G."

Mr. Daniel Ng Yat Chiu founded the first McDonald's restaurant in Hong Kong in 1975, and was instrumental in helping launch McDonald's throughout Asia. Through his leadership and entrepreneurial vision, McDonald's now operate over 200 restaurants in Hong Kong and over 700 in China. He is currently Chairman, Emeritus of McDonald's Restaurants (Hong Kong) Ltd.

A native of Hong Kong, Dr. Ng was educated at the University of Illinois and holds a doctorate degree in chemical engineering from London's Imperial College of Science and Technology. From 1965 to 1972, he worked in Chicago at the Institute of Gas Technology, a subdivision of Illinois Institute of Technology, where he managed projects on environmental protection and energy systems. He returned to Hong Kong in 1972 and, prior to starting McDonald's, served as joint Managing Director of the venture capital company Inter-Asia Management Co., Ltd.

Dr. Ng is Chairman of the Board of AFS Intercultural Programs of Hong Kong, a broad member of the Silk Road Project, Inc., a member of the National Council of Musica Viva Australia, a member of the Executive Committee and Programme Committee of the Hong Kong Arts Festival, a member of the General Committee and the Board of Governors of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Society Limited, and a member of the Council for the Hopkins-Nanjing Center, a joint program by The Johns Hopkins University and Nanjing University.

Dr. Angela Y. Lee is PepsiCo Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University and has served as the faculty advisor for the Global Initiatives in Management (GIM) Program - China and South Africa. Dr. Lee is an expert in consumer psychology. Her research interests include effects of exposure on consumer learning, product evaluation and brand choice, nonconscious influences of memory, goals and motivation, and cross cultural similarities and differences in consumer information processing and decision making.

Dr. Lee is a frequent contributor to top journals in marketing and psychology and an author of two award winning papers. She is also a co-author of a bestseller "Kellogg on Branding," a guide to building strong, enduring brands, and the co-editor of the book "Kellogg on China: Strategies for Success," a compilation of field research that provides insights and strategies for companies seeking to establish a sustainable competitive advantage in China's evolving marketplace.

Dr. Lee received a bachelor degree from the University of Hawaii. She obtained a master of philosophy degree from the University of Hong Kong and a PhD degree from the University of Toronto.