Speakers

Keynote Speakers in 2012, Beijing PRC:

Virginia Huang
Senior Director, Office Services, North China
CB Richard Ellis

Virginia is the Head of Office Services, North China, taking an overall responsibility of strategic planning and business operation for Office Services business line in North region of China. As one of the longest-serving employees in the Beijing office, Virginia Huang was involved in re-establishing the CBRE Beijing office in 1997. With over a decade’s professional experience and excellent performance, she has served most of the well-known international and domestic firms with real estate solution in northeast China. Virginia is leading a strong team who has assisted a wide variety of corporations in different industries including; banking, insurance, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, hi-tech enterprises and tourism. She and her team provide a full range of Tenant Representation Services.

May Lam
Head of CRES, Hong Kong and Japan
Corporate Real Estate Services
Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited

May Lam is managing the corporate real estate services for Hong Kong and Japan. May joined SCB in May 2010. Being the Head of CRES May covers the corporate services of facility management, asset/portfolio management, project management and risk management. The branch network has been expanding rapidly recently. The major challenge this year for CRES is cost containment yet to deliver solid asset / transaction results supporting business growth.
Prior to Standard Chartered Bank May worked with Hewlett Packard for 14 years. During her tenure with HP she worked as a Financial Operations Manager, Program Manager for HP’s Next Generation Workplace initiative in Asia-Pacific. May was also responsible for the Merger, Acquisition, Divestiture and Outsourcing function since 2005. In 2007, May took over the Corporate Real Estate portfolio and became the Director of Strategy and Transaction for the APJ region.
May holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and administrative studies from York University in Canada. She is also a Chartered Accountant. May is located in Kwun Tong, Hong Kong.

Lynn Sim
Head of Real Estate, Consumer Banking
Business Alignment & Asset Management
Corporate Real Estate Services
Standard Chartered Bank

Lynn Sim joined Standard Chartered Bank in September 2011 as Head of Real Estate for Consumer Banking. Lynn’s role is to align the business strategy from a group level with the countries in optimizing real estate portfolio for consumer bank. The portfolio is primarily retail driven in 73 countries from branches to automated lobby. She looks into the portfolio management of the assets, strategy formulation and implementation, ensures consistency in the transaction management process and aligns investment allocation in each country.
Prior to joining Standard Chartered Bank, Lynn worked with Savills for 10 years in 4 different cities and countries namely Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai and Beijing. Last she was the Head of Retail, North China based in Beijing. She was responsible for the retail brokerage and consultancy business for the company. Being in the service provider, she was able to gain extensive knowledge of the market, competitors, retailers and developers. She ensured “best in class” practice in delivery to clients and managed to secure retail consultancy and marketing appointment from developers such as China Resources, Tianjin Infrastructure and Investment Company (SOE), Beijing Hualian Company, etc. She also headed the tenancy advisory business for North China serving retailers such as H&M, Apple, Abercrombie and Fitch, Fendi, Dolce & Gabbana, Inditex Group, etc.

Cathy Xiong
Workplace Solutions Manager APAC & China
Nokia

Cathy is Workplace Solutions Manager APAC & China, who is the regional focal point for all Nokia Workplace Resources workplace planning and concept development. The She has been with Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks for more than 10 years to develop new office concept, guidelines and tools with Global Workplace Solutions Team. She also engages in tactical project and facility delivery to ensure the solutions are smoothly implemented in bothefficient and effective way operationally.
Cathy has been actively participated in CoreNet event as a Membership Chair and Program China for Beijing Chapter.

Graeme Scannell
General Manager (China)
Adrianse Group

Graeme, General Manager of Adrianse Group for China has nearly 20 years of experience working within the commercial office industry. His has vast experience in Workplace strategy, Interior design consultancy, design & build & project management. Graeme has worked in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia so has a good understanding on where to recommend the ideal project procurement route dependant on the project requirements and restrictions.

Echo Zhang
Director of Leasing Service, China
Treasury China Trust

Ms. Echo Zhang is responsible for marketing and leasing of the commercial portfolio of TCT. She has more than 12 years experience in real estate industry and specializes in marketing and leasing of large scale office properties. Prior to joining Treasury Holdings in 2008, Ms. Zhang was with CB Richard Ellis as Associate Director. She has previously worked for Jones Lang LaSalle and Regus, a worldwide serviced office provider.

Ms Zhang completed the Real Estate Program offered by Oxford Brookes University and is a registered member of Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

Andrew Dawson
Executive Director – Facilities Management
Sodexo China

An highly experienced Facilities Management professional with varied exposure to the Defense, Entertainment and Leisure, Healthcare and Corporate Markets in Australia, New Zealand and most recently China. Andrew has had extensive experience in the Hotel Industry both in Europe and Australia. He has majored in Business Management specializing in Hospitality Management. Prior to his current role he leads Sodexo’s Facility Management Business in Australia and New Zealand as its Executive Director.

Stephen Tam
Technical Director
Synergis Management Services

Stephen is the Technical Director, who is responsible for technical operations and maintenance strategy for the projects in Mainland China. Stephen has over 30 years technical and engineering experience in high class commercial, residential and shopping mall in Hong Kong and Mainland China. He also has extensive experience in providing consultancy, due diligence, project management and green building consultation and accreditation for various MNCs and high-class buildings in Mainland China. Stephen was graduated from City University of Hong Kong with Master of Science in Building Engineering and Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Housing Studies.

John McHugh
Partner | Beijing Location Leader
EC Harris

John McHugh is a Partner and the Beijing Location Leader with international consulting firm EC Harris. A Canadian national, John is a professional project management consultant with over 12 years of experience in China. He has been providing project consulting services for numerous international clients with operations based in China including Nokia, Pfizer, NBA, Adidas, Nike, Apple, Nokia Siemens Networks, the United States Embassy, the Canada Embassy, and Ericsson.

Helen Tsang
General Manager
DB&B (Shanghai)

Helen is a multi-lingual team leader with more than 20 years of interior design and construction management experience for a variety of project types; spanning commercial offices, retail and entertainment spaces.
As General Manager for DB&B Shanghai, Helen manages and leads a team of more than 70 personnel, delivering world-class commercial projects for multi-national companies. Amongst others, Helen successfully engineered the delivery of office spaces for Siemens, Dupont, Coca-Cola, Michelin, Ernst & Young and McDonald’s in recent years.
With a solid background in interior design, Helen also successfully expanded her proficiencies to manage key projects in China as well as throughout Asia. Her extensive experience has proven to be a key benefit for multinational clients in the evolving China market. Prior to DB&B, Helen worked with other renowned commercial fit-out companies such as M Moser Associates as well as Steven J Leach & Associates.

Steve Date
Director
ISG Realys