Team

Our team serve in an individual capacity and in no way represent any organisation, company or political party with which they may be otherwise associated.

Executive

🇬🇧 Frank Slevin, Chair
Frank is a founding Director of UKNCC and a seasoned chairman and board advisor. During his career he has worked as a banker in regional and global roles and has extensive experience in the Far East and the Americas. Frank lived in Hong Kong for 17 years working at the forefront of the emergence of Chinese companies onto the international stage from the 1990’s. He has operated as adviser on foreign investment into China and Chinese investment overseas. Formerly, he was Chairman of House of Fraser and Hamleys, where he navigated culturally contrasting ownership and managerial styles. He also chairs British Cycling.

🇬🇧 Ollie Shiell, Chief Executive
Ollie is a founding Director and Chief Executive of UKNCC. He served as China Ambassador for the Ditchley Foundation 2018-22 and was founding executive of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in Europe 2011-15. He was Director of Development and Corporate Relations at Oxford University, Saïd Business School from 2004-11. A graduate of the RNCM, he speaks Mandarin. Board experience includes London Symphony Orchestra, Social Bite and China-Britain Business Council. Ollie has worked on China related education and bilateral dialogue for over a decade.

🇬🇧 Andrew Cainey, Director
Andrew is a founding Director of UKNCC and has over 25 years’ experience advising companies and governments on China. Previous positions include Managing Partner of Booz & Company’s Greater China operations, Partner-in-charge for Asian Government Advisory with Tony Blair Associates and Partner leading the Asia-Pacific Financial Institutions Practice of Boston Consulting Group. He is a Senior Associate Fellow at RUSI and a non executive director of Schroder Asian Total Return Investment Company PLC. A graduate of Harvard Business School and Cambridge University he speaks French, German, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese.

🇬🇧 David Percival MBE, Director
David is a founding Director of UKNCC and Chairman of the Manchester-China Forum. He spent over 10 years in China both as a UK diplomat and in the private sector. He has been directly involved in over $7 billion in deal flow from China to UK across several sectors: including education, real estate, infrastructure and M&A. Between 2008-12, David was Director of the UK Governments Investment Network across China and Senior British Commercial Consul, overseeing UK Government relations with over 400 Chinese companies and advising UK Prime Minister and Chancellor. David was Vice-Chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce, Shanghai for 6 years. In 2011, David was made a Member of the British Empire for his role as the UK’s Commercial Director to Shanghai World Expo 2010.

🇬🇧 Charlie Du Cane, Associate Director
Charlie has spent 15 years in the shipping industry largely working in and with China, where he lived from 2007 to 2020. His career has focused on selling shipping services to Chinese companies, as well as manging the onshore presence of various international maritime groups in China. He is now working in London helping build a UK based ship-owning business. He is also an angel investor and has been active in the non-profit sector in China. He is a regular contributor to various professional and current affairs publications on politics, business and China.

🇺🇸 Sam Waldo, Associate Director
10+ years experience building organisations as an entrepreneur. He graduated with a BA in Economics and East Asian Languages & Cultures from Columbia University and was recognised by Forbes Under 30 as a leading Social Entrepreneur. He earned his MBA from Cambridge University as a Beyond Profit Scholar. Sam‘s role at UKNCC is to support the business planning, operations and learning and development of the team.

🇬🇧 Dr. Paul Jefferiss, Programme Leader, Climate Change and Sustainability
Paul has over 30 years’ executive, non-executive and advisory experience on energy and climate change in government, the private sector, NGOs and academia. He is currently a Non-Executive Director of the Carbon Trust and recently stepped down as bp’s global Head of Policy and Partnerships, where he managed the company’s positions and relationships on energy, climate and the environment for over a decade. Previously, he worked as Executive Director of the Green Alliance in London and as Energy Programme Director at the Union of Concerned Scientists in the US. He has advised the Clinton and Blair governments on energy and climate policy and was a UK Regulator of Renewable Fuels. He has given evidence on energy and climate to numerous Parliamentary committees. He has degrees from Cambridge, Harvard and Tufts, where he lectured on Environmental Management for UNEP. He was honoured by Her Majesty the Queen as Pioneer to the Life of the Nation for services to the environment.

🇨🇳 Wenjing GU, Senior Project Lead, Climate Change and Sustainability
Wenjing has over a decade’s experience on sustainability and climate change both within the Chinese university system and with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Through her work she made significant contributions to the establishment of The Green Belt and Road Investor Alliance and the China-Africa Environmental Cooperation Centre. Wenjing holds a BA in Chinese Language and Literature from East China Normal University and an MA in English Language Teaching with a Specialism in Information Communication Technology (ICT) from the University of Warwick, UK.

Associates and Interns:

🇬🇧 Betty Brenman
Graduated from Newcastle University in 2022 with a BA in Chinese Studies. Completed a virtual year abroad at BLCU in 2020. Currently working as a translator and editor for an international education company.

🇬🇧 Stefan Harvey
Stefan Harvey has a BA in Chinese studies with Korean from the University of Oxford and an MA in Intercultural Communication studies from Shanghai Theatre Academy. He has interpreted for British politicians in Beijing and for Chinese academics in the West.

🇬🇧 Christian John Hayward
MSc in Chinese Studies, majoring in advanced language and the history/structure of the CPC at The University of Edinburgh with BA (Hons) from University of Wales Trinity Saint David in Mandarin Chinese and modern Chinese history.

🇬🇧 Alice Johnson
Currently studying for an MSc in China and Globalisation at King’s College London having completed an MA in Chinese at the University of Edinburgh. I also spent several months attending a Korean language program in Seoul.

🇫🇷 Elsa Katz
Studying her Masters of Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, with BA in International Affairs, George Washington University.

🇬🇧 Jonah Kaplan
An analyst for Asia at Dragonfly, a geopolitical advisory firm, Jonah completed a BA in Chinese Studies from the University of Oxford and an MA in International Studies at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center. He has travelled widely in China and Taiwan and writes regularly in English and Mandarin on the developments in the UK-China relationship.

🇬🇧 James Marmol
Studied Masters of Arts, Chinese Studies at The University of Edinburgh, a British national who grew up in Shanghai studying at Dulwich International School and then Winchester College, U.K.

🇬🇧 Tom Perry
Tom is a Sir Andrew Witty Scholar at Nottingham University who read Management studies in Malaysia whilst travelling in Asia. His experiences travelling in Asia informed his perceptions of the world and he now considers that understanding China must be a strategic priority for Britain. He also works for Unilever in Cyber-Security helping the organisation develop resiliency towards cyber-attacks.

🇨🇳 Jessica SHAO
Studying International Political Economy with a Certificate in Diplomatic Studies at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service. Currently an exchange student at the London School of Economics. Originally from Shanghai, she has lived and worked in China and the US.

🇬🇧 Ellie Shiell
Studying a BA at the UK Centre for Events Management (UKCEM) at Leeds Beckett University, focusing on complex and challenging issues within events management – including operations of event organisations and their management, and how to plan events in a sustainable way.

🇨🇦 Ioana Turcan
Ioana is doing a dual degree BA between Sciences Po Paris and University College London, majoring in International Relations with a special interest in China. Originally Romanian, she has lived in Canada and France.

🇨🇳 Chengkai XIE
Chengkai is the first Chinese born President of Oxford Union, studied PPE at Brasenose College, Oxford University. He joined the Schwarzman Scholars Programme in Sept 2022 studying at Tsinghua.