Team Bios

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Current Role

Founder and CEO, Kaya Consulting International Ltd. Kaya is the first registered Hong Kong firm to offer professionally-qualified ethnography-based research and consulting services. Kaya’s focus is Asia, specializing in cross-border/cross-cultural solutions. Core strengths include market and consumer research; market entry feasibility; cross-cultural management and education; outbound investment advising; and CSR in the Asia context. Kaya’s client list includes startups, Chinese SMEs, multinational corporations, and foundations. 

Assistant Professor (Adjunct), Department of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, specializing in culture and business.

Community service I have been promoting work-integrated learning (WIL)—bringing businesses, educators, and funders together to implement effective solutions for school-to-work transition and employee talent development; and pro-bono consulting for secondary colleges in Hong Kong and tertiary institutions in the Philippines.

Experience and Skills

My professional and academic work focuses on East and Southeast Asia, with over 25 years of in-country experience across China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand. In market research and organizational consulting, I combine ethnography with proven qualitative and quantitative methods. At Kaya, my practice has covered projects from craft beer to toys, supply chain management and China OFDI marketing strategy, and given me the opportunity to engage with the startup ecosystem and discover under-the-radar regional market trends. I also draw on diverse professional experience in education, program development, grants management, and professional writing, editing, and translation.

Languages

English Native speaker

Chinese (Mandarin)   Near-native (speak, read, write; modern/classical)

Cantonese, Taiwanese Working knowledge

French, Italian Good reading ability; basic speaking 

Tagalog Basic knowledge

Relevant Work Experience

Current:

Founder and CEO Kaya Consulting International Ltd. (Hong Kong) 

Assistant Professor  (Adjunct) Chinese University of Hong Kong, Anthropology 

Previous:

Program Director United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia (Hong Kong) 

Assistant Professor University of Texas at Austin, Asian Studies   

Visiting Scholar Academia Sinica, Institute of Ethnology (Taiwan) 

Visiting Scholar Cornell University, East Asia Program  

Qualifications

PhD Anthropology Cornell University

MA Far Eastern Languages and Civilizations University of Chicago

BA Philosophy  Brandeis University 

Registered Consultant, Asian Development Bank (ADB)

Member (by nomination), National Committee for US-China Relations