That Guy From China

A quickie bio:

I was born and raised in Ontario, mostly in the village of Thamesville (pop. 1000), and attended Brock University in St. Catharines.

One of my abiding passions has always been to learn about different cultures, so in 1993 I went to China, originally planning to stay for only one or two years.  But one or two years turned into five years, then ten years, then fifteen years.  I’ve just recently returned to Canada (for a variety of rather complicated reasons), but do plan to go back to China.  In the interim, I’m working as a consultant with the Canada Asia Business Network, helping Canadians who are interested in doing business with China.

During my time in China, I established two companies: New Leaders International, which was set up in cooperation with a Taiwanese partner; and ShouLingTong, a company that I established on my own.  In 2005, I also established a non-profit organization, the Lugu Lake Mosuo Cultural Development Association, to work with a Chinese minority group, the Mosuo (The Mosuo are one of the last remaining matriarchal cultures on the planet, and have no system of marriage in their culture…if you’re interested, check out our organization’s website).

One of the things that dismayed me while I was in China was how few Canadian businesses were doing anything there.  Americans, Australians, and Europeans are going into China very aggressively, but Canadian businesses are doing very little at all.  So in returning to Canada, one of my main goals is to encourage Canadian businesses to go to China.  With that in mind, I’ve set up the China Challenge seminar, a monthly seminar that will help Canadians to better understand how to do business in China, and push them to get off their butts to actually do something!

I do plan to return to China, but right now am not sure when that will be.  In the meantime, I’ll be working hard to build my network here in Vancouver, and to hopefully continue to foster communication and understanding across the ocean, between Canada and China.