Supporting Organizations:
Association of Corporate Counsel Southern California
Hong Kong Business Association of Hawaii
Event Sponsors:
Speakers' Profiles:
Noelle Tai
Yahoo! Hong Kong
Ms Tai joined Yahoo! Hong Kong as its General
Counsel in early 2003.
Yahoo! is the premier Internet media conglomerate.
What started as a student hobby (of founders David File and
Jerry Yang, then Ph.D candidates in Electrical Engineering
at Stanford University) has evolved into a global brand. Yahoo!
has grown into a worldwide essential Internet service for
consumers and businesses. A leading provider of comprehensive
online products and services, Yahoo! is the number one Internet
brand and the most trafficked online destination. Yahoo!'s
global network includes 25 world properties and is available
in 13 languages. In 2006, Yahoo is honored by Fortune© to
be the Best 100 Companies to Work.
As the General Counsel of Yahoo! Hong Kong,
she heads the local legal team, whose functions range from
the provision of legal advice and services to regulatory and
SOX compliance. She is also a member of the core management
group, which enables her to provide legal input at the top
level and help manage the company.
Ms Tai graduated from the University of Hong
Kong and has more than 10 years' legal experience in private
practice and in-house positions. Prior to joining Yahoo!,
she was a member of British American Tobacco's Greater China
legal team.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Ralph Ybema
CSMC Technologies Corp.
Ralph Ybema is a corporate-commercial lawyer
based in Hong Kong. For 15 years, he has occupied senior advisory
and managerial functions in the legal departments of such
major multinational corporations as Computer Sciences Corporation
of the US and Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands.
He has been lead counsel in a full range of cross-border commercial
transactions with an individual contract value of up to US$
350 Million, including M&A, Joint Ventures and large-scale
IT contracts.
A Member of the Board of Hong Kong-listed CSMC
Technologies Corp. based in Wuxi, Ralph has an inside perspective
on the business affairs of a major player in the mainland
Chinese semiconductor industry.
Ralph has been voted one of Asia's "Hot
100" lawyers (not, to his knowledge, by virtue of his
looks) by the Asian Legal Business magazine. This is in part
due to his being founding -and current- President of the Hong
Kong Corporate Counsel Association and founding Secretary
of the Singapore Corporate Counsel Association. Ralph frequently
speaks at high profile events in China and across the Asia-Pacific
region. Past engagements include Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou,
Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, Auckland and Indonesia, besides
Istanbul, The Hague and other locations in the Netherlands
and elsewhere in Europe.
Ralph's name is included in the list of mediators
and arbitrators of the Hong Kong International Arbitration
Centre and he serves on the highly regarded Professional Services
Advisory Committee of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council.
Although Ralph spent most of his professional
career in Asia and speaks Mandarin Chinese, he has actual
negotiation and drafting experience in Dutch, English, French,
Italian and Spanish. Combined with his command of German he
therefore provides a powerful set of legal language skills,
rare if not unique in the Far East.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Jonathan Ross
Legal Counsel Bank of China (Hong Kong) Ltd.
Mr. Ross is legal counsel at the Bank of China
(Hong Kong), enjoying the perverse distinction of being the
only guailo in the bank. Since he joined the bank he has worked
on the listing and listing-related matters and on major transactions
(such as the Government Bond and the sale of NPLs) and has
worked closely with all the departments in the bank to help
with their legal inquiries. Recently he has played a central
role in developing the legal framework for RMB business.
He spent 10 years at Skadden Arps, a major American
law firm specializing in large scale international capital
markets and M&A transactions, many of which were in China.
These included IPOs for, among others, Shanghai Petrochemical,
Huaneng Power and Shanghai Industrial. He also worked on many
acquisitions and deals for private equity funds. After Skadden,
he spent a year as a partner at another major US law firm.
Prior to becoming a lawyer Mr. Ross earned a
Ph.D. degree in cultural anthropology, doing his fieldwork
in a village next to Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan. He considers
the experience of being the only foreigner in a Chinese village
serves him well in his current position.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Clara Wong
Accenture
Clara Wong is a Senior Counsel for Asia at Accenture.
She took up her current role after having worked for several
years as Director of Legal Services for Greater China and
A sia . Her other in-house experience includes carrier business
legal adviser for a large telecom company. She has a law degree
from the University of Hong Kong, and practiced as a solicitor
for some time before earning a MBA and taking on an in-house
legal career.
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For enquiries, please contact:
Hong Kong Association of Southern California
350 South Figueroa Street, Suite 139
Los Angeles, CA 90071
Tel: (213) 622-9446; Fax: (213) 622-9558
Email: info@hkasc.org
Ranee Ma or Rebecca Fu
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