APCO, the global advisory and advocacy firm, today announced an expansion of its Global China offering, appointing Bruce Fu, based in Beijing, as executive director, Global China, to lead the team. The firm is also adding three senior hires as it strengthens an internationally connected team that supports multinational corporates and investors doing business with and in China, as well as China-headquartered companies expanding globally.
The expansion comes as clients navigate an increasingly complex geopolitical and geo-commercial environment, one shaped by Beijing’s growing global influence, the reconfiguring of the global order, reshaping of supply chains and rapidly shifting market access dynamics.
Fu, previously APCO’s managing director for Beijing, continues to be based there as he leads the Global China offering. Sherry Shi, based in Dubai, has been appointed deputy lead, Global China. Yadan Ouyang and Trudy Wang join as senior directors in Shanghai, and Kate Zhao joins as a senior director in New York. Ouyang brings deep experience from Washington, D.C. and Beijing. Wang will serve as head of capital markets and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) for Asia, and Zhao will lead Global China in North America.
The practice is further backed by a deep bench of senior advisors from across APCO’s global network, including Atul Dalakoti, Alfred Dube, Al Gabor, Beth Keck, James McGregor, Mark Michelson, Chris Murck and James Robinson, who bring decades of experience in government, business and international affairs, including Dalakoti’s 20-year tenure as executive director of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry in China; Dube’s senior diplomatic posts; Gabor’s role as chairman of American Chamber of Commerce Shanghai; McGregor’s experience as former Wall Street Journal bureau chief in China and Taiwan; Michelson’s service as chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong; and Murck’s tenure as president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.
“Clients today need a partner who can bring the same quality of counsel to every conversation, whether it starts in Beijing, Singapore, Dubai or anywhere else they do business,” said APCO CEO Brad Staples. “This expanded team reflects that commitment: senior people, working as one, wherever our clients need them.”
“This is about more than outbound or inbound business. It’s about helping clients navigate a geopolitical and geo-commercial environment where decisions made in Beijing have profound implications for operations around the globe,” said Evan Kraus, APCO’s president and managing director of operations. “Supply chains are being redrawn, new market opportunities are emerging, and organizations’ investments, transactions and market access plans are being scrutinized through the lens of geopolitics. This team is built to help clients work through these complexities.”
“Our clients’ questions increasingly run in both directions: Chinese companies figuring out how to operate abroad, and multinationals figuring out how to operate in and with China,” said Chris Torrens, APCO’s managing director for Greater China and chair of the British Chamber of Commerce in China. “This team understands how decisions get made at head offices and how to read the politics of the markets on the other side of that relationship, working as one group across Asia and the rest of the world.”
“Our job is to be the bridge: helping Chinese companies build trust with stakeholders in every market they enter, and helping global companies navigate China with the same confidence,” said Fu. “That only works if the team operates as one, with people who understand both the thinking at head office and the realities on the ground, wherever our clients are.
