The Future of China in the Economic Downturn
Thursday, February 26, 2009 | 04:00 PM

Timothy Beardson, Chairman of the China Oxford Scholarship Fund
Room 319, Kroon Hall, 195 Prospect St., New Haven

Timothy Beardson has a M.A. Honours Degree in Modern History from Christ Church, Oxford University. He is Chairman of the China Oxford Scholarship Fund, which grants scholarships to Chinese graduates to study at Oxford, Honorary Fellow of Sarum College in Salisbury and was a patron of Outward Bound in Britain from 1997 to 2002. He is involved in coaching young entrepreneurs. He speaks often at events such as the World Economic Forum at Davos and the China Global Business Summit and has been invited frequently to speak in China to institutions such as Beijing University, the Beijing Foreign Affairs University, the Beijing International Finance Forum, the Shanghai Municipal Government and the Institute of Marxism-Leninism.

From 1984 to 1999, he was Chairman, chief executive and majority shareholder of Crosby. Crosby became the largest independent investment bank in the Far East. It employed 650 staff in 24 offices in 17 cities in 10 countries from New York to Beijing. Crosby was the first international investment bank to open in China, Thailand and Malaysia. Crosby was the only foreign firm invited to participate in the working party to set up the Shanghai Stock Exchange. He sold the bank in stages between 1996 and 1999. The scale of the bank's operations and the valuation on sale led to Timothy Beardson being described as the leading English entrepreneur in Hong Kong during the latter part of the twentieth century.

He is currently the Chairman of Albert Place Holdings Limited which is a private investment holding company with interests in a wide range of industries and countries including corporate advice, private equity, industrial design, real estate, and Chinese medicine.

Reception to follow.