Tectonic Shifts of the Global Economy: Long-Term and Short Term Implications of China's Growing Impact

The Center for East Asian Studies at Stanford University features a talk by Christopher Thomas.

Speaker
Christopher Thomas, Senior Advisor, McKinsey & Company

RSVP required by 5PM November 30

About the seminar
There is often much discussion about the current Chinese economic environment and how it impacts global economic growth. However, to gauge the true impact of China on the world economy, one should look at what will happen over the long term as the country gets closer to the United States in economic strength and maturity. This talk will look at the current trends in the Chinese political and economic arena, the long-term prospects for Chinese economic growth, and how these trends will impact the global economic order. Examples from the technology and internet industry will be used to demonstrate this effect and how China will shape global industries.

About the speaker
Chris joined McKinsey & Company’s Asia leadership team in 2011 as a senior advisor in
technology. He leads engagements for clients in the technology, telecommunications and
semiconductor industries and is taking a leadership role in advanced technology areas both in Asia and globally. Previous to McKinsey, Chris was the General Manager of Intel China,
directly responsible for the overall region’s multi-billion dollar P&L. Chris managed Intel
China’s business operations, its technical and development operations, its strategic programs with enterprise, Internet & government customers, and owned the mobile, server, phone, embedded and consumer electronics product lines. Chris also managed Intel’s Olympics Program. During his 3-year tenure ending in 2010, overall revenue increased by over 80%.

Formerly, Chris was Chief of Staff to Intel Executive Vice President Sean Maloney, assisting
Mr. Maloney in leading Intel’s $15 billion mobile PC business as well as its $45 billion global
Sales & Marketing Group. Chris led Intel’s wireless business unit as well as various business
development, sales, marketing and product management teams at Intel. Chris was previously a private equity investor at The Blackstone Group in New York City. He served as a consultant for Bain & Company in South Africa and led the Board of Directors for Decortech, a privatelyheld technology company.

During a six months sabbatical in 2010, Chris led a major charity program in China and was a visiting professor of strategy at the MIT-Fudan University MBA program in Shanghai. Chris’s academic and policy works have been published by Stanford University; in Opportunity ’08 by the Brookings Institution; and in the Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation textbook by Clayton Christensen and Robert Burgelman. Chris has served as a senior fellow at Tsinghua University and was the author of the ‘Asia Diary’ column for Forbes Online. Chris is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the National Committee on US-China Relations, and an Advisory Board Member for the Seva Foundation.

Chris received an MBA from Stanford Business School (2001), where he was an Arjay Miller
scholar; a Masters of Arts in Political Science from Stanford University (2001); and a Bachelors of Science in Economics, summa cum laude, from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (1996).