The ACGA Secretariat comprises both full- and part-time staff and specialist consultants who work on a project basis. The Secretariat receives considerable in-kind assistance from ACGA's Founding Corporate Sponsors and other members. The members of the Secretariat are as follows:

STAFF

Jamie Allen, Secretary General
Mr Allen is the founding Secretary General of ACGA, which was incorporated in Hong Kong in 1999. He is a published author and has more than 20 years experience as a writer, editor and analyst covering the economies of Greater China and East Asia from Hong Kong. Prior to the establishment of ACGA in mid-1999, Mr Allen ran his own consulting firm and carried out customised economic research on mainly finance-related topics, including corporate governance, for multinational clients in Asia. From 1992-95 he worked for the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) as editor of Business Asia, a regional management newsletter, and was a contributor to The Economist magazine from 1994-96. Mr Allen began his journalistic career in the late 1980s as a reporter for the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. He is a graduate of the Australian National University, Canberra, where he received a BA (Honours) in political science and Chinese language.

Over 2001 to 2007, Mr Allen was a member of the Public Shareholders Group, a committee formed by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission to advise it on shareholder rights and corporate governance matters in Hong Kong.

In May 2006, Mr Allen was appointed to the Listing Committee of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (SEHK). The Listing Committee is the body responsible for approving all new listings on the SEHK, deciding changes to the listing rules, and undertaking review and disciplinary hearings. Mr Allen was reappointed to this committee for a fourth year in June 2009.

Sharmila Gopinath, Research Manager
Ms Gopinath joined ACGA in 2005. She is a former journalist with a background in business writing and editing. During her career she has worked in Hong Kong, New York and Singapore, covering topics such as information technology, general business and finance. From 2000-2001 she reported for Computer Times in Singapore.

Ms Gopinath began her journalistic career as a reporter for the Hong Kong Standard in the mid-80s. She holds a BA in English from the University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George.

Barbara Ko, Administration & Membership Manager
Ms Ko joined ACGA in May 2007. She has more than 18 year's experience in office administration, human resource management, accounting, secretarial work and trade merchandising. She began her career working for a Hong Kong clothing manufacturer before moving to Wilsons Leather, a leading specialty retailer of leather products headquartered in the United States. Ms Ko began as an associate merchandiser at Wilsons and worked her way up to Office Manager, Asia Operations. She has a Bachelor of Business Management in Marketing from RMIT University, Australia, and received a diploma in management studies from the Hong Kong Management Association.

Charles Lee, Advocacy Manager
Mr Lee joined ACGA in September 2009. A Korean-American, he has two decades of experience as a journalist and analyst in Asia, the US and Europe. Most recently, he wrote about economic and political developments in key Asian countries for the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), and edited its biweekly newsletter Business China from Hong Kong. He was also associate director, China, for EIU Corporate Network, a business advisory service, for three years.

Before that, he was deputy op-ed editor and an editorial writer at the South China Morning Post, a regional business correspondent at Asiaweek and Seoul bureau chief at the Far Eastern Economic Review. He began his journalism career in the foreign news department at Newsweek in New York, following stints as a researcher at the OECD in Paris and the Congressional Research Service in Washington, DC. Mr Lee graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), with a BA in political science and economics, and has an MA from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where he studied international relations.

Christopher Leahy, Editor-at-Large
Mr Leahy has a full-time position with a regional investigation firm and works for ACGA on a part-time basis, writing for our monthly newsletter and regional reports. His association with ACGA began in 2003. He was formerly Asian Editor, Euromoney, a leading international financial magazine, and a contributing editor for Asiamoney.

Prior to embarking on a journalistic career, Mr Leahy enjoyed a successful career as a stockbroker, CFO and investment banker both in the UK and Asia with a number of leading financial institutions, including Warburg Securities (now UBS), BNP Paribas Peregrine and Crosby. He was based in Hong Kong from the mid-1990s to 2005, when he moved to Singapore.

Jing Tian, Summer Intern
Ms Tian joined ACGA in June 2009 as a summer intern. She recently completed a LLM (Corporate and Financial Law) in the Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong. Prior to that she earned LLB and B.A.(English) degrees in Shandong University, China and worked as an apprentice lawyer and part-time English interpreter for one year. Ms Tian holds the China Judicial Qualification and China Advanced English Interpreter credentials. She has previous research experience and now works as a research assistant in ACGA tracking corporate governance issues in the People's Republic of China.

CONSULTANTS

Julia Mart, Interaction Event Management Ltd
Ms Mart is engaged by ACGA to manage the venue and logistics for our annual conference. She has worked on each of our eight annual events in Hong Kong (twice), Singapore (twice), Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo and Mumbai.

ACCOUNTS

ACGA's accounts are prepared by Arthur C. Mo & Co, a local CPA firm based in Hong Kong.

AUDITOR

ACGA's accounts are audited each year by BDO, Hong Kong.