www.silkroadassoc.com

Ben Simpfendorfer is Managing Director and Founder of Silk Road Associates based in Hong Kong. He has worked in Asia and the Middle East for the past 20 years and supports a range of multinationals on their strategy planning and leadership.

His strategy solutions and executive programs are in popular demand from leading Fortune 500 firms providing regional and global teams with insights into the region’s fast-changing markets, business models, and management approaches. He also leads the firm’s mid-market consulting work partnering with a range of clients in the consumer and industrial sectors.

Ben was previously chief China economist at RBS and senior China economist at JPMorgan based in Hong Kong. He started his career in Beirut during the early 1990s where he worked as a management consultant. He later joined Dun & Bradstreet based in London as the firm’s Senior Analyst for the Middle East & North Africa assessing commercial and political risk.

Ben speaks Mandarin and Arabic. He is author of The Rise of the New East (Palgrave: 2014), examining commercial opportunities and complexities in the Asia market, and The New Silk Road (Palgrave: 2009), exploring China’s commercial ties with the Middle East. He also writes a regular column for Forbes and features on CNBC, Bloomberg, and CNN.

Ben also advises a prestigious group of Chinese and foreign clients on cross-border business and investment opportunities through his association with Global Strategic Associates, a New York-based international advisory, and RHT Partners, a Dubai-based advisory focused on Asia and the Middle East.