Henry M. Paulson, Jr., is a businessman, conservationist, and author. He is the founder and chairman of the Paulson Institute. He also serves as executive chairman of TPG Rise Climate.

Paulson served as the 74th Secretary of the Treasury under President George W. Bush, from July 2006 to January 2009. As Treasury Secretary, Paulson led the nation’s response to the financial crisis of 2008, helping to stabilize the global financial system and avoid a second Great Depression. He also designed the Strategic Economic Dialogue to revitalize the way US-China relations were conducted, achieving major breakthroughs on currency manipulation, trade flows, the environment, food and product safety, and global financial stability.

Prior to that, he had a thirty-two-year career at Goldman Sachs, serving as co-chairman and co-CEO in 1998 and as chairman and CEO beginning in 1999. As a banker, he grew the Goldman Sachs presence in China, believing that it was important to bring best in class practices and standards to China.

Today, he is chairman of the Paulson Institute, which aims to foster a US-China relationship that maintains global order in a rapidly evolving world. A “think and do” tank founded in 2011, the Institute operates at the intersection of economics, financial markets, environmental protection, and policy advocacy, in part by promoting balanced and sustainable economic growth.

In 2021, Paulson helped launch and became executive chairman of TPG Rise Climate, the climate investing platform of the global private equity firm TPG. His leadership of TPG Rise Climate reflects his belief that there is an urgent need to accelerate action against climate change, and that innovative vehicles for private sector financing will be essential for meeting the challenge.

Paulson is co-chair of the Aspen Institute’s Economic Strategy Group, along with former US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. The Economic Strategy Group convenes, in a non-partisan spirit, a diverse range of distinguished leaders and thinkers to address significant structural challenges in the US economy.

Paulson also co-chairs the Advisory Board of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum, a conference of global leaders focused on emerging economies and technologies. The New Economy Forum is committed to promoting the smooth transition from the old economy—one based on labor-intensive manufacturing and trade in goods—to a new one focused on industrial automation, digital services, and exchanges of data.

A lifelong conservationist, Paulson was Chairman of The Nature Conservancy Board of Directors and founded and co-chaired the organization’s Asia-Pacific Council. In 2011, he founded the Latin American Conservation Council, comprised of global business and political leaders, which he co-chaired until 2017. He also co-chaired the Risky Business Project from 2013 to 2017, a non-partisan initiative that quantified and publicized the economic risks of climate change in the United States.

Paulson is the author of the bestsellersOn the Brink and Dealing with China. He is also the co-author of two books with Ben Bernanke and Tim Geithner: First Responders and Firefighting.

Paulson graduated from Dartmouth College in 1968 and received an M.B.A. from Harvard University in 1970. He and his wife, Wendy, have two children and four grandchildren.

Mr. WANG Shi is a leading business entrepreneur, public opinion leader, philanthropist, environmentalist, avid mountaineer, rower, and outdoor enthusiast. He is the founder and Honorary Chairman of Vanke Board and Chairman of Vanke Foundation.

Mr. Wang is known in China initially for his business entrepreneurship, having been recognized as one of China’s most influential business leaders by mainstream media outlets at home and abroad such as CCTV, Fortune, Hurun, etc. He founded Vanke in 1984 during a period when China’s private economy started to develop. Under his leadership, Vanke has grown into the world’s largest residential property developer by sales revenue and China’s pioneer in green home construction. He also serves as independent director for a few publicly listed and non-listed companies, including SOHU.COM Inc., China Resources Land Ltd., among others. Mr. Wang was the inaugural roster chair of China Urban Realty Association, roster chair of Yabuli China Entrepreneurs Forum, and chair of Western Returned Scholars Association (WRSA)’s influential 2005 committee.

A devoted environmental conservationist and practitioner of Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR), Mr. Wang Shi has also created and led many influential environmental advocacy groups and charity organizations – chief among them is the Society of Entrepreneurs and Ecology or known as SEE. Founded in 2004, SEE is one of the largest environment-focused nonprofit organizations in China. Shenzhen One Foundation Charity Fund, China’s first and largest private charitable fundraising organization, boasts broad reach in areas such as education, poverty alleviation, disaster relief, and reconstruction.

Since 2009, he had led China’s private business delegation to the United Nations Climate Change Conference each year, getting involved in global climate governance. He was invited by the UN Environment Programme to become a Goodwill Ambassador and joined the World Economic Forum as a Member of Global Agenda Council on Governance for Sustainability. In October 2013, he was elected the first Chinese Board Director of World Wildlife Fund and awarded Honorary Citizen of Washington State by the governor of Washington State in recognition of his international contribution to environmental protection.

Mr. Wang graduated with a BA in water supply and drainage from Lanzhou Railway University (now Lanzhou Jiaotong University) in 1977. From 2011 on, he studied business ethics and cross-cultural research at top universities in the west and became a visiting scholar at Harvard University, Cambridge University, and the Hebrew University. Mr. Wang Shi has been invited to address business students at prestigious institutions such as Harvard, MIT, U Penn’s Warton School, University of Chicago, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Tsinghua University, CEIBS and CKGSB, etc. He also taught as a guest professor at PKU and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He currently sits on the board/council of New York University, Cornell University, and National University of Singapore.

Mr. Wang is widely known in China for his passion for mountain climbing. He literally set the trends for scaling Mt. Everest and Arctic and Antarctic expedition in China. He is also interested in gliding, paragliding, and rowing, while holding the record for paragliding height in China. Mr. Wang is the author of five books.