Permanent Staff
Dr. Merritt T. "Terry" Cooke 古孟德
Founding Director & Chairman
Terry Cooke is a seasoned practitioner of Asian cross-border business and investment in clean energy and related high-tech fields. For the cleantech frontier in China, Terry brings broad context, unique insight, and an unparalleled range of contacts. Across the spectrum of technology innovation, Terry has decades of Asian in-country engagement at the ministerial level of government, with the private sector’s C-suite, and with the world’s premiere multi-stakeholder organization at Davos.
Liyiran (Shelly) Xia 夏李怡然
Program Director
Shelly leverages her background in environmental science and international affairs to bridge collaboration between U.S. and China on clean energy and environmental protection. As the Program Coordinator, Shelly provides administrative support for CPGP executives, oversees the intern team, and develops and coordinates programs and events. Shelly has introduced & implemented CRM platform and manages the database. Shelly got her BA and MIA from Franklin and Marshall '14 and Penn State '16.
Advisors & Associates
Gary Biehn, Esq
Senior Advisor for Legal Affairs
Gary is a partner in, and Chair of, the Business Department of White and Williams LLP. He focuses on assisting clients in the pursuit of global business opportunities. Gary helps counsels CPGP on our partnerships and alliances, our governance and the status of our incorporation..
William Young
Senior Advisor, Operations Strategy
William Young is a successful business leader who brings a broad range of experience in sales, information technology, business strategy, operations and entrepreneurship to guide the implementation of CPGP priorities and programs.
Senior Advisor, Urban Sustainability and Healthy Built Environments
Joyce S. Lee, FAIA, LEED Fellow has been an Architect Fellow at the National Leadership Academy for Public Health. In New York, Joyce served under Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg. She was the Chief Architect at the New York City OMB overseeing the survey of major city- owned buildings and waterfronts with the goals of enhancing long-term planning and identifying green design and development opportunities.
Strategic Consultant for Outbound Programs, Beijing, China
Weining is experienced in helping Fortune 500 corporations, including Wal-Mart, Citigroup and Zurich Insurance, with strategic business expansion in China. She is fluent in both English and Mandarin and was awarded the “MBA Excellence Award” from W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University in 2015.
Research Associate, Los Angeles
Ben Leffel, currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of California (Irvine), is expert in U.S.-China sub-national relations and in networks of international environmental cooperation among Chinese cities. Ben serves concurrently as Director of Research for the Tai Initiative and worked previously as Research Consultant for the International City/County Management Association China Center.
Talent Team
The CPGP Talent Team provides project-based work for organizations in a variety of fields ranging from small start-ups to larger, China-based operations. The Team consists of a seasonal roster of motivated young professionals with expertise in project management, supply chain management, business analytics, CRM, sales, and corporate social responsibility. Our Talent Team combines experience and skills in business development research, ‘growing’ overseas markets, attracting in-bound investment, and planning for high-impact, high-yield business trips to China. All members of our Talent Team are bilingual in Mandarin and English, and one is also native in Cantonese.
The CPGP International Talent Placement Model allows your company to immediately deploy well-vetted,highly-trained talent with all the ease and simplicity of a 'temp hire' contract model and with access to China Partnership of Greater Philadelphia’s network of relationships and deep knowledge pool.
If you wish to learn more about how the CPGP Talent Team can improve the performance of your company's China-related project, contact CPGP Program Director Shelly Xia at [email protected]inaphilly.org.
Current Talent Team
CPGP Program Assistant, Summer 2019 - current
Verity Cheslo is currently pursuing dual degrees in Supply Chain Management and Chinese Language at the University of Rhode Island. She has recently completed a Six Sigma Yellow Belt certification which has enhanced her project management skills. Verity is a problem-solver who has professional experience in digital marketing and customs compliance in both the United States and China.
CPGP Program Assistant, Summer 2019 - current
Bruce is a 2019 graduate of the International Masters of Public Administration program at the University of Pennsylvania and a 2016 graduate from the University of Kentucky with a degree in Business Administration. While at the University, he was active in student government and founded the Chinese International Fraternity Alliance. He worked at the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development and held internships at Viamedia, Inc; American Red Cross Bluegrass Chapter; and Internal Revenue Service.
CPGP Summer 2019 Business Analytics and Marketing Specialist
Yongqi (Josephine) Zhou has 6 years of professional experience in marketing strategy, product and brand development, and eCommerce analytics. Yongqi is currently a full time Drexel University MBA candidate with a concentration in Business Analytics. Equipped with data driven analytics and toolkits such as Google Analytics, SPSS, R, and Python, Yongqi has a track record of generating insightful go-to-market strategies and driving company revenue growth. Yongqi has also worked with cross-cultural and cross-functional teams.
The China Partnership of Greater Philadelphia (CPGP) is a non-profit organization that promotes collaboration – primarily on public/private clean technology initiatives – between Philadelphia and the People’s Republic of China.
CPGP’s signature program is BE Better (with BE standing for Built Environment). The three dimensions of ‘better’ referenced by the BE Better program title are (1) more energy-efficient and lower-carbon operations (2) ‘smarter’ (more Internet of Things connected with greater IoT security and, for industrial users, cleaner and smarter manufacturing processes), and (3) healthier for the occupants of the built environment. We apply this program to national-level industrial parks in China’s northeast. In step with the expansion of our area of application (from Tianjin to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei 京津冀 region), we are also expanding the geographic area from which we source U.S. low-carbon solutions from our original scope (the 11 counties of Greater Philadelphia) to now cover the Mid-Atlantic region (the ‘six states & one district’ of NY, NJ, PA DE, MD, DC & VA)
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