Victor GAO is Chair Professor of Soochow University; Chairman of China Energy Security Institute; Vice President of the Center for China and Globalization; a member of the International Advisory Board of the Energy Intelligence Group in London; a member of the Editorial Board of the OPEC Energy Review; and a member of the Board of Directors of several listed companies in Hong Kong.

Mr Gao has extensive experience in government, diplomacy, securities regulation, legal, investment banking, PE, corporate management and media. Victor was Deng Xiaoping’s English interpreter in the 1980s. Victor served as the China Policy Advisor at the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission in 1999 and 2000. Victor’s prior investment banking experience included senior positions with Morgan Stanley (Vice President of Morgan Stanley Asia, in the Merger, Acquisition and Restructuring Department), CICC (General Manager of the Investment Banking Department, Head of M&A Practice, and Head of CICC Hong Kong Investment Banking Department) and Daiwa Securities (Co-Chairman of China, Executive Vice President and Managing Director). Victor’s corporate management experience included senior positions with CNOOC Limited as its Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Company Secretary, Member of the Investment Committee, and Director of CNOOC International and with major Hong Kong companies including PCCW and Henderson Land Group.

Over the years, Mr Gao worked on many major M&A, IPO, CB, Bond Issues and other corporate advisory assignments with a combined value in excess of US$100 billion, including in TMT, oil and gas, automobile, banking, insurance, building materials, consumer goods, aviation, satellite communications, and new and renewable energy.

Mr Gao holds J.D. from Yale Law School, M.A. in International Relations from the Political Science Department of Yale Graduate School, M.A. in English from Beijing University of Foreign Studies, and B.A. in English from Suzhou University, and is a licensed attorney-at-law in the State of New York. Since 2004, Victor has been Chairman of the Yale Law School Association of China.