Speakers and Chairs Bios

Irene Yuan Sun is a leading expert on the Africa-China economic relationship. She is the author of The Next Factory of the World, a book about Chinese investment in Africa and the opportunity it affords for Africa to industrialize (Harvard Business Review Press, November 2017). The book was shortlisted for the Financial Times’s Bracken Bower Prize for the best business book proposal.

Irene also co-leads McKinsey & Company's research and client work on Africa-China business and economic development. She is the lead author of a major McKinsey report on this topic entitled Dance of the Lions & Dragons, which created the largest factbase to date about the Africa-China relationship (www.mckinsey.com/africa-china). The findings from this report have been featured in the Economist, the New African, CGTN (formerly known as CCTV), and Xinhua.

Irene is a graduate of Harvard College, Harvard Business School, and Harvard Kennedy School.