Chief Executive Officer, Silk Road Associates

Ben Simpfendorfer is CEO of Silk Road Associates, a data-driven strategic advisory based in Hong Kong.

Ben advises Fortune 500 multinationals and leading Asian firms on their commercial strategies in Greater China, South East Asia, the Middle East & Africa, providing clients teams with geospatial-driven solutions based on the firm’s proprietary SRA Intelligence® analytics. He briefs CEOs and executive boards worldwide.

Ben has worked in Asia and the Middle East for over 20 years. He was previously chief China economist at RBS and senior China economist at JPMorgan in Hong Kong. He started his career in Beirut in the 1990s, later working as a Middle East & North Africa senior analyst for Dun & Bradstreet in London.

Ben is a Mandarin and Arabic speaker, and author of The New Silk Road (2009) and The Rise of the New East (2014). He is a leading specialist on China’s Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) and a member of the Foreign Experts Committee advising the Chinese government on BRI’s implementation. He is a Board Member of PBEC, one of Asia’s oldest business organizations, and Co-Chairman of the China Business Committee at AmCham Hong Kong. He is also a regular commentator on Bloomberg & CNBC.