Shirley Ze Yu is a leading voice on China’s political economy, a senior visiting fellow with the Institute of Global Affairs and Firoz Lalji Centre for Africa with the LSE, an Asia fellow with the Ash Center of Harvard Kennedy School, and a professor with the IE Business School. She is the creator of NY-based business talk show Hey China!, and a daily intelligence and insights newsletter on China for Fortune Global 500 stakeholders – China BIG Idea by Shirley Yu.
Shirley Yu is a frequent commentator and contributor on the BBC News, Bloomberg, CNN, Al Jazeera, PBS Frontline, SP Global,Channel News Asia on China. She is an Op-Ed contributor to the FT, and is appointed as a South China Morning Post Expert. She is also a keynote speaker at leading global think tanks including the Chatham House, Asia Society, the Wilson Center, Harvard Kennedy School and the LSE, among many.
She was Vice President of strategies and innovation of Xin Yuan Group (NYSE and HKEX-listed), responsible for global strategies and fintech startups. She was also the deputy director of the Xin Fintech Center at the Tsinghua PBoC School of Finance, leading white paper drafting on China’s fintech reforms.
She is author in a Palgrave Macmillan 2020 book Huawei Goes Global: Made in China for the World. She has also published books in Chinese, including On China, by Ambassadors, and The Rise of the RMB and the Fall of the Yen.
She has a Ph.D. in political economy from China’s Peking University, and a Master’s degree in Government from Harvard University. She is a mother of two daughters.
