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Former President
American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham)
Shanghai
Mr. Ker Gibbs is the former President of American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, where he is focused on US-China relations and business issues facing American companies operating in Asia. Mr. Gibbs has lived in Asia for more than two decades and speaks
Mandarin fluently.
Before his appointment as president, Mr. Gibbs served on the Board of Governors of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai for four years, including two years as chairman. He sat on the audit committee, finance committee, and the compensation committee. Other board roles include tech/social media companies MyETone and the Asia joint venture of NBC. He served previously on the board of the United Way in China, a joint venture with Shanghai Charity Foundation.
In the 1990s Mr. Gibbs worked for the Boston Consulting Group in Shanghai and San Francisco. Since then he has split his time between Asia and Silicon Valley, serving in executive positions with Apple, Disney, and high-growth Internet businesses. He moved to Shanghai in 2002 as head of Asia Pacific for a Nasdaq-listed network security company that was acquired by McAfee. His career in high tech led him to banking, where he became head of technology and media in greater China for HSBC. As an investment banker he advised at the board and C-level at Alibaba, Baidu, and other firms engaged in mergers and cross-border transactions. From banking Mr. Gibbs moved to direct investments. He was a founding investor in the Crystal Orange Hotel Group, helping grow the company to 130 properties and 1,500 employees in China. He also led successful investments in real estate, e-commerce, and medical technology companies.
He is an op-ed contributor to the Wall Street Journal, South China Morning Post, and other publications. Ker Gibbs holds a BA in economics from UCLA and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.