Advisory Board

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Managing Partner, Covington & Burling LLP (Beijing); Chairman Emeritus, AmCham China; Former Assistant United States Trade Representative

Tim Stratford is managing partner in Covington & Burling LLP’s Beijing office and a member of the firm’s International Trade, Corporate, and Public Policy practice groups. His practice is focused on advising international clients doing business in China and assisting Chinese companies seeking to expand their businesses globally. As a former Assistant United States Trade Representative responsible for trade negotiations between the U.S. and China, Mr. Stratford is the most senior former U.S. official working as a member of the U.S. business community in Beijing.

Except for the five years he spent in Washington at USTR (2005 to 2010), Mr. Stratford has lived and worked continuously in the greater China region since 1982, including as minister-counselor for Commercial Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and as general counsel for General Motors China operations. Mr. Stratford has served three terms as chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in the People’s Republic of China -- in 2000, 2001, and 2019. He is a graduate of Brigham Young University and Harvard Law School and speaks Mandarin and Cantonese.

President, US-China Business Council

Sean Stein has around 20 years experience working in Asia and has served in senior diplomatic and policy positions throughout the region and in Washington.  Sean Stein is the president of the US-China Business Council.

He most recently served as the board chair of the American Chamber of Commerce in China and is the chair emeritus of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai. He also co-chaired the China Public Policy Practice at Covington and Burling where he advised international businesses on political risk, public affairs, communications, and US and China government relations. He regularly assisted companies to resolve acute or long-term issues in China and to navigate challenges caused by conflicting US and Chinese policies and perceptions.

Sean previously served for nearly three decades as a US diplomat, including as Consul General in Shenyang and Shanghai. He also served on the China desk at the State Department, at the former consulate general in Chengdu, and in other positions around the Indo-Pacific. Sean speaks Mandarin and Indonesian and is a graduate of Georgetown University.

Adjunct Associate Professor Instructional Psychology & Technology, Brigham Young University

Dr. Peter Chan is an Adjunct Associate Professor at McKay School of Education at BYU where his responsibilities include overseeing China-related programs and teaching classes in Instructional Psychology & Technology.     

Dr. Chan is also the owner of Multinational Academy Services, which assists in the administration of several international schools in China and two private schools in the U.S. It brought hundreds of international students to the United States each year prior to COVID-19. It also consults in educational programs and products including an online language assessment tool that is used by 600 universities around the world.       

Dr. Chan is the advisor to several educational initiatives between the U.S. and China. In 2016, he represented Governor Gary Herbert of Utah at U.S.-China EcoPartnership Conference at the Diaoyutai State Guest House in Beijing and shared the stage with U.S. State Secretary John Kerry and Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi. Later, he was again invited by the U.S. State Department to present at the U.S.-China EcoPartnership event in Washington, D.C. In 2018, in preparation for the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, Dr. Chan successfully lobbied the U.S. Congress to modify House Bill H.R. 5751 to add an important statement to recognize the immigrant workers (mostly Chinese) who made the Transcontinental Railroad possible. 

US-China Relations Expert, personal friend of Helen Foster Snow (Connecticut)

Sharon Crain is a Specialist in Modern Chinese History and has been directly involved in teaching and facilitating educational exchanges between Chinese and Americans since 1977. She served as a Trustee of the China Institute in New York for 20 years where she helped develop the Chinese Scholars’ Program after the normalization of relations between China and the United States in 1979.

Sharon became close friends with Helen Snow and An Wei, both of whom greatly influenced her deeper immersion into China. She served as the first Chairman of the Kansas City- Xi’an Sister City Association and initiated meaningful exchanges to promote US-China understanding. She also served as a board member of the Edgar Snow Memorial Foundation. Sharon has continued as a Visiting Professor of Sino-American Relations at Shaanxi Normal University in Xi'an since 1982, where she frequently teaches courses to undergraduate and graduate students.

She is the author of Witness to Change: After Mao to Now and presented a photo exhibition in both China and the United States entitled China: Balancing the Changes. Crain collaborated with filmmaker Vladimir Bibic on two films about China, which received the America Golden Eagle Award.