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Frank Whitaker
Board Chair
Email: whitakerfj@state.gov
Frank currently works for the US Department of State
serving as the Director of American Center for Education
Exchange Programme.
He obtained his BA in International Relations from Bringham
Young University and MBA in Public Administration from
University of South Carolina.
Before joining WAB Board, he used to serve on Board
of Directors for International School of Kuala Lumpur
(2001 - 2005) and for Shanghai American School.
He has 6 children, all of whom have attended or currently
attending WAB.
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Jeff Bissell
Board Vice Chair
Email: jeffbissell@syachina.org
Jeff holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Chinese literature
from the University of Wisconsin.
He taught Chinese at Marquette University in the US
before coming to Beijing in 1999 to assume his current
position as Director of SYA, a China focused independent
high school program for US students.
Jeff has lived in greater China for ten years. He
has two children at WAB, one in Middle school and the
other in High School. |
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Michael Crook
School Legal Representative and Stewardship Committee
Email: mcrook@wab.edu
A British / Canadian, Michael was born in China, educated
in China and Britain.
Apart from 6 years working for
CIDA in development, Michael has been a teacher for
25 years, in Britain, US and China, including many
years as the China Studies Coordinator at WAB.
He has been a member of the WABEF Board from 1993,
was appointed to the WAB Board in 1995, and is the
appointed legal representative of the School. |
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Mila Harju
HR Committee
Email: milaharju@hotmail.com
Mila Harju is a Finnish national and has been living
in Beijing since 1997 (with a two years break in between).
Mila has three children at WAB Elementary School. She
has a legal background with a recent MBA degree, and
she works as a consultant.
By working a long time as a legal advisor for an employers'
federation in Finland she gained an experience that
is valuable in the HR Committee work.
Mila's special interests are matters related to language
studies. She highly appriciates the possibility to
see the children learning even more Chinese language
at WAB - not least for the reason that WAB has a special
relationship to our host country China. Having grown
in a language environment of only five million people,
she also understands the meaning of learning not only
one foreign language, but several.
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Frances Fremont-Smith
Strategic Committee
Email: fhfs@mac.com
Frances is an American who has lived in Greater China
for almost 30 years. She has more than 25 years experience
as an educator/administrator in schools in the USA,
China and Hong Kong. Her graduate degree in education
is from Harvard University and her undergraduate degree
in Chinese and Asian Studies is from Connecticut College.
Frances is currently the China Program Director for
an INGO called Future Generations working on conservation
and community-based development in the Tibetan Autonomous
Region.
Frances and her husband LJ Jia have returned to Beijing
after a 16 year hiatus. Their daughter Grace attends
Middle School at WAB and their son Eliot attends Middlebury
College in the USA.
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Cathy Wang
Member
Email: wang_68@hotmail.com
Cathy is a Chinese American who has recently moved back to Beijing from Chicago and joined the Board. Before her move, Cathy was Senior Vice President and Director of Structuring and Finance of Inland Real Estate Exchange Corporation, where she oversaw the acquisition and financing of commercial real estate properties and the structuring and offering of real estate backed securities. The portfolio under her management was over $1 billion in asset value. Prior to joining Inland, Cathy worked for China International Futures Brokerage Corp in Beijing, and the Ministry of Labor of China.
Cathy received her MBA from The Ohio State University in 1998 as a top 15 percent scholar and her BA from Renmin University of China in 1990. She holds Series 7 and 63 licenses with the US National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) and is also a?licensed real estate broker in Illinois.
Emily Zhang, the daughter of Cathy and her husband Wenkai Zhang, attends WAB in the 1st grade. |
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Karen O'Connell
Ex-Officio (Acting WAB Director)
Email: kconnell@wab.edu
Bio Coming Soon |
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Michael Christiansen
Treasurer and Board Treasurer/Finance Committee
Email: mifc@novozymes.com
Bio Coming Soon
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Ashley Howlett
Asset Committee
Email: ahowlett@jonesday.com
Ashley Howlett is an international lawyer who leads
the Jones Day Greater China Construction Law practice
in the firm's Beijing office.
Ashley's experience includes representation of a broad
range ofclients including owners, contractors and design
professionalsacross Asia.
Ashley is qualified as a Hong Kong, English and New
Zealand lawyer and holds a LL.B from the University
of Otago, New Zealand.
He has worked on projects in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia,
Macau, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Saudi
Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and the United Kingdom.
Ashley has lived in greater China for eight years
and has two children at WAB. |
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Tina Dige Kjargaard
Internal Audit Committee
Email: tinadige@danfoss.com
Tina is Danish and thereby one of the European
voices on the Board. She has been in China for 1 year
and her 2 sons have been at WAB during that time.
Tina holds a Danish Graduate Diploma in Business Administration,
Marketing and IT.
The last 15 years, she has worked for Danfoss A/S
in Denmark mainly with marketing, communication and
IT and served as manager of production
at the Danfoss In-house Ad Agency for 8 years.
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Hilary Munro
Member
Email: hilary@munromail.net
Has been a member of the founding Board since 1994 and has joined the single School Board this year though living in Jakarta. Hilary has UK legal qualifications and an MBA. Hilary has founded an asbestos eradication company in north Kazakhstan, advised companies in import to UK, and run major events in Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur.
Hilary has one daughter in year 12. Hilary’s job for the School Board is to ensure that, in this transition year, that the new school governance structure is embedded, and focus on strengthening the schools internal checks and balances.
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Stefan Hoffmann-Kuhnt
Member
Email: stefan.hoffmann-kuhnt@siemens.com
Stefan was born in Munich, Germany and has two young
children at WAB. He came to China in 2004 and was leading
the Internal Audit Department of Siemens Ltd. China
for 2.5 years. Recently he took on a new role as Financial
Controller of the Provincial Sales Organization of
Siemens Ltd. China.
Before coming to China, Stefan had various management
positions within Siemens in Germany, Australia and
the United States.
Stefan currently serves on the supervisory board of
the private hospital group Vulpius Klinik and is actively
involved in Rotary Club Beijing as a Board Member and
Chair of the Community Services Committee. |
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Christopher Alberti
Member
Email: calberti@colonyinc.com
Chris is a Principal with Colony Capital, a global real estate investment firm, and oversees the firm’s China investment activities.
Prior to joining Colony, Chris was a Managing Director with Morgan Stanley. He and his family first lived in Beijing in 1998-99, when he was seconded by Morgan Stanley to China International Capital Corporation as head of investment banking.
Chris began his career as a real estate and corporate lawyer at Debevoise & Plimpton in New York City. He is a graduate of Williams College, where he majored in Religion, and Columbia Law School.
Chris and his wife Susan Stark Alberti have a son, Sam, in the fifth grade at WAB. |
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Mark Loiterton
Ex-Officio: Teacher Representative
Email: mloiterton@wab.edu
Mark is an international teacher from Australia who has nearly thirty years teaching experience. He obtained his BA in Literature and Mathematics at the University of New England in Australia. He has worked as a teacher and administrator in schools in various Australian states and in the United Kingdom.
He is in his third year at WAB, currently teaching and coordinating English and Humanities in the Middle School. Mark is also a qualified and experienced teacher of English, drama and mathematics to high school level. As well as teaching, he has worked for the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme, directed and acted in numerous plays and presented at several educational conferences in Australia.
Mark acts as the representative of the teaching staff of WAB at Board level. |
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