Jason Yat-sen Li
A passionate Australian.
Profile
Jason has an Arts/Law degree from the University of Sydney and a Masters of Law from New York University Law School, where he was Australia’s Hauser Global Fellow for 2000.
From 1996 to 1998, Jason worked for the United Nations in the Netherlands and in 1998, returned to Australia to lead a number of political campaigns including the campaign for Australia to become a Republic during the 1999 Republic Referendum.
Current work
Jason is currently a Director of the George Institute for Global Health and a Governing Member of the Smith Family. Jason was immediate past Vice Chair of the Australia-China Chamber of Commerce in Beijing and formerly Youth Chair of the NSW Ethnic Communities Council, as well as cultural spokesperson for NSW Tourism during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. He was also a Director of the Sydney Institute, the National Centre for Volunteering and the New South Wales Government’s Sydney Metropolitan Strategy Group.
Jason is a partner and founder of the Yatsen Group, a commercial group headquartered in Beijing with interests in mining & resources, technology and financial services businesses in Asia.
Awards:
Jason was awarded the 2002 Eisenhower Fellowship with which he travelled to the USA to study the intersection of corporate, political and community interests. In 2008, he was part of the Australian Prime Minister’s 2020 Summit on the future of Australia and in 2009, he was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Previous experience
Jason speaks fluent Mandarin, Cantonese, German and Dutch. He started his career as an M&A lawyer in Australia. After founding and selling a start-up focused on professional services in 2002, he joined Insurance Australia Group to lead the company’s activities in sustainability and climate change resulting in IAG being awarded the Sustainable Company of the Year Award by Ethical Investor Magazine in 2004. In 2004, he was appointed IAG’s Head of China Strategy and moved to China as Head of Sales & Marketing for IAG’s China operations in 2005. His work on road safety in China won the China PR Association Silver Medal for Best Campaign and the Economic Observer Award for Most Creative Campaign in 2005.
Feedback
Your presentation to the Forum was interesting and inspiring. We have received excellent feedback from the delegates about the Forum and in particular, the speakers. The participants returned home expressing a high degree of confidence in agriculture, an enthusiasm to become more involved in leadership within their communities and a tremendously positive attitude.
Jason Li’s speech was a special experience for my colleagues and myself. Jason spoke so powerfully about his life, his experiences, his work and the struggle that Australia has in seeking an Australian identity. He also spoke about being a leader and the challenges of being a good leader.
Jason spoke about moral and ethical issues in a refreshing way. He presented an excellent session with lots of broad-scale food for thought.
We extend an utmost appreciation of your support at last week's Studies of Asia Summit. I cannot thank you enough for your commitment of substantial time at the Summit and for the truly fantastic speech that you gave. Summit participants consistently refereed back to the points that you made as the day progressed - and you made these points so beautifully - with humour and a sharp edge of delivery that was so consummately professional. We are indebted to you. Your presentation was perfectly in sync with what we had anticipated you might say.
We received excellent feedback on your talk, it was so warm, eloquent, and insightful. A big thank you.
Thank you so much for your help with yesterday's event. You really helped to pull the event together and keep it flowing - exactly what we were after. Thanks again, especially at such short notice.
Jason spoke about moral and ethical issues in a refreshing way. He presented an excellent session with lots of broad-scale food for thought.
Mr Jason Yat-Sen Li was outstanding, both in terms of style and substance.
Jason was fresh, alive, well spoken and easy to work with.
Jason was articulate, focused and his personal examples were interesting and highly relevant. Our evaluations to date show him to one of the Conventions most well received speakers. He was also most personable and a delight to work with.
Jason Yat-sen Li was inspirational, well researched and a superb opening speaker for our conference: "Effective Leaders + Quality Education = Excellence". He set the scene beautifully with his presentation: "Leadership in times of change: Education for a globalised Australia" by bringing a wealth of insightful knowledge to the topic and by using examples from his life to underpin a powerful message. Many participants are still talking about Jason's presentation. All conference participants' evaluation comments indicated that Jason Yat-sen Li was an outstanding, inspirational and motivating speaker.
All went extremely well for today's function and I would like to thank Saxton for making it possible for Jason to speak to some of Adelaide's leading business people on behalf of Volunteering SA & NT.
Jason is a very inspirational young man and he gave us a wonderful insight, not only into large business workings, but into the changing world within China today.
