CURRENT COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Qun Yang
Qun is a Cambridge-based female entrepreneur and researcher. Graduated from the Queens’ College, University of Cambridge. She co-founded Biorbyt Ltd, a biotech company specialising in providing research-use reagents to life science research institutions. Biorbyt received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the International Trade category in 2021. Qun started her professional career as an auditor with Deloitte and then worked for Goldman Sachs and later Deutsche Bank. Qun is a qualified chartered accountant and a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). She is also a holder of other prestigious qualifications: Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Financial Risk Manager (FRM). Between 2017 and 2019, Qun was the Executive Director of the Wo+Men’s Leadership Centre at the Cambridge Judge Business School (CJBS). During her term, she organised the joint women’s leadership conference between CJBS and the China Women Development Foundation to promote awareness of the modern development of Chinese women’s communities. She is also actively engaging in research and currently collaborating with the University of Cambridge and UCL on applying AI to biotech, sustainability and finance.
Qun is currently the president of the ICAEW East Anglian District Society and has been a committee member of the Business Law Committee at the ICAEW since 2020. In addition, she is the president of the European Alumni Network for the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and the school governor for the Inspire Education Group. As a mother of two and a successful female entrepreneur, her story was featured in Economica magazine. In recognition of her achievement, she received awards including National Business Woman Award and Techwomen100 award.
Having been working in the UK for over two decades, Qun wishes to support Chinese women in the UK to overcome their fear and culture of being quiet and invisible in social settings and the workplace. She took the initiative to establish the UK Chinese Women Connect Association (UKCWC) to encourage them to raise their profiles and enhance their social impact. UKCWC was shortlisted as the Charity of the Year by National Diversity Award in 2022.
Julia Shen
Julia is a chartered accountant (ACA) and an associate member of corporate treasury (AMCT) with more than 10+ years of finance and accounting experience in London. She is currently a regulatory controller in an investment bank. Julia graduated with a MSc degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
Julia has been volunteering for various charitable activities and initiatives in her spare time, including helping the elderly and the young, and supporting women. Her other hobbies include cycling, dancing, and travelling.
Julia is keen to support UKCWC to connect and empower Chinese women in the UK and to make more impact. She is a Trustee and the Secretary-General at UKCWC, responsible for the charity’s operations, compliance, risks, etc.
Phoebe Wu
Phoebe has lived in the UK for more than a decade, after finishing her second Masters degree, she pursued a career in Audit and Accountancy. She trained with one of the top 5 accountancy firms, is now a qualified Chartered Accountant and working for one of the fastest growing tech startup in the Midlands area as an FP&A Manager. Phoebe is enjoying the fast pace of everyday life and loves to create order out of chaos. She is also the co-owner of Sum Thing Good Ltd, a company specialises in property development and aims to transform ideas and ambitions into realisable goals and actions.
When she’s not at work, Phoebe enjoys spending time with her husband and two furry children, cat Cotton and dog Gogo. She loves outdoor cooking (eating mainly:)) and is super passionate about dog training. She is keen to give back to the society and is currently the treasurer at UKCWC looking after the daily financial record keeping of the charity.
Yan Wei
Yan Wei has been living in the UK for 19 years since 2003. She has a Master’s degree in Civil Engineer from Southampton University. She is a Civil Engineer in Mott MacDonald. She is currently working on the multiple projects as Project Manager on behalf of National Highways, and she also is a Line Manager for new Graduate Engineers. She has a broad background with the field of engineering within UK and also have few years international experience in Jersey Island, Guyana and Bahama. She is also Co-founder of 1circle Chinese Community and TigerChi NFT project on Algorand (Algorand is a cryptocurrency and blockchain protocol).
She enjoys travelling, photography, staying fit & healthy, investing in both Stock and Crypto. As long as life continue, she keeps on tossing and turning on her great undertakings, such as successfully reached the summit of Uhuru Peak of Kilimanjaro (5,895m) and successfully completed 24 hours National three peaks challenge. She is also a mother of two young boys. She is learning to be a good role model and lead her children’s life in a positive way. In her spare time, she is a member of UKCWC committee. Currently she is responsible for social media advertising in English platforms and taking care WeChat travel group as an admin. She also supports other members to organise events and expands the volume group of Chinese women in the UK.
Katherine Cui
Originally from Ningxia North-west of China, Katherine has been living in the UK for 14 years. She achieved her MBA degree in the UK in 2002, then returned to China and worked in Shanghai and Hong Kong as a business development manager. In 2011, she moved to Cambridge with her family and fell in love with this beautiful city Cambridge. Katherine is now a freelance Mandarin teacher and trainee coach.
Being a full-time mum with 3 children for 7 years, Katherine understands and knows the pains all mums going through. Before Covid, she used to organise workshops of different topics for mums, such as women’s wellbeing, parenting, environmental protection to inspire and empower mums. Her passion is also about parenting and children. She has taken a few parenting and children’s mental health courses while embarking on her journey to become a parenting coach.
One of her core value is environmental protection. She volunteers for Cambridge Recycling Champion and Streets and Open Spaces to promote recycling, minimalism and keep the city clean and nice. She loves to involves her children to do volunteering work to build their sense of serving the community.
In her spare time, Katherine likes books and movies, coffee and cafes, running and swimming, learning as well as working on personal growth. She started running at the age of 45. Two year later, she now has finished 3 half marathons in Cambridge and Cornwall. She loves the nature and enjoy taking family out to be in the nature.
Eunice Zhu
Eunice, CFA charterholder, has more than 13+ years of investment banking work experience, specialising in multi-asset derivatives trading and counterparty risks portfolio management. She is currently working as Director, Head of XVA Trading at SMBC Nikko Capital Markets. Eunice graduated with MSc in Finance & Economics (Distinction) from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
Eunice loves volunteering in her spare time, she is currently a Board Member of Ekaya Housing Association in London and the founder and leader of the Lean In (Women In Banking & Finance) network with 470+ members globally. Having been a long term child sponsor through World Vision, Eunice has also volunteered in Uganda and Honduras for various charities. Her other hobbies include hiking, scuba diving and traveling.
Eunice is the winner of WATC Rising Star Award, Highly Commended in Business by the Asian Women of Achievement Award and has been featured in HERoes Women Future Leader Role Model by Yahoo Finance for consecutive two years. Eunice is eager to support UKCWC in its goal of enhancing the social impact of Chinese women in the UK.
Xinyao Huang
Xinyao is a senior analyst, managing fixed income portfolios at Western Asset Management. Before that, she did research work for Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP, which is now part of Aberdeen Asset Management). She is a CFA Digest Abstractor and a member of CFA UK Structured Learning Committee. She has strong academic interest and teaches at universities as a visiting lecturer.
A CFA and FRM charter holder, she earned her master’s degree in Edinburgh University and graduated from Newcastle University.
She is a mother of two, enjoys reading, playing badminton, running and learning from new life experiences.
Ru Wang
Ru has recently graduated from a Ph.D degree in Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology from the University of Cambridge. She currently works as an engineer at Sphere Fluidics.
She deeply resonates with the vision and objectives of UKCWC, and supports the charity by leading the charity’s fundraising strategy and grants application process. By bringing in new sources of funding, UKCWC will be able to help and support Chinese women in the UK. She is honoured that the charity has empowered her to take on this role and is very committed to the charity’s cause.
Sissi Song
Sissi, around 10 years of staying in the UK, has become a ‘Slash Person’ for her career and life. She completed a master degree in arts and held a business-related role from the fashion industry to the technology industry. She is a registered practitioner member of the Complementary Medical Association (the CMA) and has a diploma in psychology and anxiety management. Her passion is also in psychology consulting and real estate investment.
For leisure, Sissi enjoyed being a Latin dancer. She has performed and competed throughout Europe. She is an oil painting artist as well as she started her Podcast series in 2021.
Sissi joined UKCWC and support it with her characteristic enthusiasm as the committee. She aims to devote herself to the women community in the UK and assist them with the life of living abroad.
Lusina Liu Lu
Life-long learner. Lusina has worked as a Mandarin teacher in Scotland since 2019, and had also lived in Malaysia for 3.5 years. Majored in Journalism from China, she likes reading and non-fiction writing. Fascinated by eccentric people and lifestyles, inquisitive and curious of everything new. Mostly highly optimistic, she continually finds herself through traveling and outings. Being outside, climbing trees and bouldering, hiking, diving, camping, martial arts…….anything exciting is her therapy. Don Quixote is her spiritual idol, “Be silly, don’t be sensible” is her life quote.
Lusina benefits a lot from the events organized by UKCWC, joined as a volunteering editor, and now takes charge of the WeChat official account operation.
Gloria Wu
After graduating from UCL with a first class degree in BA Human Geography with Social Data Science, Gloria is now pursuing further study in Urban Studies. She joined UKCWC as a social media volunteer in 2020 and is currently responsible for leading student activities, video making and organizing training workshops at UKCWC.
Gloria is a geographer, a passionate hiker and an active runner. She completed her first half marathon race at the age of 18 and achieved the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award after a commitment of four years. During her free time, Gloria also enjoys painting, photography and dancing. Being a UKCWC volunteer for two years, Gloria regards UKCWC has been doing especially meaningful and rewarding jobs in helping and supporting Chinese women in the UK. She is very pleased to join the committee and contribute to help the community grow and flourish.
Qingshan Zhang
Qingshan has been lived in the UK for more than 10 years. She graduated from Southampton University with master of Artificial Intelligence. While she works as a software engineer, she still holds strong interests in Machine Learning. She is a strong believer that ethics are more crucial than technology.
Being the vocal of a local band, Qingshan is a big fan of all genres of music: classic, rock, indie, opera (both Western and Chinese types), musical, and country folk. Music is the cure for everything.
In her spare time, Qingshan is a foodie of Chinese hotpot, and a fan of table tennis and badminton. An ideal day for her would be having Sichuan hotpot with friends after a few rounds of intense badminton match. If anything better, that’ll be one more round of karaoke afterwards.
Grace Ping
I’m Grace Ping and I’ve lived in the UK for 19 years. I’m a mum of two teenage kids, but also a Chinese woman who works hard and tries to enjoy my life!
I don’t have any great ambition or big dream; I just want to live an everyday life and work hard to deliver well on my responsibilities.
At work, I’m the Head of Cancer Operations at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, leading a team to provide operational support to a group of amazing cancer genome scientists. I enjoy strong job satisfaction from my challenging role in a really fulfilling charitable trust.
Outside of work, I love traveling, having spent all my holiday exploring amazing places around the world. I love charity work and hope my small contribution can benefit someone. Currently I am the Vice Chairwomen and Secretary of UKCWC, in charge of the operation of UKCWC.
Sheri Zhang
Sheri is a Machine Learning Senior Engineering Manager, TPIP manager, Asian@Arm Employee Resource Group founder&chair and DEI advocator at Arm Cambridge UK. As an engineering manager of a brand new team, her role involves building up the team, planning development work and directing software engineers. She is also an #IamRemarkable facilitator, #IamRemarkable is a Google initiative empowering women and other underrepresented groups to celebrate their achievements in the workplace and beyond.
In her spare time, Sheri likes to do all kinds of sports. She loves challenges and finished several Half Marathons, Full Marathons, Trail Runs and 100KM Cyclings. She has two dogs, one Cavalier King Charles Spaniel in the UK, and one Border Collie in China.
Sheri graduated with a Master’s degree in Communication and Information System from Shanghai Jiaotong University. She moved from Shanghai to Cambridge in September 2017.
Currently, Sheri is the vice chairwoman of UKCWC, organising all sorts of events.
Amy Wu
My name is Amy. I have been living in the UK for 15 years since 2001 (with 4 years in China from 2008-2012). Before coming to the UK, I worked for a top World 500 company in China and went on to set up an education training centre there also. In 2012, I moved back to the UK with my family, working initially in primary education and then further education. In 2014, I founded my own education company, AAE Education, and later became a co-founder of IEI Education in 2017. With those companies, I have established connections between Chinese schools and schools in England, an essential part of which is enabling Chinese families to tailor-make programs for their children studying abroad. In 2019, I delivered British-style Summer Camps in China, offering a taste of British education to Chinese pupils close to home without necessitating long distance travel. I love what I do.
I am also a mother of two teenage boys and, having worked with so many families, I am fully aware that learning is a life-long process. On a personal level, I have great enthusiasm for traveling and cooking. It is always a pleasure to cook for the people you care about. Currently, I am the Vice-Chairwoman of UKCWC, and in charge of UKCWC Wechat channel.
Yue Wang
Yue Wang is a Senior Technology Manager in Samsung UK, and is currently leading Network AI Research for 5G and beyond within Samsung. She is the Samsung delegate of ETSI ISG ENI (Experiential Networked Intelligence), the Secretary and Rapporteur of ENI, and the recipient of the ISG ENI award in 2019. She also sits on the Industry Advisory Board of King’s College of London and University of Sussex, and is an industry supervisor of a five year programme on AI for 5G and beyond. She is a regular speaker on 5G and AI in 5G, and has delivered talks, blogs, and interviews in a wide range of events on AI and their applications for 5G.
Mum of two, Yue enjoys her time with family outside of work. In her spare time, she is a member of UKCWC committee, responsible for the Technology Department of UKCWC.
Juan Gao
Juan Gao is a senior application engineering manager at Arm Ltd Cambridge UK, leading the High Performance Computing Architecture and Software technical support team.
Juan has a Master’s degree in computer science from Shanghai Jiaotong University and an MBA from the Open University. Before moving to the UK in 2009, Juan lived in Tuebingen, Germany and worked as a software developer in Stuttgart, where she picked up German as a third language. She enjoys the fulfilment from work and spending time with her son and family. She also loves food, painting, reading, and is interested in culture, and personal development. Juan commits to various charity activities, and is looking forward to work with more interesting minds to make the world a better place. Currently Juan is in charge of strategy planning at UKCWC.
Diana Dai
As the Liaison Officer for First Rice Capital UK, Diana is the 13 years veteran of Alibaba Group since its startup stage and is the founder of Alibaba Group Internal Audit and Compliance function before the company’s IPO debut in New York Exchange. She was recruited initially for reporting to Yahoo Inc Audit Committee after the Alibaba & Yahoo Inc investment deal back in 2015 and has experienced the rapid growth of infant Alibaba to giant E-commerce dominant in China.
Diana had been assigned to Melbourne in 2016 to set up the Australian and New Zealand office and acted as the Head of Marketing for Alibaba e-Commerce there. With her cross-functions and cross-culture experience in financial modeling, operational auditing, marketing and business development, Diana has in-depth understanding of Alibaba ecosystem and is capable of collaborating resources in terms of digital marketing, Ecommerce Operations and Capital engagement.
As the loyal fan of value investment, Diana has been so grateful with the angel investment opportunity granted by Alibaba and would like to contribute back to community by investing into those promising startups which share the similar vision and value system as Alibaba. We truly believe that the Great Company do share something in common and the Great Company do help mankind to leap forth into the next milestone. By identifying and investing into those early stage Great company, we do indirectly contribute back to the community.
Lan Xiao
Lan is co-founder of a UK-based business consulting company and business partner of a medical consulting company. She works closely with Wuhan CCPIT as strategic partner as well. Passionate about public welfare and education, she is the co-founder of the UK Chinese Charity Run and the president of the UK Alumni Association of Wuhan University.
Living in London for more than 15 years, she has been in contact with many outstanding and hard-working Chinese women and understands how hard the role that Chinese women play in societies is. During the epidemic, she co-founded the UKCWC with a group of friends who were in common and works as head of public relations. The UKCWC platform is for Chinese women to expand their network and vision. We will work together and hope that efforts will be made to promote the overall appearance of Chinese women in the UK.
Echo Yue Zhao
Echo Yue Zhao has lived in the UK for more than 10 years. She is currently an M&A and capital markets investment banker in the City of London, specialising in technology, healthcare and consumer industries. She graduated from University of Cambridge with a master degree in Mathematics and is interested in cutting-edge technology and innovative business models. She enjoys reading and has a wide range of interests, including fashion, dancing, travelling, skiing, interior design and investing.
She has been attracted to UKCWC by its aim to connect and empower women and raise the profile of Chinese women in the UK. Her current role is Head of Digital Marketing responsible for promoting UKCWC on social media platforms. Whilst this is a new territory for her, she is eager to make her contributions and increase the influence of Chinese women in the UK society and demonstrate their unique charisma. She also wishes to connect with like-minded women and support each other in achieving goals.
Lin Yue
Lin Yue is senior executive of the UK institutional business team in Goldman Sachs Asset Management. As an executive director, her role specifically involves growing and managing key relationships across the UK institutional investor base. Day to day, she represents the firm across different strategies, solutions and services, and she works closely with Chief Investment Officers, Pensions Directors, Chairmen of the Trustee Boards and CFOs from FTSE 350 companies and Charities.
She is recognised as a top 5 Future Leader for Financial Time’s HERoes Women Role Model and won the EMpower Ethnic Minority 50 Future Leaders in 2019. She was also recognised in Brummell’s 2017 list of the most inspirational women in the City of London, and was the winner of the “Excellence in Banking” award at the Chinese Business Leaders Awards 2016 .
She is an industry advocate for enhancing cultural understanding between China and the West, women leadership and diversity and inclusion among the broader business community, both with her clients at Goldman Sachs and as a founding member and chair of the 48 Group Club Young Icebreakers.
Lin graduated with an MSc in Experimental Psychology from Oxford University with a special focus on Behavioural Finance.
Jie Zhou
In her late 20s, Jie moved to London pursuing her second masters degree at University College London in 2015. Now she lives the life of her dreams, working in a profession that she is passionate about, settling down on the idyllic south coast of England with her partner (and hopefully with dogs in the future), and initiating her own sustainable business.
She cares for people, nature and commits her career to the circular economy and sustainability. Now she is the Programme Manager at Cambridge University, Institute for Sustainability Leadership and lead the newly established Sino-UK Centre for Sustainability Leadership. Between 2016-2021, she worked for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and led the Higher Education city demonstrator projects in London, New York, Shanghai and San Paulo. No matter where she works, she always actively seeks to bridge the dialogue between East and West and facilitate an effective communication.
She spends her free time walking along the Jurassic coast, hiking in Swiss mountains, photographing the endless rolling fields, kitesurfing in the Philippines, playing badminton (moderately well!) and the ukulele (badly!). She looks after the fundraising work at UKCWC.
Aiqin Liu
Dr Aiqin Liu obtained her PhD degree from the University of Leeds. She currently works as a research fellow in the area of biomechanical and tribological simulation of the natural knee. Dr Liu is a chartered engineer (CEng) and a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Dr Liu was awarded a Proof of Market funding through Grow MedTech to investigate the commercialisation of a knee rehabilitation device. Following this, she gained the prestigious Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund (ISSF) Early Stage Researcher Fellowship to investigate the biomechanics of knee rehabilitation. She recently obtained the Wellcome Trust institutional Translational Partnership Award to perform a translation study of the knee rehabilitation device. She is committed to promoting and accelerating the innovation and translation of scientific research and believes that medical research should be driven and directed by clinical and patient needs, to prevent and cure diseases and protect human health.
As a mother of two young children, she works hard to achieve a healthy work-life balance. She loves to spend time with her family and enjoys every happy moment to see the smile on the child’s face. She loves cooking and baking in her spare time. She currently works at the Department of Science and Technology in UKCWC to provide cutting-edge science and technology for UK Chinese women and their families, and providing a platform for communicating and sharing idea and resources.
Zella Zhang
I’m Zella Zhang, and I came to UK to work since 2019 as a fresh Londoner. I’m working in Finance & Investment industry as a Credit Research Analyst. I am also a passionate photographer and writer with a huge collection of creative portrait and proses.
At studies and work, I’d like to challenge myself with the highest standards. With three bachelor degrees in Economics, Law, and Management, I was also the chairman of debating team and Vice President of student association. I continued my studies and started my career in Paris in investment banking. London fancied me with its energy and beauty, and here I am, settled down with hope.
Grateful is my key word on my journey. I co-founded the HEC China (Chinese Students and Scholars Association) as a Master student, and helped the association to be engaged with Chinese society. I’m also a volunteer in Education for Chinese teenagers, with 10-year experience in Teach for China, Spring Buds Project (China Children and Teenagers’ Fund), Steppingstones China, etc.
Get inspired, give back.
Rui Hua
Ruihua is a senior in-house lawyer in an international financial services firm. She cares about diversity and inclusion and sits on the Ethnic Minority Lawyers Division Committee of the Law Society of England and Wales, and acts as vice-chair of the UK Society of Chinese Lawyers.
Outside law, Ruihua likes investing in properties, completed the London marathon, devotes a lot of time to charitable causes, and is the proud owner of her cat Marika.
Ellen Wang
Ellen was born in Beijing and moved to the UK since high school, she spent over 20 years studying and working in the UK within cross-cultural capacity. Ellen now works for a Russell Group University and she is passionate about International Higher Education where she is responsible for developing international strategy for her institution and managing their international portfolio. Ellen believes in life-long learning, she recently obtained her Executive MBA with full scholarship whilst working full time.
Ellen is a keen volunteer and did many charitable work. She volunteered for the London Olympic Games 2012 as well as Glasgow Commonwealth Game 2014. She is also the Vice-President of Nankai UK Alumni Association.
Ellen got involved in UKCWC by chance and she resonated deeply with the vision of UKCWC and its positive energy. She felt honored to be part of the community where she can contribute her share in representing Chinese Female community in the UK and it’s future development. She is currently in charge of English social media platforms, where she hopes to utilize these channels to promote UKCWC and showcase the great work UKCWC has done so far.
Her favorite quote is: We only die once, so let’s live everyday!
Joyce Xie
Joyce Xie is currently Managing Director, Greater China at IP Group, the UK’s leading intellectual property commercialisation company investing in spin-outs from the world’s top universities. Before joining IP Group, Joyce worked in M&A advisory at HSBC’s investment banking division covering the Telecoms, Media, and Technology sector. Prior to investment banking, Joyce worked as an investment manager, managing discretionary portfolios for Ultra High Net Worth clients at HSBC Private Bank. Joyce has worked in London, New York, Hong Kong, and Paris, and speaks fluently English, French, and Mandarin. Joyce is a CFA charterholder and holds a Master’s degree in Finance from ESCP Europe.
Yanhua Ou
Hua is currently an Assistant General Manager in an educational charity. She has been living in the UK for 22 years, worked in the charity sector for more than 15 years with extended project management experiences. She has two undergraduate degrees and a Master degree from Nottingham University. As a keen volunteer, she had been a regional co-ordinator for UNICEF UK on Campus for 5 years and Director of Communication for Chinese Welfare Trust.
She loves outdoor sports and have been a dragon boat paddler for 10 years, participated in many short and long distance races in the UK and abroad.
She joined UKCWC in 2021 and set up the website for UKCWC.
Zhao Zhao
Imperial College Alumni, has 6+ years’ risk management consulting experience and currently works at Deloitte Risk Advisory in the UK. She is a CICPA certified accountant and a CCMAP advanced practitioner in international contract and business management. In 2018, she moved from Beijing to the UK, and during the Covid-19 epidemic, she became a first time mum.
Zhao is a lifelong learner and is really passionate about life and charity work. She got involved in UKCWC in 2021 and have been volunteering in this charity since then, where she constantly get positive energy and feel more empowered as a women. She felt really honoured to join the Executive Committee of UKCWC, sitting in the Event Team, and is keen to contribute her part in connecting and empowering more Chinese women in the UK.