Kobus is the founder and Group Managing Director of THE BEIJING AXIS, a company that serves as a cross-border business bridge to/from China. THE BEIJING AXIS (www.thebeijingaxis.com) provides services in the areas of Strategy (strategy formulation and implementation); Sourcing (China Sourcing Unit – CSU and Supply Chain Solutions); and Investment (corporate finance origination). Services are offered to global multinationals with a ‘China agenda’; and to Chinese multinational firms with a ‘go- global agenda’. The firm is a leader in China-Africa investment and trade facilitation, having worked on a number of high profile projects in this sphere. The firm established the China Sourcing Unit (CSU) that provides a range of professional cross-border sourcing solutions to a growing list of top Chinese and international companies. It also founded the China Sourcing blog (www.chinasourcingblog.org).

Kobus is based in Beijing where he has been elected as Business Director of the South Africa China Business Association (SACBA, www.sacba.com.cn). He is also a Founding Board Member and currently Vice President of the Asia Pacific South Africa Chamber of Commerce (APSACC, www.apsacc.org). In addition, Kobus is an advisor to Create Ventures – a Cambridge-based venture capital firm (www.createpartners.com) that he has been involved with since its foundation. He provides strategic and operational support to the fund’s investee companies in China and the Asia Pacific. Kobus is also a member of the China International Mining Group.

Kobus is the author of ‘Doing Business in China – the System and the Strategies’ and has published various other books and chapters in books on economics, finance and foreign exchange markets – particularly on China and the rest of Asia. He is the editor of The China Analyst and has appeared on CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg TV, Reuters TV, SABC, TCS, CCTV and other networks. He has written for, or has been quoted in the Financial Times, the Asian Wall Street Journal, South China Morning Post, the Singapore Straits Times, Singapore Business Times, the China Daily and Business Day. He has performed public speaking, on invitation, in more than 20 countries.

Before founding THE BEIJING AXIS he was a Senior Strategy Consultant with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in Asia and previous to that he was Head of Investment Strategy and Research for Asia Pacific for Standard Chartered Bank Plc. In his early career he was an Emerging Market Investment Strategist in London; a Treasury Economist with Standard Merchant Bank in Johannesburg; and an Economist with the South African Reserve Bank, in Pretoria.

Kobus teaches part time on the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business MBA programme and is a Research Fellow at Wits University International Relations Department on their East Asia Project. Kobus was educated in France, Australia and South Africa. His first degree is in Economics and Psychology and he holds post-graduate Honours-degrees in Economics, from Johannesburg University, and Finance & Investment Management from the University of South Africa. He also holds an MBA from INSEAD in France and a Master of Information Technology (cum laude) from Curtin University of Technology (School of Information Systems), in Australia. In addition, he has attended executive education programmes at London Business School (Strategic Management for Executives) and INSEAD (International Management). He is currently doing Research for a PhD in International Relations, focusing on China’s foreign business relations.

His personal interests include painting (oil and acrylic), East-Asian politics and diplomacy, Chinese history and chess. Kobus speaks English, Afrikaans, Dutch and basic Mandarin Chinese.

Cheryl joined THE BEIJING AXIS at its inception and has accordingly had a strong influence on developing the company’s operational structure. Since the founding of the company she has led the sourcing team and has successfully managed a significant number of projects assisting international companies source and invest in China, and direct Chinese companies going abroad.     

In addition to being a co-founder of a Beijing based skin care boutique that specializes in the distribution of European products in China, her last position before joining THE BEIJING AXIS was as an Advertising and Research Manager for Beijing Yanhuangxinxing Tech. Prior to that she was a Senior Media Planner for J Walter Thomson Advertising Company.  

Cheryl is originally from Shanghai but she also lived for a number of years in Xinjiang as a child. She now lives as a permanent resident in Beijing. She has traveled China and abroad extensively for business and educational reasons and thus has a comprehensive understanding of both Chinese and Western business cultures. Cheryl has been interviewed on a number of occasions as a successful example of a returned scholar acting as a business conduit between China and the world in both the local media and foreign chamber of commerce news.  

Cheryl holds an MBA in International Business from The Birmingham Business School, UK. She also has a Bachelors degree in Marketing Communications from the Communications University of China.  

Cheryl is fluent in English, Mandarin & Shanghainese.

Edward joined THE BEIJING AXIS in the capacity of Project Manager in 2005. He currently serves as the Business Development Director.

Prior to joining the company, Edward worked as a Senior Consultant with an international business research and strategy consulting company for more than five years managing projects for foreign companies with a China agenda (including Alstom, Conde Nast, Nokia, Pfizer, Whirlpool and Credit Lyonnais etc.). Prior to that he was in charge of business development at a trade and travel company. Edward started his career with the China Air Force where he worked with an international relations research institute attached to the air force headquarters. Following that, he worked as a Business Manager with China Fujian Foreign Trade Center, a large state-owned company affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Trade & Economic Cooperation.

Edward is originally from Beijing but due to his military and civilian career has also lived in Fuzhou and Jiangxi Province before returning to Beijing.

Edward holds an MBA from Strathclyde University in Glasgow, Scotland. He also has a BA degree in International Relations from China Air Force Engineering College.

Edward is fluent in English and Mandarin.

Lilian is a Director with THE BEIJING AXIS and is responsible for developing Russian clientele. He is also involved in projects of THE BEIJING AXIS that require his knowledge in consumer goods markets or Russia and Eastern Europe. He is currently based in Beijing, travelling to Moscow and other parts of Russia and CIS frequently.

Lilian's previous work experience includes line management positions in the Russian consumer goods markets: in Vladivostok, as Commercial Director with Ratimir (meat processing, USD120 m annual revenue), and in Moscow, as Sales Director with Wimm-Bill-Dann (NYSE: WBD). Lilian has also worked as a Strategy Director with WBD in Moscow, as an associate with McKinsey & Company in Moscow and in New Jersey, US, and as a private equity analyst with Europa Capital Management, a Prague-based investment firm focused on Eastern Europe and Russia.

Lilian holds a BA degree in Economics and International Relations from the American University in Bulgaria, and an MBA degree from INSEAD, France. He is fluent in English, Russian and Romanian, and has a working knowledge of Mandarin, Bulgarian and French.

Matt is the Co-Founder and Director of CREATE, a Cambridge-based fund management company. He has furthermore served as an advisor to THE BEIJING AXIS since its inception in his capacity as Non-Executive Director and continues to represent the company in the United Kingdom and Western Europe.

Matt has extensive international banking experience in cross-border M&A, structured finance and business strategy reviews and implementations and completed a number of investments ranging from seed to MBO transactions. He co-founded CREATE as a specialist SME Investment Company in 2000. CREATE Partners manages The CREATE East of England Fund, a Cambridge based VC fund specialising in SME investments. Matt is a Director and member of the Investment Committee of CREATE. Prior to establishing CREATE, Matt served as an Assistant Director in Crédit Agricole Indosuez's Corporate Finance business in both Paris and London where he was involved in building the team and executing cross border M&A transactions from 1998 till 2000.

Matt started his career with UBS in the emerging markets team in Zurich, concentrating on corporate transactions in the Middle East and Africa. In 1995 he joined the UBS Investment Banking division in London where he worked on the international M&A transactions team. Matt holds an honours degree in Investment Management from the University of Johannesburg.

Matt is fluent in English and Afrikaans.

Dirk joined THE BEIJING AXIS in 2004, and has served as General Manager for the company's China operations since 2007. Over the past three years he has participated in or managed several consulting projects for blue chip foreign investors in China, with a focus on mining and related industries.

Before joining THE BEIJING AXIS Dirk was involved in the setting up of educational ventures in Fujian Province in the south of China, before which he pursued his longstanding interest in studying Chinese culture and language. Before moving to China in 2002 he was employed as a due diligence officer at Capitec Bank in South Africa.

Dirk has served as a committee member of the South Africa China Business Association (SACBA), and was instrumental in the setting up in 2007 of the Asia Pacific South Africa Chamber of Commerce (APSACC).

He has been a regular contributor to BBC World Service panel discussions about matters related to China, and has appeared on China Central Television (CCTV). Dirk has had writings published on several China-related subjects including trade policy, sourcing economics and the Chinese consumer market.

Dirk was educated in South Africa, where in 1998 he graduated from the University of Stellenbosch with a BCom Law degree. He is presently pursuing his MBA studies at Peking University (PKU) in Beijing.

Dirk is fluent in English, Afrikaans and Mandarin Chinese.