Ben Simpfendorfer

Ben Simpfendorfer is Founder and Managing Director of Silk Road Associates, a strategy consultancy based in Hong Kong with offices in Beijing and Melbourne. Ben assists multinationals and mid-market firms develop their business strategies in Asia and the Middle East. He was the former Chief China Economist for RBS and Senior China Economist for JPMorgan where he advised some of the world's largest financial institutions and multinationals.

Ben has spent the past 20 years working in Asia and the Middle East. He is currently based in Hong Kong, but previously lived in Beijing, Beirut, and Damascus. He is also a Mandarin, Cantonese, and Arabic speaker. Ben writes a regular column for FT.com's beyondbrics and features regularly on CNBC, Bloomberg, and the BBC. He is the bestselling author of "The Rise of the New East" (Palgrave, 2014) and "The New Silk Road" (Palgrave, 2009).