Paul Clifford

Dr. Paul G. Clifford is Nonresident Senior Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He is President of the management consultants Paul G. Clifford & Associates. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Foreign Policy Association and External Associate, Lau China Institute, King’s College London. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the AI Governance Pathfinder Dialogue at the UK National Committee on China.

He first lived in China as a student in 1973-74. After that he worked in China as a corporate banker with The First National Bank of Chicago (now JP Morgan Chase), with strategy consultants Oliver Wyman and with US technology firm Cisco Systems where he was driving strategy in China on smart and connected cities, through a strategic alliance with China Development Bank.

He has deep experience in China’s logistics. He led consulting teams that advised a number of China’s largest state-owned logistics firms on their restructuring and strategic planning. He has also advised foreign logistics providers on their China market entry strategy. He has supported foreign investors in China on their supply chain issues across a wide range of sectors. He has also consulted to foreign and Chinese clients on China’s railways, intermodal transportation, shipping and public urban transportation.

He was elected as Executive Director of the China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing.

He is also the author of the book The China Paradox. At the Front Line of Economic Transformation, which profiles the 40 years of China’s economic reforms.

He studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where he received a Ph.D. in modern Chinese history, and at Peking University. He has taught at universities in Mexico, the UK and the US. He is fluent in Chinese.