Strengthening Ties: Insights on Sustaining Canada-China Engagement

Join us for a captivating afternoon of networking, insights, and celebration. Following CCBC’s 46th AGM & Business Forum in Beijing, we’ll delve into the intricacies of the evolving Canada-China relationship. Our session will feature Sarah Kutulakos, CCBC Executive Director and COO, as she shares key takeaways from the AGM convergence, including: The US Election and its Impact on Both Canada and China; Agrifood Innovation and the Triple Challenge; and Energy Transition – Comparing and Contrasting Canada and China’s Approach.

With both countries navigating pressing topics—from shifting Chinese consumer habits, natural resource management, investment opportunities, and Indigenous engagement—this event will energize the Canada-China bilateral business community and offer an opportunity to discuss pathways forward.

Celebrate the holiday season and bid farewell to CCBC’s Executive Director after nearly 18 years of dedicated leadership. Following the AGM highlights, enjoy a fireside chat with Sarah and Paul Evans, Professor Emeritus in the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia, reflecting on her remarkable tenure. Cap off the day with a lively reception as we toast to new collaborations and ring in the holidays together.

Address:
Fasken, 550 Burrard St, Bentall 5, #2900, Vancouver, BC, V6C 0A3

Tickets:
• CCBC Member: $35 + tax
• Non-Members: $70 + tax

Space is limited, so please register at this link to secure your spot. For any questions, please contact Lotta Ygartua, Regional Director, Western Canada, at lotta@ccbc.com.

About the Speakers:

Sarah Kutulakos
Executive Director and COO
Canada China Business Council

Sarah Kutulakos joined the CCBC in 2007 and has since revitalized CCBC’s role as Canada’s premier bilateral trade and investment organization. Ms. Kutulakos has re-centered the Council’s activities around providing business services, catalyzing business growth and activity, and advocating for stronger Sino-Canadian bilateral trade and investment. This has resulted in extensive public outreach activities, internal infrastructure improvements, the launch of new programs such as the Business Incubation Centre, and thriving member relations.

Prior to joining CCBC, Ms. Kutulakos worked for 11 years in marketing, product development, and management with a major multinational corporation, where she had multiple assignments involving China. Ms. Kutulakos managed worldwide product businesses that marketed to China and used China-based sources of supply. She was also involved in several projects requiring cooperation with the Chinese government. Ms. Kutulakos has led both established and start-up businesses within the context of a global corporation and has broad emerging market business experience, and has been involved in the Greater China region since the late 1980s when she lived and worked in Taiwan. There, she was the first non-Chinese employee of a local high-tech start-up firm, where she gained a deep understanding of Chinese business practices.

A fluent Mandarin speaker, Ms. Kutulakos’s interest in China began at the University of Wisconsin, where she studied Chinese, marketing, and international business. She holds an MBA in finance and operations from the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester. She frequently speaks on China issues, including marketing, trade, investment, and Canada-China relations.

Paul Evans
Professor Emeritus in the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs
University of British Columbia (UBC)

Paul Evans (PhD with distinction Dalhousie University 1982) retired from UBC in June 2023 after 43 years of university teaching. He is currently Professor Emeritus.

His academic appointments have been as follows:

• Assistant Professor, Acadia University, 1980-81
• Assistant, Associate and Professor, Department of Political Science, York University, 1981-97;
• Director, University of Toronto – York University Joint Centre for Asia Pacific Studies, 1991-96;
• Visiting Professor, Asia Center, Harvard University, 1997-99;
• Acting Director, Liu Institute for Global Issues, 2004-5;
• Director, Institute of Asian Research, 2008-11 and 2014;
• Visiting Professor at the University of Hong Kong, 2011 and 2013;
• Visiting Professor and Head of the International Academic Advisory Panel to the School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University, 2013-16.
• Visiting Pok Rafeah Chair, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 2022-23.

Between 2005 and 2008, he was seconded from UBC to serve as the Co-CEO and Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. And between 2020 and 2023 he held the HSBC Chair in Asian Research at UBC.

A regionalist rather than country specialist, he has held visiting fellowships at the Australian National University (1988); National Chengchi University in Taiwan (1989); Chulalongkorn University (1989); the East-West Center (1995); and the National Institute for Research Advancement in Tokyo (1999) and spoken at more than fifty universities and think tanks across the region.

An advocate of cooperative and human security, he has been studying and promoting policy-related activity on track-two security processes and the construction of multilateral institutions since 1988. He was a co-founder of the Council for Security Cooperation in Asia Pacific (CSCAP), the Canadian Consortium on Human Security, and the co-founder of the Canada-Korea Forum. He has directed exchange and partnership projects with fifteen research institutes in Asia and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs funded by governments and foundations in Canada, Japan, the United States, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia. Between 1990 and 2002 he organized two dozen meetings involving participants from North Korea.

He is currently a Canadian representative on the ASEAN Regional Forum’s Experts and Eminent Persons Group.

A member of the Global Council of the Asia Society in New York, he also sits on the editorial boards of The Pacific Review, the Chinese Journal of International Politics, the China Quarterly for International Strategic Studies, and Mexico y la Cuenca del Pacifico.

His graduate and undergraduate teaching at UBC focused on Global China and World Order.

The author or editor of seven books, his first was a biography of John Fairbank, his most popular the two editions of a lexicon of Asia Pacific security terminology (with David Capie), and his most recent “Engaging China: Myth, Aspiration and Strategy in Canadian Policy from Trudeau to Harper,” published in 2014.

His recent writings and media commentaries have focused on Canada-China relations, Asian security dynamics, and the emergence of techno-nationalism as a defining force in regional affairs. Some of them are available here and on his blog. His condensed academic CV is available here, and his complete academic CV is available here.

He is married to Catherine Evans and they plan to remain resident in Vancouver.

Lotta Ygartua
Regional Director, Western Canada
Canada China Business Council

As Regional Director of Western Canada, Lotta Ygartua is responsible for building the CCBC membership base throughout the region by connecting Canadian and Chinese businesses, promoting Canada-China bilateral trade, organizing events and supporting the delivery of member services. Ms. Ygartua has over 10 years of marketing experience in the technology, marketing research, communications and art sectors. Prior to joining CCBC, she was Marketing Manager at the China-Britain Business Council based in the UK, promoting trade and business with China and organizing high-calibre events involving the Chinese Premier and the Prime Minister of Great Britain.

Ms. Ygartua spent several years living in China, where she studied and worked for a local company that developed products for the Chinese market. Ms. Ygartua studied Mandarin at the University of Nanjing and Nanjing Normal University. She holds a BA in Chinese and BSc in Social and Economic Geography from Uppsala University, Sweden.