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David James
is president of Business Strategies International (BSI Corporation), a consulting and venture development firm in San Francisco, CA. In addition to The New Asia, his other published works include The Executive Guide to Asia-Pacific Communications (Kodansha International, 1995), Doing Business in Asia (Betterway Books, 1993), and numerous articles on legal, business, and technology issues.   Many of his technology articles have appeared in Upside Magazine and Nokia’s TheFeature.com and are available to be read in the Articles/Technology section of BSI‘s website.

James was chairman of business programs at the East-West Center, Honolulu, HI, and under a project of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), he headed a team of U.S. advisers to the Government of Indonesia on the revision of its commercial laws and related subjects.

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Earlier, James served as Honorary Consul of Malaysia in Hawaii and was general counsel or assistant general counsel of three large multinational corporations and a senior partner of a Chicago, IL-based law firm. He also was co-professor of a seminar on Asian law and society at Stanford Law School, Stanford, CA. James holds an A.B. degree from Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; a J.D. degree from the University of Chicago Law School, Chicago, IL; and a Stanford Executive Program certificate from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Stanford, CA.  In 2021-2022, he was president of the Harvard Club of San Francisco.

Rajeev Merchant is the founder and managing director of the Asia Advisory Group which specializes in emerging economies and frontier markets, and of Technoscenti, a business management, technology, and research consultancy.  He was international strategy and business development director of AT&T Asia Pacific and an adjunct professor for a marketing-in-technology graduate program of the Department of Management in Science & Technology, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR. He also served on the board of directors of the Singapore India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI), and as an advisor to Ashoka Fellows on social entrepreneurship. Merchant holds a B.A. degree in economics from the University of Bombay, Mumbai, India; and an M.B.A. degree in international management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Glendale, AZ.