James Zhan is senior Director of Investment and Enterprise at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). He is also the lead author of the United Nations' annual World Investment Report. Dr. Zhan has rich, hands-on experience, both at the national and international level in the areas of trade, investment, technology, business facilitation and enterprise development, including directing policy research, international consensus-building and technical assistance to governments and institutions in over 160 countries. He led the formulation of global guidelines for a new generation of investment policies (the Investment Policy Framework for Sustainable Development), and initiated the establishment of the World Investment Forum.

Dr. Zhan has held a number of advisory positions with academic institutions, including Cambridge University, Columbia University, Oxford University and the University of Geneva. He is Global Agenda Council member of the World Economic Forum. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Transnational Corporations. He has published extensively on trade and investment-related economic and legal issues. He holds a PhD in international economics, was research fellow at Oxford University and guest professor at Nankai University. Dr. Zhan is a regular speaker at academic, business and policy forums, as well as parliamentary hearings. He appears frequently in international media outlets.

Updated as of May 2016.