Simon MacKinnon

Simon lives in Shanghai and has worked in China and Asia for most of the last 24 years. After serving in regional leadership roles for UK and US multinational companies, he currently works for a variety of business and non-profit/community organizations in China and SE Asia.

These include serving as Chairman of Aggreko China, part of the global leader in rental power. He is also Chairman of Global Green Power, a group of UK-Philippines renewable energy companies focused on biomass to electricity power stations in rural areas in the Philippines, and Chairman of Sinophi Healthcare, a new company working to acquire and operate hospitals in China. In private equity, he works as China Advisor with leading European private equity company Cinven and he is a Founding Partner of a Shanghai-based angel and early stage venture capital investment company investing in Chinese companies.

Simon’s community commitments include serving as Honorary Director of the Liverpool-Shanghai Partnership, an organization Simon helped to establish promoting business, sports, culture and other projects between the two Sister Cities, and he is a Director of the Liverpool Biennial in the UK, one of the largest contemporary art events of its kind in Europe. In Shanghai he co-founded and serves as Vice Chairman of the Shanghai Urban Regeneration Foundation, a Chinese non-profit foundation established with the Shanghai Municipal Government to promote projects and exchange on urban conservation and regeneration.

In education and work for children, Simon is Chairman of the China Oxford Scholarship Fund Shanghai, raising money to award scholarships to Chinese graduate students to study in Oxford. He was heavily involved in establishing Care for Children, a pioneering UK-China foster-care charity in China working to train Chinese social workers with the skills to enable children to leave orphanages for new lives in Chinese families. More than 200,000 children are now with new families, working towards a target of one million children to be helped across China by 2012.

From 2000 to 2008, Simon was President of Corning China, the world leader in specialty glass and ceramics with 2007 global sales of US$6bn. He led rapid growth in China of investment, sales and manufacturing for Corning's telecoms (optical fiber and cable), environmental pollution control products (for autos and power stations) and LCD Glass (for TV's, computers) businesses.
During this time Corning grew six-fold to close to half a billion dollars in sales in China and Corning China won awards from both the Chinese Government and foreign organizations for its CSR/community contributions in poverty alleviation and education projects.

Prior to joining Corning, Simon worked for P&O, a UK services group, in London, Japan and China. From 1995 to 2000 he led P&O in China, developing strategy, driving market entry work and doing deals for P&O’s exhibition center, infrastructure and construction, travel agency, ports and shipping businesses.

From 1991 to 1995, Simon was based in Tokyo and Osaka. He spent two years seconded from P&O to Mitsui & Co trading house and Mitsui Construction, Mitsui Real Estate and Mitsui OSK shipping line, working on projects with P&O companies and acquiring a taste for Japanese food.

Simon is a Mandarin Chinese speaker and served as Chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai from 1997-1999. He serves today as an Adviser to the Shanghai National Peoples Political Congress (NPPC). In 2007 he was awarded Honorary Citizenship of Shanghai for his contributions to the city over two decades and in 2008 he was honored as one of the carriers of the Olympic Torch in the Shanghai section of the Beijing Olympics Torch relay.

Simon is a graduate of Oxford University, University of Pennsylvania, Harvard Business School and Shanghai’s Fudan University.