Shirley Yu

Professor Shirley Ze Yu is the Director of the China-Africa Initiative at the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa at the London School of Economics and a Senior Practitioner Fellow with the Ash Center of Harvard Kennedy School. She is also a professor at the IE Business School and a distinguished Foreign Faculty Professor at the National Defence University, Islamabad.

She is an expert on the Davos World Economic Forum Expert Network on China, 5G, and Geo-economics and an opinion contributor to the FT and Wall Street Journal, among others.

Shirley is a comentador and contributor on China’s strategic and economic affairs for the BBC News, Bloomberg, CNN, Al Jazeera, PBS Frontline, and S&P Global, among others.

She has a Master’s degree in Government from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in Political Economy from China’s Peking University.

CORPORATE EXPERIENCE

• Independent Non-Executive Director, Vision Deal HK Acquisition Corp (7827.HK)

• Independent Non-Executive Director, Eurasia International Commercial Bank

• Independent Non-Executive Director, Taneho Holdings Ltd.

• Board Observer, Blackstone Loan Financing ltd.

• Corporate keynote speaker: E&Y, Credit Suisse, UBS, Deloitte

ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE

• Senior Practitioner Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School, 2018 – Present

• Senior Fellow and Director, China-Africa Initiative, London School of Economics, 2019 – Present

• Adjunct professor, IE Business School, 2020 – Present

• Distinguished Foreign Faculty Professor, National Defence University, Islamabad, 2021 – Present

• Davos World Economic Forum expert network expert on China, 5G, and geo-economics, 2021 – Present

ACADEMIC BACKGROUND

• Ph.D., Chinese Political Economy, Peking University, China

• MA, Government, Harvard University, USA

• B.A., International Trade, Dalian University of Foreign Languages, China