Peggy Liu

International sustainability expert on greening China.

Profile

As Chairperson of Joint US-China Collaboration on Clean Energy (JUCCCE), Peggy Liu is one of the leading catalysts of a green China and consults companies and governments on sustainability and cross-cultural collaboration with China.

Current work

JUCCCE is an environmental organization that has been at the heart of the greening of China since 2007. It is most noted for accelerating societal-scale change with its multi-sector, cross-border convening power, having introduced Smart Grid to China, having educated over 1000 Chinese mayors and central government leaders on how to build sustainable cities, having created the China Dream initiative in 2010 to embed sustainability into a new vision of prosperity, and having catalysed China’s change in using incandescents to energy efficient compact fluorescent lighting. JUCCCE is firmly focused on the intersection of personal and planetary health and launched Food Heroes in 2013, China’s first comprehensive kids’ healthy food curriculum.

Peggy is a Distinguished Professor at China Academy of Governance, a lecturer at China Executive Leadership Academy of Pudong, and the National Academy for Mayors of China. She is a board member of Project Drawdown, an advisor to the FTSE Environmental Markets Committee, EAT Forum and Volans, a Governor of the Hillary Institute.

Previous experience

Positions: She is a Thought Leader at Criticaleye CEO network. She served as an executive advisor to Marks & Spencer, a sustainability advisor to HP, a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Councils on Sustainable Consumption 2012-13 and on New Energy Architecture 2011-12, and an energy adviser to the Clinton Global Initiative in 2008. Prior to JUCCCE she was a venture capitalist in Shanghai in the 1990’s.

Recognition: She is a recurring judge for The Circulars at Davos (circular economy) and the Hult Prize (social entrepreneurship at college level). As one of the leading green voices in China, Peggy was honored as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, Foreign Policy’s shaper of US-China relations, the Hillary Step for climate change solutions in 2012, a Time Magazine Hero of the Environment in 2008, the Hillary Laureate of 2010 for climate change leadership, a Forbes ‘Women to Watch in Asia’ in 2010, a Huffington Post ‘Greatest Person of the Day’ in 2011, one of China’s top 50 innovative business leaders by China Business News Weekly in 2012, Shanghai Excellence Award 2014. In Chinese press, she has been recognized as a green leader on covers and in features such as Oriental Outlook (‘China Dream’), Global Times (‘Green Goddess’), Beijing Tatler (‘Green Miracle’), The Guardian (‘Climate Change Abolitionists’), Vogue China (‘3 Women Who Better the World’), Psychologies (’10 Green Handkerchiefs award’), Madame Figaro ‘Top Life’ award 2012, Jessica (‘Most Successful Women’ 2013), L’Officiel (‘China’s Most Successful Women’ 2014).

Speaking: She speaks around the world to explain how China works and China’s green journey. Peggy is a frequent speaker at World Economic Forum and TED, and appears regularly on BBC, Discovery Channel, and other media. Watch her in: Voice of America’s “A Single Step: Journeys of Women Leaders”, “Cities Changing Diabetes”, “Catching the Sun”, Discovery Channel’s “Power the Future” Part 3 and Part 4, Discovery Channel “How China Works”. She is a recurring judge for The Circulars at Davos (circular economy) and the Hult Prize (social entrepreneurship at college level).

Education: She is a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and completed a program in Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a program at the Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.

Expertise

Talking Points
Creative Innovation
Building Cultural Bridges: How to approach globalised business practices and speak to the heart and the head in China
Sustainable Prosperity and the Prosperity Movement
China: A model for going green
The China Dream Project
Market Entry to China: What you need to understand as a business to enter the Chinese market
Urbanisation
Women in Leadership, Business and Entrepreneurialism

Media