Diana is recognised as one of the foremost experts on the Chinese economy. As Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England from 2003-2013, said of her, “It is increasingly rare to find an economist who eschews the conventional wisdom and is prepared to think for herself. In today’s uncertain world it is a priceless quality. Diana Choyleva is such a person.”

In her words, Diana says: “To understand the Chinese economy you have to understand the communist mind, and I have the unlikely advantage of having grown up in Bulgaria before the Berlin Wall came down. But, having been trained by some of the greatest Western economists, I also understand how the market economy works. I am one of the few economists who really knows capitalism, communism and how the two have come together in China.”

Diana joined JPMorgan Asia Growth and Income plc as a Non-executive Director to the Board in March 2023.

Diana set up Enodo Economics, an independent macroeconomic forecasting company, in 2016 to untangle complexity, challenge the consensus and make sense of the future.

For 16 years prior she worked at Lombard Street Research, most recently as their chief economist and head of research. In that role, she set the agenda for the firm’s team of economists and strategists while conducting her own global analysis. She joined LSR after completing her master’s degree in economics in 2000, and over the years has covered a wide range of developing and developed economies. Diana became a director of LSR in 2005 and headed the firm’s UK service from then until 2009. Between 2010 and 2013 she was based in Hong Kong overseeing LSR’s expansion in Asia.

She has co-authored three books on China and the global economy. In 2022, she co-authored ‘China’s Quest for Financial Self-reliance - How Beijing Plans to Decouple from the Dollar-Based Global Trading and Financial System’. In 2011, she published “The American Phoenix”, which predicted a wrenching slowdown in China and a troubled decade for Europe but greater resilience for America’s economy. In 2006 “The Bill from the China Shop” explained how Asia’s savings glut was driving US households ever deeper into debt and why the process was unsustainable.

Nigel has had a long career as a security and intelligence expert. Understanding China is not just about China in isolation. To understand China, you have to be able to read its long-term strategic intentions, especially at this time of tectonic political change. As James Mulvenon at SOS International LLC says, “Nigel Inkster fuses impressive academic learning with decades of experience as a senior intelligence professional.”

In his words, Nigel says: “I have followed China's development from the Cultural Revolution to the present day and have sought to analyse this within both the context of China's history and culture and the contemporary global strategic context. I regularly read, listen to and watch Chinese-language media and seek to combine what I learn from this with my own first-hand experience.”

He worked for the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London think-tank, from 2007 to 2017. Prior to that he served for 31 years in the British Secret Intelligence Service, retiring at the end of 2006 as assistant chief and director of operations and intelligence.

His research has focused on transnational terrorism, insurgency, transnational organised crime, cyber security, intelligence and security and the evolving character of conflict. He has written and broadcast on all these topics and has also been engaged in a variety of para-diplomatic activities on behalf of the UK government, including leading a Sino-UK Track 1.5 Cyber Security Dialogue. In 2020, he authored “The Great Decoupling: China, America and the Struggle for Technological Supremacy”, a book published by Hurst and which Professor Rory Medcalf described as, “A timely, sane and compelling account of the techno-strategic contest that will shape the worlds of 2020s and beyond”. In 2016, he authored China’s Cyber Power, an IISS Adelphi book published by Routledge.

He graduated from St John’s College Oxford with a BA in oriental studies (Chinese). He is married with two children and one grandchild and lives in London.

Willy Lam has more than forty years of experience researching and writing about China. Given the ever-growing complexities of Chinese politics, economics and society, he ensures that Enodo’s China reporting is grounded in a thorough evaluation of the intertwining ties between socio-political and economic developments.

In Willy’s words, “China has always been a moveable feast. Despite – or because of – the lack of transparency, particularly regarding high-level decision-making, piecing together the real picture about economic and political changes remains a fascinating challenge. I’ve been watching China pretty much since my first trip to Beijing in 1973. And throughout the somewhat bumpy cycles of reform and opening up versus the imposition of order and discipline, we’ve learnt to appreciate the resilience and vibrancy of the Chinese people. It’s a pleasure and privilege to continue reading the tea leaves and talking to cadres, scholars and businesspeople as well as ordinary citizens about the twists and turns of Chinese politics, economics and foreign affairs.”

Willy has studied in Hong Kong, the US, France and mainland China. He holds a master’s degree in Asian studies from the University of Minnesota, another master’s degree in Buddhism from the University of Hong Kong and a doctorate in economics from Wuhan University. A long-time Hong Kong resident, Lam speaks English, Chinese, French and Japanese. His latest books are Chinese Politics in the Xi Jinping Era and The Struggle for China’s Future, both published by Routledge in London and New York.

Willy has taught Chinese politics, economics and foreign relations at the Chinese University of Hong Kong since 2007. Before that he was a journalist specialising in Chinese affairs at the South China Morning Post and CNN.

Fraser has worked in China’s financial markets as a practitioner and a researcher since the 1990s, giving him a rigorous understanding of the markets that is unrivalled. The book he co-authored with Carl Walters, Red Capitalism: The Fragile Financial Foundation of China’s Extraordinary Rise, was named by The Economist as one of its books of the year in 2011. The weekly said: “Two bankers with years of experience in China shine an unprecedented light on the remarkable 32-year effort to build the country's financial system—on its vices, virtues and many conflicts of interest.”

In his words, Fraser says: “Never accepting anything at face value is key to understanding China. With decades of direct investment experience coupled with in-depth research I have perhaps a unique perspective which allows a better handle on Chinese capital markets than most other observers."

Fraser is co-author of two more books on the Chinese financial system, “Privatizing China: Inside China’s Stock Markets” and “To Get Rich is Glorious!: China’s Stock Market in the ‘80s and ‘90s”.

He studied natural sciences (physics) at Cambridge University and Chinese at Beijing Language and Culture University. He has worked for Baring Securities, Bankers Trust, Morgan Stanley, CICC and CLSA, where from 2003 to 2012 he was a managing director in the listed derivatives and synthetic equity department.

Fraser’s work has been published in the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, China Economic Quarterly and the Nikkei Asian Review. He is a regular commentator on CNBC, Bloomberg and the BBC.

Beijing-based for over two decades, Calum has got to grips with multiple aspects of China’s remarkable transformation. A fluent Mandarin speaker, and former China correspondent for The Times, he’s reported from every province - and helped build factories in some as an investment consultant for British firms. Calum is the co-author of ‘China Remembers’, an oral history containing “some of the most honest, varied and compelling accounts of the country ever compiled”.

In his words, “Covering China is an often frustrating but endlessly fascinating occupation. Long rich in contradictions, the PRC is run by a regime both stronger and yet more fearful than I’ve ever known it. Rejoice that it’s also home to personalities big enough to sprinkle optimism however bleak the outlook.”

Calum studied Chinese at Oxford University. He has worked at China advisory firm Batey Burn, as Beijing bureau chief for The Independent, and as Asia correspondent for USA Today, reporting from as far west as Kyrgyzstan, south to Indonesia and east to Japan. He co-wrote the guidebook ‘Uzbekistan - The Golden Road to Samarkand’, described by the New York Times as “one of those rare travel guides that is a joy to read whether or not you are planning a trip.”

Calum lives in London.