James McGregor is chairman and CEO of JL McGregor & Company and author of the book One Billion Customers: Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China, a widely-acclaimed best-seller published by Simon & Schuster.

Previously, Mr. McGregor was CEO of Dow Jones & Company in China, bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal in China and Taiwan, and the China managing director for GIV Venture Partners, a $140-million venture capital fund specializing in technology investments in China and India.  He has served as a China advisor for dozens of multinationals and investment funds.  He has also been involved with many Chinese Internet startups, and was an early investor and board member of Sohu.com during the company's July 2000 NASDAQ listing.

 

In 1996, Mr. McGregor served as chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, and he was a governor of that organization for a decade.  He is a a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the International Council of the Asia Society, and serves on a variety of China-related advisory boards.  He has advised both the Chinese and U.S. governments on economic and trade policies.  

A native of Duluth, Minnesota, Mr. McGregor was first exposed to Asia at age eighteen when he served in Vietnam as an infantry soldier.  He learned about the rise of China while working as a newspaper reporter in the U.S., and in 1985 planned a backpacking trip across China to take a look for himself.

 

Convinced that China was destined to become the world's most interesting country, at age thirty-three he and his wife sold their household possessions and moved to Taiwan with two suitcases each.  Mr. McGregor studied Mandarin intensively and joined The Wall Street Journal several months after arriving in Taiwan.  He has lived in Beijing since 1990.