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ADVISORY BOARD

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Susan E Walton. Senior Advisor
Susan is a senior executive with more than 25 years of experience running the global institutional investment research franchises of top tier investment banks in London, New York and Hong Kong. She has also co-founded a number of research and media companies. Susan specialises in research on emerging markets with particular expertise in the Indo-Pacific and South East Asia, where she worked and lived for a number of years. Susan is a co-founder of The Evenstar Institute.

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Stewart Paterson, Senior Advisor

Head of Geo-Economic Risk, based in London. Stewart has been following the Chinese economy for 30 years, 18 of which he lived in Asia. He was Head of Asia Pacific Equity strategy at CLSA and Credit Suisse before setting up Riley Paterson Investment management in Singapore. He relocated to the UK in 2012 and is a research fellow at the Hinrich Foundation. Stewart is the author of “China, Trade and Power.” 

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Eddie Alleyn, Senior Advisor

Eddie spent 35 years working for the UK Government, in the Foreign Office, Cabinet Office and Ministry of Defence.  He was CEO at HMGCC from 2011-2016, leading engineering teams designing and deploying secure systems of various kinds.
Over the last six years Eddie has built a portfolio of Executive and Advisory roles with a number of innovative British tech start-ups and scale-ups, with a particular focus on the early-stage ecosystem in Oxfordshire, where he lives. He is a Fellow of the IET.
 

 

EXECUTIVE TEAM

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Sam Olsen. Chief Executive Officer
Sam has more than 25 years studying China and was the lead creator of The Evenstar Centre’s proprietary Influence Models. He has recently returned to the UK after a decade living in Asia. Before that he served in the US Senate working on China trade policy and was an intelligence officer in the British Army. Sam is an advisor on China to senior politicians in the UK and other allied countries, and co-hosts the weekly podcast “What China Wants”. Sam studied at the University of Oxford. Sam is a co-founder of The Evenstar Institute.

 

Nick Zambellas. Chief Operating Officer
Nick is an experienced geopolitical analyst and project manager with a proven track record of delivering complex investigations to public agencies and multinational companies. He has deep experience in emerging markets, including the Middle East and Asia, and his work includes leading an online extremism monitoring project in Asia and an investigations capacity building programme. Nick has been involved in all Evenstar’s analysis of Chinese influence around the world, and now coordinates of Evenstar’s projects, providing specialist input where needed. Nick is a co-founder of The Evenstar Institute.

 

Dr William Matthews. Director of Research
William is a fluent Mandarin speaker and a specialist in Chinese comparative social science and international relations. He has ten years' experience researching and teaching on China, drawing on a range of disciplines, including political science, history, and anthropology. Before joining The Evenstar Centre, William was an academic at the London School of Economics. He received his PhD from University College, London. William is a co-founder of The Evenstar Institute.

 

Francesca Griffin. Analyst
Francesca holds a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford and a MA International Conflict Studies from King’s College London, with a specialisation in China on her thesis. Francesca joined Evenstar in 2021 and has been involved in the analysis of Chinese influence in Asia and other emerging markets. Previously, she has experience in research roles within both financial services and NGOs as well as experience working in China as an English teacher. Francesca is a co-founder of The Evenstar Institute.