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The Team
Tempe Reichardt, Founder and CEO:
Tempe has over 25 years in international business experience with a focus on exporting high-end California consumer products, in particular wine. Prior to founding the California Marketplace, she previously established wholesale, retail and ecommerce businesses in San Francisco, London, and Antwerp, Belgium. She comes from a family of entrepreneurs, importers and luxury goods retailers. Her family was also instrumental in the redevelopment of the downtown and waterfront areas of her hometown which created a vibrant shopping and entertainment environment transforming and benefiting the community. She brings a high degree of passion, depth and breadth of international business experience, and vision for a better future to her current project. She holds a BA from the University of Michigan and a Masters in Journalism from Northwestern University.
Tim Liang, Director
Tim Liang has had many years of business development experience in China. Tim has spent more than 25 years in China business activities as a management consultant for McKinsey and Company and Arthur D. Little. Tim has worked with both American and European multinationals in entering and expanding business in China. He has also served as Senior Vice President for JSJ Corporation (a privately held Michigan manufacturing company), doing strategic planning, corporate development, and changes in business models at the four JSJ companies. He spearheaded the company’s expansion of business and investments in China. Currently Tim is advising a number of US-based companies on strategies for entering the Chinese market, and working with those companies to implement the strategies. Tim is fluent in Mandarin and holds several degrees including an MBA from Yale University.
Ping Liang, Director
Ping has spent more than 30 years in international banking, consulting, investments and trade, and has worked for more than 10 years in China. Ping was a bank executive with Bank of Boston, Old Kent Financial Corporation, and Fifth Third Bank in Boston, London and various locations in Asia and the USA. She was Director of Financial Services at Burston Marsteller in China, helping state owned enterprises successfully launch IPOs and international private placements. She was an investment professional with Reams Asset Management Company in the US, with responsibility for investing American pension funds in international equities and fixed income securities. In 1991 she was appointed by Massachusetts Governor William Weld as the Representative of Massport and Massachusetts to promote two-way trade and investment between New England and Asia. Ping earned her MBA at Yale University.
Jonathan Rivin
Secretary, General Counsel
As a partner at Dudnick, Detwiler, Rivin and Stikker LLP in San Francisco, Jonathan has advised institutional and individual clients on all elements of real property matters since 1980. His extensive legal and real estate experience will lend itself to creating a solid, tax advantaged, international structure for the California Marketplace, to drafting and negotiating leases with tenants, to working with Chinese legal counsel in negotiating contracts with landlords and developers, and to serving as long-term advisor to the Marketplace. Jonathan comes from a family of prominent retailers located in several areas of the USA. He earned his undergraduate degree at Harvard College and his law degree from the University of Michigan.
Matthew Norris, CFO
Matt has been involved in the bidding, development and management of government-leased office space since 2006 through various real estate partnerships. As a project manager, he develops project budgets, oversees construction and provides property management services to office space leased by the General Service Administration, US Federal Government. Prior to his current position at Spindrift Partners, he was a member of the Executive Finance Development Program at Thermo Fisher Scientific. Before attending business school Matt worked at Comdisco Ventures as a portfolio manager focused on managing a portfolio of investments in technology and healthcare companies. Prior to his tenure at Comdisco Ventures, he joined OffRoad Capital, an investment bank specializing in raising private capital via the Internet. As an associate in the Private Capital Group, Matt successfully managed 7 transactions raising $45 million in capital for private technology companies from a network of accredited investors. Matt began his career as an investment banking analyst for Bank of America Securities. He holds an M.B.A. from the McCombs School of Business-University of Texas at Austin and a B.A. in Economics from Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, CA.
Graham Higginson, Chief Marketing Officer
Graham, trained as an engineer. started his career as a marketing officer with WS Atkins Consulting Group and appeared on the BBC technology program, Tomorrow’s World to demonstrate the early days of shared computing services (now known as Cloud Computing.) He later started a marketing and design agency, developing and managing campaigns for BMW, Chrysler, Rothmans (British American Tobacco), Walt Disney, Delta Airlines and Panasonic.
In 1993, he returned to his technology roots by establishing Britnet, a pioneer in internet and ecommerce. Transactional sites were developed for Eurotunnel, General Electric, and high street retailer Marks and Spencer. Britnet was acquired in 2000 by a sale facilitated by PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PWC). Graham went on to develop a B2B mobile technology company, providing security services which was sold in 2006. Since then he has been involved in supporting business in their web, mobile and social media activities. Graham has worked across Europe, the mid East, the Far East and the US.
Jeffrey Heller, Architect and Urban Planner, CEO Heller Manus Architects:
Jeffrey's experience covers a wide range of building types including commercial, residential, public, rehabilitation, institutional, retail, and adaptive re-use projects. He is principally recognized as having broad expertise in the US and Asia with complex urban, mixed-use, and master planning projects, especially in difficult approvals environments. Jeffrey is frequently a guest speaker and lecturer nationally and internationally and fully embraces the concept of bringing lessons of design and sustainability to the public, to fellow professionals, and to future generations of architects. Jeffrey is currently engaged in several major architecture and urban planning projects in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Inner Mongolia, China, amongst other locations in the world. Prior to forming Heller Manus Architects in 1984, Jeffrey held various roles at well-known firms including SOM, Gensler, and KMD where he was a partner. He received his BA and his Master of Science, Architecture and Urban Design from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Jiang Jiang, Legal Advisor - China
Jiang Jiang, a partner at Hylands Law Firm in Shanghai, holds multiple degrees from both Chinese and foreign universities. Most notably he holds a Masters of Jurisprudence degree from Oxford University, and a Masters of Laws from China University of Law and Political Science and a PH.D. from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Jiang Jiang worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1993 to 1996 and started his law career in 1996. He was named the leading Asian lawyer by Asialaw Magazine for four consecutive years since 2004. Jiang Jiang specializes in international business and investment with a focus on M&A, real estate development, anti-trust, disposition of non-performing assets and international finance.
