Ms Virginia Davis Wilmerding, aged 53, was appointed as an Independent Non-executive Director of the Company with effect from April 9, 2021. Ms Wilmerding holds an A.B. degree in East Asian Studies from Princeton University and is an experienced reputational risk advisor and environmental, social and governance (ESG) expert.
Ms Wilmerding is currently a Partner with FGS Global, (formed by the merger of Finsbury Glover Hering and Sard Verbinnen), a global critical issues consultancy advising on the stakeholder economy, working across Greater China, Asia, and the United States. She counsels executives and boards of leading listed Asian, European and U.S. companies on critical issues and complex financial situations including capital markets transactions, governance and activism, geopolitical challenges, reputation management and investor engagement. Prior to joining FGS Global, Ms Wilmerding was a Partner at Brunswick Group, where she helped drive dramatic growth in the Asia business from 2010 to 2020.
During Ms Wilmerding’s consultancy career over more than 13 years at both firms, she has led the technology, media and telecom (TMT) sector business across the Asia-Pacific region and has served as one of the global leads of the ESG and governance practice. Other corporate experience includes business development and joint venture operational roles for Hutchison Whampoa and Lucent Technologies in Hongkong and Shanghai from 1991 to 1996 and heading corporate affairs for U.S. private equity-backed Internet services companies in Boston. She speaks fluent conversational Mandarin and can read and write Chinese.
Ms Wilmerding is a founding steering committee member of the 30% Club Hong Kong and was a Board Trustee of Princeton in Asia (PiA) from 1997-2021, where she served on the Board’s executive, nominating and development committees. In 2022, Ms Wilmerding earned the CFA Institute Certificate in ESG Investing and in 2021, she earned the Financial Times Level 7 Non Executive Director Diploma, a formally accredited, post-graduate qualification for non-executive directors. Ms Wilmerding regularly writes on current affairs and ESG/governance issues. She published a business advice book for women entrepreneurs in 2006 (John Wiley & Sons).