Matthew Warr Zhong Lun Law Firm

Candidates Objectives

Since arriving in in March 2016, I have been heavily involved with AustCham South , including regularly attending AustCham’s events as well as serving as an Officer on the AustCham Events Sub-Committee. However, I feel I have much more to contribute to AustCham and the Australia-China community in South China.

Given this, and as an active AustCham member, I believe that I would be an asset to the AustCham Board. I look forward to serving as an AustCham Board Director and committing myself to further enhancing Australia-China business relations in South China.

My vision for my role as an AustCham Board Director in 2018 is as follows:

• Contributing ideas for business-related events in 2018 • Contributing my legal expertise, and co-organising legal-related seminars as I felt there was a lack of these in 2017 • Promoting AustCham throughout my business and social network in South China with the aim of: o Attracting more individuals and companies to sign up for AustCham membership o Increasing attendance at AustCham’s events o Attracting more companies to sponsor AustCham’s events • Making introductions to the AustCham General Manager which will be useful in promoting AustCham as a brand and Australia-China business relations in South China • Assisting the AustCham Secretariat with events, marketing, business development etc. when required • Attending monthly board meetings • Other tasks as assigned

I look forward to making a positive contribution to the AustCham community in South China!

Candidates Biography Matthew Warr is a legal consultant in the corporate/foreign direct investment team at the Zhong Lun Law Firm Guangzhou office. As a legal consultant at Zhong Lun, he works with a team of Chinese lawyers to provide legal advice and services to foreign companies doing business in South China.

Zhong Lun is a market leading, full service Chinese law firm. Since its founding in 1993, it has become one of the largest law firms in China, with 260+ partners and 1200+ lawyers, including both recognized leaders in the Chinese legal profession and experienced senior lawyers from top international law firms.

In addition to his day-job, Matthew also serves as an Officer on the AustCham South China Events Sub-Committee. He moved to Guangzhou in March 2016, but has has lived, studied and worked in China (in and ) for a total of seven years since his first visit in 2008. In August 2016 he co-founded the Australia-China Youth Association Guangzhou Chapter and was its inaugural President until September 2017. He has previously worked as a consultant for Yingke Vensco, a foreign investment advisory firm based in Shanghai, as well as in research-related and project-based roles for the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) at the Australian Embassy in Beijing, China Strategy & Development at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, and China Policy, a Beijing-based research and advisory firm. He also previously worked as a Bilingual Guide for the Australian Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.

Matthew graduated from the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) with a Bachelor of Global Studies (Major in Law) in 2014, and completed a Bachelor of Business (Honours) in Management with first class honours from the same university in 2017. For the latter degree, he was supported by a Prime Minister’s Australia-Asia Endeavour Award – a highly competitive scholarship awarded to 20 Australian students every year – to conduct research in Shanghai for his thesis on Chinese-Australian intercultural business relationships. In the past he has also studied Mandarin Chinese at Beijing Institute of Technology on an exchange program with UTS, at Beijing Language and Culture University on a Chinese Government scholarship, and at Shanghai Jiaotong University. As a result, his Mandarin is professionally proficient.