2022 MANG China Vegan Summit Speakers
Jian Yi is an independent filmmaker and food activist. In 2008 he founded the IFChina Original Studio, a citizen participatory media project, and in 2017 he founded the Good Food Fund, which leads initiatives promoting the transformation to a healthy and sustainable food system in China and globally. In 2021 he launched the China Vegan Society as a special project under the China Biodiversity Conservancy and Green Development Foundation dedicated to growing and empowering China's vegan community. He is currently studying animal law at Harvard University.
Venerable Jeong Kwan is a Seon Buddhist nun and chef of Korean cuisine. She lives in the Chunjinam Hermitage at the Baegyangsa temple in South Korea, where she cooks for fellow nuns and monks, as well as occasional visitors. Jeong Kwan is recognised worldwide for her mastry of temple cuisine and her approach to spreading her philosophy of compassion and equanimity through cooking. In 2022 she received the prestigious Icon Award for Asia's 50 Best Restaurants.
Serial social entrepreneur and trends forecaster, Sonalie Figueiras is a sustainability expert and food futurist who has inspired global audiences for over a decade on fighting climate change. She is the founder and Editor of the award-winning impact media platform Green Queen, which educates millions on the connection between health, sustainability, and the environment and showcases future solutions. She is the co-founder and CEO of climate tech SaaS Source Green, which helps consumer brands quit plastic packaging thanks to proprietary plastic reduction software. Sonalie is also a global keynote speaker, advisor to startups, and venture partner to several VC funds.
Jian Yi
Founder and President, the China Vegan Society and the Good Food Fund (CBCGDF)
Ven. Jeong Kwan
Master chef of temple cuisine, Baegyangsa Temple, Korea
Sonalie Figueiras
Founder and Editor in Chief, Green Queen Media
Ryuji Chua is a filmmaker who seeks to create a kinder world by connecting humans with non human animals. He currently works as a video producer at Surge Activism, is an advisor for the Vegan Hacktivists, and was recently featured on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah to talk about animal rights and his latest independent documentary "How Conscious Can A Fish Be?".
Ryuji Chua
Filmmaker and vegan educator, Peace by Vegan and Surge Activism
Jah Ying Chung is a market researcher and business designer with 10 years of experience working with NGOs, social enterprises and startups across Asia and Europe. Her recent work focuses on the animal welfare and alternative protein industry in Asia, including consumer studies on attitudes towards plant-based products and farmed animal welfare in China, as well as landscape analyses of animal advocacy across Asia. She also supports Faunalytics with research that helps animal / vegan advocates be as effective as possible. She is the founder and lead researcher of the Good Growth Co, a market research consultancy for sustainable and ethical food systems in Asia. Good Growth works with alternative protein companies, animal welfare nonprofits and social impact funders to understand consumers, scope new markets, and prototype products and programmes.
Jah Ying Chung
Founder and Head of Research, Good Growth
Ella is an experienced project manager in user research and stakeholder engagement. She has led stakeholder and market research projects related to the alt protein industry in China and the Asian animal advocacy landscape. She is also in charge of the distribution of research insights and general operations for Good Growth, a market research consultancy for sustainable and ethical food systems in Asia. In addition, she serves as a Research Ambassador for Faunalytics, promoting the use of research and data within the animal advocacy movement.
Ella Wong
Head of Projects and Operations, Good Growth; Researcher Ambassador, Faunalytics
Sparsha Saha is the only (empirical) political scientist who studies meat politics. Her research is broadly situated in the field of political behavior. She uses experiments to understand how voters respond to political attention on meat, animal rights, and related issue areas. Her work has been featured in Political Behavior, Journal of Social and Political Psychology, and Frontiers in Nutrition (accepted). She has been covered by the New York Times, Fortune, Fast Company, Yahoo Finance, and the Harvard Gazette, among others. She was honored as Harvard's South Asian Woman of the Year in 2022.
Sparsha Saha
Lecturer, Harvard University Department of Government
Lena Ashooh is a second-year undergraduate student at Harvard College, studying animal behavior and cognition and moral philosophy. She is interested in the role of ethology (and science more broadly) in understanding our obligations to other animals, particularly in how animals perceive the world, how they view themselves and their relation to others, and what things are important to them. She is co-founder and co-president of Harvard College Animal Advocates, Harvard College's only animal activism organization, which organizes animal activism campaigns, speaking events, and social events.
Lena Ashooh
Co-founder, Harvard College Animal Advocates
Navin is a second year student at Harvard University. He is the co-founder and co-president of Harvard Plant Futures and the Plant Powered Youth Steering Committee. He also leads the Food Emissions Reduction Project for the Council of Student Sustainability Leaders. As part of his work, Navin recently testified in front of the USDA on expanding plant-based options in school meals, worked on passing the first bill in US history to advocate for plant-based food, and was invited to attend the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, speaking on the importance of building sustainable food systems.
Navin Durbhakula
Co-Founder and Co-President, Harvard Plant Futures
As Food Policy Officer at the Good Food Fund, Huiyu leads the WET Market Project and the UNFSS-AT2 China Action Hub. In 2019, he was the Secretary-General of the 11th International Youth Summit on Energy and Climate Change (IYSECC-Ⅺ) organized by China Youth Climate Action Network (CYCAN). While earning his master's degree in urban planning from Tsinghua University, he was the president of the Tsinghua University Student Vegetarian Association, where he successfully campaigned to open a vegetarian food stall in the student canteen and initiated a research project on sustainable campus food policy at the university.
Huiyu Ouyang
Food Policy Officer, CBCGDF Good Food Fund; Youth Outreach Ambassador, Act4Food Act4Change
Huizhong has long been engaged in the research and development, production, and management of biopharmaceuticals and functional foods. He headed several national, provincial and municipal-level scientific research and industrialization projects focused on special yeast fermentation and metabolic regulation technology. In 2016, he launched the vegan product OEM Seleglu (希力谷), and in 2017 he launched One Vegan World (壹素界), one of China's most popular and influential vegan media platforms.
Huizhong Mao
Founder and CEO, One Vegan World media and Seleglu vegan OEM
When he's not working in his day job as a marketing manager, Max is working on one of his many vegan advocacy projects. He translated the documentaries Dominion, Let Us Be Heroes, The Last Pig, and Milked from English into Chinese, hosts a vegan podcast, and speaks about health and environment-related topics at elementary school film screenings. Having lost over 50 pounds and reclaimed his health on a vegan diet, he also speaks about nutrition and is a former nutrition consultant for the University Vegetarian Alliance.
Max Xiong
Translator and vegan educator
Camille is a sophomore at Harvard University concentrating in Chemical & Physical Biology. She is the co-founder and co-president of Harvard Plant Futures. As a vegan of five years, she is passionate about how plant-based food systems can address issues related to public health, environmental sustainability, and food security. One of her goals is to raise awareness about the benefits of plant-based diets for planetary and human health, especially on Harvard's campus, and to accelerate Harvard's transition towards a plant-based future. Camille is also an undergraduate researcher of structural biology in the Gaudet lab.
Zavier is a current student at Harvard University, where he studies Philosophy and Environmental Science. He is passionate about animal welfare/ethics and helping to develop the future food space of alternative protein, especially fermented and cultivated meats. Along with Lena Ashooh, he is also a co-president and founder of the Harvard College Animal Advocates, a Harvard club that seeks to promote animal welfare, animal activism, and vegan awareness on campus.
Martin Rowe is the Executive Director of the Culture & Animals Foundation, a U.S.-based non-profit organization that supports artists and scholars who advocate for animal rights. He is also the co-founder of Lantern Publishing & Media, which publishes books on veganism and animal rights, and the author of several books on those subjects. He is also a senior fellow at Brighter Green, an international public policy "action" tank examining the expansion of factory farming in countries around the world, including China.
Camille Freedman
Co-president & Co-founder, Harvard Plant Futures
Zavier Chavez
Co-founder, Harvard College Animal Advocates
Martin Rowe
Executive Director, Culture & Animals Foundation (CAF)
The daughter of a butcher from a small town in Northern Canada, Toni gave up meat in her teens when she learned that we can live and be healthy without it. Now vegan for more than 30 years, she believes passionately that we need a mass shift towards plant-based eating and is proud to be part of an organisation fuelling this change. She also holds a PhD in Animal Behaviour.
During her 10-year career in the education industry, Nancy founded the social enterprise RedThread and the education nonprofit EduThread in the United States. In China, she founded the Beijing Vegan Community, oversaw the launch of the China Vegan Society, and founded the CSR consulting company Sustainable China. In the Eating Plants documentary series, Nancy hosted the China episode, introducing viewers to the highlights of China's traditional and modern vegan culture.
One of China's most outspoken youth animal advocates, Billy began creating educational and thought-provoking vegan advocacy content as a university student. After starting with explainer videos, he went on to launch a direct debate project inviting strangers on the street to explain their thinking about how we use animals. Billy hopes that through engaging videos about animal welfare and veganism, along with sincere and open discussion, he can help people to see animals as sentient beings that deserve respect and not as objects to be consumed.
Toni Vernelli
International Head of Communications, Veganuary
Nancy Zhou
Founder, Sustainable China; Host, Eating Plants China
Billy Zheng
Videographer and blogger, Starch Boy
After working in sales and marketing management for 10 years and founding two restaurant chains, Liu Wei joined the Good Food Fund, a nonprofit under the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation that promotes healthy and sustainable food system transformation in China. With the goal of increasing the ratio of plant-based foods in Chinese diets 30% by 2030, the Good Food Fund became the official China partner of Meatless Monday, a global campaign that challenges businesses, organizations, communities, and individuals to skip meat once a week for a healthier planet.
Liu Wei
Project Officer, Meatless Monday China
Ana Bradley is Executive Director of Sentient Media, a non-profit news organization established in 2018. Sentient Media delivers explanatory and investigative journalism alongside critical commentary, aiming to change the conversation around animal agriculture in mainstream media. Ana's background is in content production and startup consultancy in London, where she founded digital agency PYPR.co.uk and worked with global clients and corporations for over a decade to help build dedicated digital communities. She transitioned to the non-profit space in 2018 to work with organizations focused on building gender balance in the tech.
Ana Bradley
CEO, Sentient Media
Franklin launched YouKuai and its plant-based meat brand, Zrou, in September 2019 after a journey into meditation and Buddhism inspired him to change his eating habits and dedicate his career to areas where business can do more good. YouKuai's dynamic team of scientists, chefs, and branding leaders creates tasty food that achieves the "More Good" vision through healthy and sustainable processes and technologies and creative presentations. YouKuai's mission is to represent China on the global food stage, with brands and products crafted in China and enjoyed by global consumers.
Franklin Yao
Founder and CEO, Youkuai Group
Yufei heads advocacy and corporate consulting services at B Corps China and also initiated the Building Better Business program, delivering over 400 sustainable business innovation workshops in 40 cities in China and abroad. As a B Consultant program mentor, she trains corporate sustainability consultants and coaches companies to conduct social and environmental impact assessment and improve ESG management. She's committed to creating an economy that benefits all stakeholders, helping businesses develop viable ESG strategies, and promoting the concept of "business for good".
Yufei Jiang
Director of Advocacy & Service, B Corps China
Having been with The Vegan Society for a number of years, Gabriela has worked in different roles within the trademark team through a period of exceptional growth. In this time, Gabriela has worked with an array of clients from across many different business lines, including food and drink. In her current role, she works with businesses to help them develop their vegan offerings as well as look for cross-departmental opportunities they can get involved with such as marketing, partnerships and campaigns to name a few. Having seen a phenomenal growth in vegan offerings in recent years, The Vegan Society is honored to work with such fantastic brands whilst at the same time, working to eliminate the need to use animals in everyday life, minimize our negative impact on the planet and prevent illnesses and health conditions by living a vegan lifestyle.
Gabriela Chalkia
Global Key Account Manager, The Vegan Trademark
Louisianna manages consumer and market research at the Vegan Society and also leads on policy issues that affect vegan businesses, including proposed changes to vegan food labelling. Louisianna also helped to found, and currently sits on the steering committee of, the Plant-based Food Alliance UK. This is a newly launched coalition of businesses and NGO’s working to steer food, business, and environmental policy towards more plant-based solutions.
Louisianna Waring
Senior Insight and Policy Officer, The Vegan Society
After working in finance and strategic consulting for 12 years, Chloe joined Oatly in 2019 as the head of sustainability for Oatly's Asia Pacific operations. She oversees the localization of global sustainability policies and access requirements, develops Oatly's sustainability strategies for Asia, and plans and implements key sustainability projects for the region, including analyzing and reducing the carbon footprints of products and operations, developing energy saving and packaging solutions for Oatly factories in Asia, and overseeing research into the sourcing of local oats and upcycling of waste products. She is also involved with the Asia Sustainability Innovation Center, China Oat Milk Industry White Paper V1, and Oatly's Silent Barista program giving deaf people training and jobs as baristas.
Chloe Lin
Head of Sustainability, Oatly Greater China
Vivian Chang is a serial entrepreneur, chef, vegan educator, marketing expert, and well-known influencer in the plant-based lifestyle space. Vivian's father was a renowned Thai chef in Mainland China and Taiwan. Vivian grew up on her grandmother's farm in Chiang Rai, Thailand, a background which provides her with constant inspiration for her innovative plant-based restaurant concepts that focus on natural ingredients, flavorful spices, and homestyle flavors. Vivian hopes to make Miss Green a leading vegan brand in China, serving healthy food to millions of families and making the world a kinder place, one fragrant bite at a time.
Vivian Chang
Founder and CEO, Miss Green
Nelly grew her career as a marketing manager in the consumer goods industry and also engaged in youth cultural activities and volunteered in social initiatives. In Ecobuyer, an ecommerce platform dedicated to curating and marketing high-quality vegan and cruelty-free products to young urban Chinese, Nelly uses her marketing and communications skills to make the world a better place for animals. As Ecobuyer's vegan culture communications officer and clean beauty advocate, Nelly strives to raise consumers' awareness about cruelty-free vegan living by hosting online seminars and offline gatherings.
Nelly Chuang
CMO, Ecobuyer
Before founding ZEROGO, a whole-food plant-based restaurant that pivoted to become a WFPB education and ecommerce platform during the COVID-19 pandemic, Raymond worked for the Chinese medicine megabrand Tong Ren Tang. He also holds the National Academy of Sports Medicine's Certified Nutrition Coach Certification (NASM-CNC). ZEROGO strives to help consumers and their families from across China to achieve healthy minds, bodies, and lifestyles by making it easy for them to access science-based vegan nutrition information and prepare healthy plant-based whole foods.
Raymond Xie
Director, Whole Foods Institute; Founder, ZEROGO
Jiao became an animal advocate, environmentalist, and vegan in high school. She loves animals and nature, and she believes that going vegan is the most effective way that ordinary people can take action against environmental destruction and climate change. A current student at Donghua University of Technology, she promotes veganism on campus and by hosting activities and talking to students about the benefits of going vegan. She blogs about veganism, animal protection, and animal adoption on the Nanchang Small Animal Protection Association's WeChat official account.
Jiao Wang
Editor, Nanchang Small Animal Protection Association
Originally from Malaysia, Kaicong came to China to study at Tsinghua University, where he became president of the Tsinghua University Vegetarian Association and led the transformation of the organization. Kaicong is committed to promoting sustainability in school cafeterias by increasing the proportion of plant-based foods in the cafeteria and making the school infrastructure, management, and culture more environmentally friendly. Kaicong currently leads a research project investigating successful campus sustainability case studies from foreign universities and shares findings with Chinese universities to inform improvements to their campus catering policies and operations.
Kaicong You
President, Tsinghua University Student Food Literacy Association
Qing is one of the founders of Sustainable Sprouting Day, an ecological practice community. He directed the "Sprout Stall" exhibition and event at Guangdong's Times Museum. Through public exhibitions, food workshops, and roundtable discussions, Qing strives to present the diversity and vitality of plant-based food to the public from a local Asian perspective.
Qing Ji
Co-founder, Sustainable Sprout Day
As a master's student in Hong Kong, Shumao began learning about the social and environmental impacts of modern meat-centric diets, eventually inspiring her to become vegan and promote vegan lifestyles in China and around the world. She is currently pursuing a PhD in anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, researching Chinese Buddhist vegetarianism. In her free time, she blogs about vegan food and lifestyles on RED and WeChat.
Shuman Liu
PhD Candidate, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
David Havelick is an Assistant Director in the Harvard University Office for Sustainability, where he helps to advance the University-wide objectives that are contained in the Harvard Sustainability Plan. An example of this was his work to create Harvard’s Sustainable and Healthful Food Standards. He worked to enable Harvard to sign the Cool Food Pledge, a global coalition of companies, cities, and universities that have committed to reducing food-related greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2030. He is also on the Board of the Boston Vegetarian Society and a member of the advisory coalition for Boston's Good Food Purchasing Program.
David Havelick
Assistant Director, Harvard University Office for Sustainability
Baowei is one of the founders of Sustainable Sprout Day, an ecological practice community. He planned and executed a number of community events promoting plant-based food, including the 9th anniversary vegetarian banquet at Mustard Seed House in Quanzhou and the "Sprout Stall" event at Guangdong's Times Museum. He is currently studying in Europe, and his research interests include indigenous Asian vegetarian traditions and critical animal studies.
Baowei Chen
Co-founder, Sustainable Sprout Day
Gene Baur is the President and Co-founder of Farm Sanctuary and has been hailed as "the conscience of the food movement" by Time magazine. Since the mid-1980s, Gene has worked to end factory farming and advocated for a just and compassionate food system. He is the author of two best selling books, and his work has educated millions and inspired an international farm sanctuary movement.
Gene Baur
Co-Founder and President, Farm Sanctuary
Vegan since 1984, Tim is the founder and main organizer of VegFestUK, the UK's biggest indoor vegan exhibitions since 2003. He also runs the hemp company Yaoh, publishes the online vegan magazines Forca Vegan and Plant Powered Planet, and organizes global online vegan events with Global Vegfest. When he's not organizing vegan festivals and converences, Tim enjoys listening to dance music and practicing Qi Gong.
Tim Barford
Founder, VegFest UK
After going vegan in 2012 and struggling to find high-quality articles about veganism in Chinese, Hazel launched the VegPlanet WeChat account in 2013 and began blogging about veganism. What started as a passion project quickly became a full-time job, and by 2016 VegPlanet had begun attracting investors. Over the past nine years, VegPlanet has become one of China's most popular and influential vegan lifestyle media platforms, offering diverse, high-quality, and relatable content and building a vibrant vegan community through online and offline activities.
Hazel Zhang
Founder and president, VegPlanet Media
Leah Gage oversees VegFund’s grant programs, where she oversees grantee partnerships and program development. She began her career in microfinance and international development, which has taken her to work sites in Togo, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Hungary, and The Netherlands. Her commitment to community-building drew her back to academic studies where she earned a Masters of Social Work from the Catholic University of America. Between writing papers and volunteering at the local homeless shelter, Leah became a prolific dog walker, beloved by pups everywhere. She is happy to call every New Year's Day her veganniversary, which she has celebrated ten times now.
Leah Gage
Program Manager, VegFund
Mick McIntyre is a passionate advocate for animals and an award-winning filmmaker. His work includes the feature films Kangaroo: A Love-Hate Story, Yogawoman, What to do about Whales?, and Eating Plants, a six-part docuseries exploring the plant-based food trend that’s growing around the world. Mick combines his work as a filmmaker with giving his time fighting for wildlife protection. He is Director of Whales Alive and for over 20 years has campaigned to end whaling. In 2019 he co-founded Kangaroos Alive, a nonprofit dedicated to the ethical treatment of kangaroos. Mick has been a vegan for 25 years.
Mick McIntyre
Co-director, Second Nature Films
Kate Clere is a multi-award winning filmmaker and TV Series creator who brings together key international social and environmental issues with beautiful cinematic storytelling. Her award winning TV series included Eating Plants and films include Kangaroo: A Love-Hate Story, Gaining Ground, Yogawoman, and What to do About Whales?. Her work has featured in cinemas and festivals worldwide and received positive reviews in the NY Times, LA Times, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, BBC, and many more. Kate has worked campaigning for animals and a vegan lifestyle over the past two decades and is Co-Director of the NGO Kangaroos Alive.
Kate Clere
Co-director, Second Nature Films
Elly is the founder and Director of Animal Alliance Asia – a movement building organisation dedicated to empowering and training animal justice activists across Asia. Born in Japan and currently based in the UK, Elly is passionate about building a more inclusive, culturally relevant and effective movement across Asia. She is one of the first Japanese language educational content providers for vegan advocates in Japan. She worked in media for 10 years prior to founding Animal Alliance Asia in 2019.
Elly Nakajima
Founder and director, Animal Alliance Asia
Ping Mang
Director, China Society of Environmental Ethics
Shanshan Jia
Project lead, MANG Events app, China Vegan Society
Niv is an entrepreneur, MBA Candidate and animal right activist. For the past five years since becoming vegan, he has supported many organizations and animal sanctuaries from China, Israel and the US. He also volunteers in Animals Now in international relations. Niv is passionate about the environmental and economic aspects of veganism and sees great potential for growing and supporting China's vegan community.
Niv Schwartz
International Relations Coordinator, Animals Now
Aiwen She
CMO, ChinaFit; COO, VegRadar
Jian Wang
CTO, VegRadar
Lasse Bruun is an advocacy expert in climate, sustainable agriculture, food systems and social justice, with twenty years’ experience in leadership, development, mobilization, communication, campaigning and movement building. He is the founder of the global Just Livestock Transition initiative aiming to enable the food system to mitigate climate change, improve public health and boost the economy. Lasse is a sought-after thought leader and curator of dialogues and roundtables at the highest levels of decision-making. He has led high-level international dialogues and campaigns in more than 20 countries. He is a part-time veganic/organic farmer, using agroecology to grow vegetables.
Lasse Bruun
CEO, 50by40