Cultivating a Compassionate Future
2023 Speakers
We are updating our speaker list!
Professor Temple Grandin
Professor, Colorado State Univeristy
Temple Grandin is Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University. She is a designer of animal handling systems for cattle, pigs, and sheep. Other important work she has done is development of practical scoring systems for assessing animal welfare on farms and in slaughter plants. In her talk, Temple will discuss simple practical ways to improve animal welfare. Some of the books she has authored are Improving Animal Welfare: A Practical Approach, The Slaughter of Farm Animals: Practical Ways of Enhancing Animal Welfare and Genetics and The Behavior of Domestic Animals.
Professor Bao Jun
President of International Cooperation Committee of Animal Welfare (ICCAW)
Professor, Former President of Northeast Agricultural University
Bao Jun is President of the International Cooperation Committee of Animal Welfare (ICCAW); he has served as Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and President of Northeast Agricultural University.
Professor Bao has been engaged in animal behaviour and animal welfare research for a long time. He was the first to carry out animal welfare research on livestock and poultry in China and had a high academic reputation in this field. He is the editor-in-chief of the national planning textbook "Animal Behavior" and the deputy editor of the national planning textbook "Livestock Environmental Hygiene". He had presided over many scientific research projects such as the National Dairy Major Project, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Provincial Key Research Projects. He has published more than 100 scientific and technological articles at home and abroad, of which more than 80 are included in SCl.
Professor David Fraser
Professor Emeritus, Animal Welfare Program University of British Columbia
David Fraser is a Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia's Animal Welfare Program in Vancouver, Canada. His long career has focused on the behaviour and welfare of farm, companion and wild animals ranging from mice to moose. He has served as a scientific advisor on animal welfare science and policy to many organisations including the World Organisation for Animal Health (Paris), the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (Rome), and the Food Marketing Institute (Washington). Prof. Fraser is an enthusiastic teacher who mentors many graduate students. He is the author of many publications including the popular introductory book Understanding Animal Welfare: The Science in its Cultural Context. In 2005 he was appointed Member of the Order of Canada for his work as “a pioneer in the field of animal welfare science”.
Jeff Zhou
China Chief Representative, Compassion in World Farming (CIWF)
Jeff Zhou has been representing Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) in China since 2008. In April 2015, Jeff started a new role as Compassion's Ambassador, and in 2017, he became the China Chief Representative.
Jeff regularly gives educational lectures to stakeholders and producers to help raise public awareness about animal welfare, he has worked with several partners in developing the World Conferences on Farm Animal Welfare and played a key role in organising the Poultry Forums since 2017.
On October 2nd, 2020, he was selected as the Asian Animal Person for the World Day of Farm Animals. In 2021, he was nominated as the Chair of Asia, Far East and Oceania Reginal Working Group of ICFAW, OIE.
Pearl Zhang
Deputy Secretary, International Cooperation Committee of Animal Welfare (ICCAW)
Zhang Pei graduated from Shenyang Agricultural University in 2016 with a Master's degree in animal nutrition and feed science. As someone who cares deeply for animals, she served as the president of the university’s Small Animal Appreciation Association (小动物爱好者协会). After graduation, Pearl joined the International Cooperation Committee on Animal Welfare (ICCAW of China Association for the Promotion of International Agricultural Cooperation), where she is currently the Deputy Secretary. Pearl Zhang has rich experience in promoting farm animal welfare promotion through collaborations with food companies, academia, government, and NGOs. She helped organise many conferences and training courses related to international and domestic farm animal welfare and has been involved in the creation of nine Chinese animal welfare standards.
Paul Littlefair
Head of International, Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA)
Paul is an Honorary Fellow of the UK’s Chartered College of Teaching and Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology. After graduating in Modern Chinese Studies from the University of Leeds, UK in 1984, he spent a number of years studying and working in China and Japan. Paul now manages the development strategy of the RSPCA in more than 20 countries in Europe and Asia, and is responsible for all of the Society’s international affairs. He played an important role in the organisation of the earliest international animal welfare conferences in China. In addition, he works with the Chinese Association of Laboratory Animal Sciences to promote laboratory animal welfare and ethical review. Since 2008, he has cooperated closely with Chinese policy advisors and scholars, and participated in the drafting of China's first expert draft of anti-cruelty law. He also directs the RSPCA’s long-term animal welfare education project in cooperation with the China Ecological Experience Education Programme.
Recently, led by Ghana, a number of UN Member States jointly put forward a proposal which explicitly mentions ‘animal welfare’ for the first time in a UN resolution, namely the ‘Animal Welfare-Environment-Sustainable Development Nexus’ Resolution. It was successfully adopted at the Fifth United Nations Environment Assembly in March 2022. Paul served as a technical advisor to the group of Member States sponsoring the resolution.
Dr Sun Zhongchao
Executive Vice Secretary-General, China Animal Health and Food Safety Alliance (CAFA)
Dr Zhongchao Sun, DVM, PhD was the recipient of the first animal welfare professional doctorate degree issued in China. He is currently serving as the Executive Vice Secretary-General for the China Animal Health and Food Safety Alliance (CAFA).
He has been working in the field of animal welfare for 10 years maintaining close contact with China’s Ministry of Agriculture, the administrative department for veterinary medicine, agriculture universities, research institutes, the livestock and food industry and NGOs.
Dr. Sun supervised the publication of Introduction to Animal Welfare, the first professional animal welfare textbook in China. It is a key text in the country’s undergraduate veterinary education curriculum, required reading for 15,000 veterinary undergraduates each year. Dr Sun has also played a leading role in drafting the China Animal Welfare Assessment Guideline.
Lisa Qing Yang
Programme Manager for China, Global Food Partners
As the Programme Manager for Global Food Partners, Lisa leads the firm’s work with the egg industry in China to support their transition to best practice cage-free production systems. Lisa has a decade of experience working in the field of animal welfare, primarily in promoting and supporting the implementation of higher animal welfare standards and practices. She has worked with producers throughout China on cage-free production and organised and facilitated several industry events and workshops to build the capacity of veterinarians, academics, and other key industry stakeholders in the country.
Prior to joining Global Food Partners, Lisa served as the China Researcher Officer at Compassion in World Farming and Animal Welfare Manager at Animals Asia Foundation, two leading animal protection organisations in China. In these roles, Lisa collaborated with various stakeholders in the animal industries and utilised her technical expertise to help them achieve higher animal welfare practices, including work on cage-free and group housing systems for poultry and pigs.
Dr Xiong Chuanwu
CEO, Integrated Quality Consulting Shanghai (IQC)
Director of Sustainable Development Department, China Animal Health and Food Safety Alliance (CAFA)
PhD in Food Science, Hefei University of Technology
Head of the Asia Pacific Representative Office, IFS（International Featured Standard)
Head of China, HFAC (Humane Farm Animal Care)
Adjunct Professor of Hefei University
Food safety training expert, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Lu Boxun Food Safety Center
Dr Xiong was previously the General Manager of Star Farm, Metro AG. He was responsible for the audit, training, traceability and sustainability project consulting of food and agricultural products suppliers.
He is familiar with the standards related to food quality and food safety within the supply chain, as well as animal welfare standards. He has organized many national animal welfare conferences and helped implement animal welfare certification in the Chinese market.
Doris Lee
Executive Director, GFI Consultancy (GFIC)
Doris has about a decade of experience building and managing localised programs for international organisations, including EU-funded initiatives. She has organised over 50 activities promoting knowledge exchange between government representatives, universities and schools and the industry on sustainability-related topics covering urban greening, smart city and social inclusion. Her engagement in sustainable food and plant-based food space in Hong Kong, Berlin, and Beijing provided her with rich knowledge of the ecosystem.
GFIC is a China-based impact-driven company focused on providing industry and R&D resources on sustainable alternative proteins. We collaborate with academic institutions and scientists, corporations, startups and investors to support plant-based, fermentation-derived and cellular agriculture food innovation.
Irene Feng
Program Manager, International Farm Animal Welfare Fellowship (IFAWF)
Irene previously worked at Animals Asia Foundation for over ten years. She has driven a remarkable and successful Cat and Dog Welfare Programme from its original creation to the comprehensive nationwide programme it has become today. During the period, Irene led the team to actively expand cooperation with all sectors of society, including government departments in more than 50 cities, over 100 local animal protection organisations in more than half of the country, hundreds of schools, as well as experts and scholars from all walks of life, media, celebrities, etc. The team carried out work in various aspects such as policy advice, public awareness and education, and capacity building of non-governmental organisations, with which we have seen significant welfare improvements for countless companion animals in China and the extensive development of the industry in cat and dog welfare.
Irene holds a Master Degree in Economics, a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, and a diploma in Advertising Art and Design. Her diverse professional background and many years of practical project experience make her very good at thinking about problems from multiple dimensions and seeking innovative solutions. She is good at carrying out industry promotion support and event planning and management and is familiar with animal welfare in China.
Irene joined the International Farm Animal Welfare Fellowship (IFAWF) in 2021 as Programme Manager. She hopes to continue to use her skills and experience in this new project to help empower and grow aspiring talents and ultimately effectively improve the farm welfare in China.
Prof Liu Honggui
Professor, Northeast Agriculture University
Professor Liu is a member of the Animal Welfare and Healthy Breeding Team of the Animal Production Discipline of Northeast Agricultural University. He is a professor, doctoral supervisor, the high-level talent of Northeast Agricultural University, review expert of ICCAW, researcher of livestock environmental hygiene of the Chinese Association of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine Director of the Ninth Council of the Branch, and the Eleventh Director of the Animal Husbandry Engineering Branch of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering.
He is mainly involved in pig welfare breeding management, as well as the research and development of husbandry equipment. He had led over ten scientific research projects, published nearly 30 SCI articles, and contributed to seven invention patents, two international invention patents, and two achievement transformations.
Prof Dan Weary
Professor, University of British Columbia Animal Welfare Program
Dan Weary is a Professor at The University of British Columbia. Dan did his BSc and MSc at McGill and DPhil at Oxford before co-founding UBC’s Animal Welfare Program where he now co-directs this active research group. Dan's research focuses on developing measures for the assessment of animal welfare and developing practical methods of improving the lives of animals. Dan’s animal research has helped lead to the changes in management practices (including the adoption of higher milk rations for calves and pain management for disbudding) and housing methods (including the adoption of pair and small group rearing for pre-weaned calves). Dan has also led research on attitudes regarding animal care practices, with the aim of identifying areas of shared concern as well as barriers to adopting practices that can improve the lives of animals.
Dr Guangwei Zhao
Teacher, Henan Institute of Animal Husbandry and Economics
Technical Director, Henan Nongduoduo Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Ecological Technology Co., Ltd.Dr Zhao is the Director of Henan Province Local Black Pig Engineering Center, a model worker in Zhengzhou City, an expert in the Chinese team of the China-Europe Antibiotic Reduction Project, an expert and a Council Member of the International Cooperation Committee on Animal Welfare (ICCAW). He has worked in listed breeding enterprises for more than ten years and is currently the Technical Director of the Nongduoduo Enterprise.
Dr Michelle Sinclair
Fellow (International Animal Welfare), Harvard Law School Animal Law and Policy Program
Dr. Michelle Sinclair is an International Animal Welfare Program Director, an academic and an author from Australia. She is currently based in the USA where she is affiliated with the Animal Law & Policy Program at Harvard Law School and Stanford Medical School Mathur Lab. Aiming to better understand the stakeholders capable of making impactful change for animals around the world, such as livestock leaders in Asia, she conducts collaborative research to identify barriers, opportunities, mutual benefits and solutions with the goal of engaging traditionally adversarial parties into strategic collaboration to improve animal welfare. She continues to publish her research to support improvement in international development and consults with NGOs to build their international programs. Her full profile is here, and you can see a list of her work here.
Dr Cui Yuanyuan
Director and Senior Veterinarian, Taiyuan Zoo Wildlife Research Center
Master of Wildlife Conservation and Utilization, Beijing Forestry University; Master of Applied Animal Behavior and Animal Welfare, University of Edinburgh, UK. Since entering Taiyuan Zoo in 2008, she has been an excrement officer for giant pandas, penguins and other animals. After that, she has been engaged in public education for wild animals for eight years. As an Intensive training worker, her primary work at present is to carry out elephant foot care through positive reinforcement training and to explore the role of positive reinforcement training in alleviating the psychological stress of animals.
She translated the book "Zoo Animal Learning and Training", participated in the formulation of industry standards for the management of elephants, rhinos, leopards and other wild animals, and currently serves as the director of the Science and Technology Workers Committee (Wild Animals) of the China Association of Zoology Deputy head of the management team.
Guo Lei
Executive Assistant, Ningxia Xiaoming Agriculture
Guo Lei (MSc) is a member of the Communist Party of China and a veterinarian. He is Executive Assistant at Ningxia Xiaoming Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Co., Ltd. He is mainly engaged in the research of comprehensive prevention and control of poultry epidemic diseases and clinical diagnosis technology, animal health and welfare. He has led 2 provincial-level science and technology projects, participated in more than 10 provincial-level and municipal-level science and technology projects, published more than 20 academic papers, obtained 2 national invention patents, participated in the editing of 2 books, and was selected into Ningxia Young scientific and technological talents support project, academic technology leader in Yinchuan City.
Melinda Hou
Executive Director, Good Food Fund CBCGDF
Melinda has more than 15 years of experience working on corporate social responsibility. She was responsible for the planning and implementing sustainable development of agricultural products in the commodities and strategic sourcing international team of Mondelēz International. She was the Asia-pacific Ethical Sourcing Manager of Kraft Foods and Cadbury and had established a responsible sourcing mechanism in the company's supply chain. Also, once she served as social and Environmental Affairs Manager at Adidas China. Before joining the Good Food Fund, she was involved in promoting farm animal welfare in China.
Maria Chen
Co-founder and Director, IFAWF
Research Technician, Animal Welfare Program University of British ColumbiaMaria is a Research Technician at the University of British Columbia's Animal Welfare Program. She uses qualitative research to understand stakeholders impacting farm animal welfare in China. She previously studied how employee management and worker welfare shaped animal care on dairy farms in China. She is currently researching the sales and marketing of cage-free eggs in China.
She is also the co-founder of the International Farm Animal Welfare Fellowship (IFAWF). She hopes that through this program, passionate individuals can connect and become inspired to work collaboratively to create a better world for farmed animals.
