Asia Pacific Business Forum Podcast
Expert insight into the world of business. The Asia Pacific Business Forum Podcast delivers in-depth interviews with people on the inside of international business, policy and events.
Episodes
November 29, 2025 • 23 mins
In this episode of the *Asia Pacific Business Forum Podcast*, we speak with Tan Sri Andrew Sheng, one of Asia’s most respected voices on finance, governance, and global economic policy. A former central banker and financial regulator, Tan Sri Sheng brings a lifetime of insight into the shifting power dynamics shaping Asia’s response to global trade challenges.
Our conversation examines how ASEAN nations are navigating the U.S. tr...
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November 4, 2025 • 26 mins
In this episode of the Asia Pacific Business Forum Podcast, we speak with Peter Drysdale, Emeritus Professor of Economics at The Australian National University, a leading authority on Asia-Pacific economic integration, and an intellectual architect of APEC, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation organization whose leaders met in South Korea three days after our conversation.
Peter discusses the increasing tension between President...
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August 20, 2025 • 14 mins
In this episode of the Asia Pacific Business Forum Podcast, Dick Drobnick speaks with Glyn Ford, one of Europe’s foremost experts on East Asia and the Korean Peninsula. Over a 25-year career in the European Parliament, Ford made nearly 50 visits to North Korea, developing a deep understanding of its politics, its leaders, and its position in the region. He is the author of *North Korea on the Brink: Struggle for Survival* and *Tal...
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July 4, 2025 • 16 mins
In this episode, of the Asia Pacific Business Forum Podcast, we speak with SD Darmono, one of Indonesia’s influential business figures and the architect of the country's Special Economic Zone strategy. As founder of the Jababeka Group, Darmono helped transform a vision from the early 1990s into a thriving industrial city—creating over a million jobs through partnerships with 2,000 companies from 36 countries.
His work created wha...
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May 29, 2025 • 23 mins
In this episode of the Asia Pacific Business Forum Podcast, Dick Drobnick speaks with Geoff Cowan, former Dean of the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism and 22nd Director of the Voice of America.
The discussion centers on how the Trump administration has disrupted global journalism and constrained the international flow of information. They discuss the damage being done by the termination of the Voice of Americ...
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May 15, 2025 • 22 mins
In this episode of the Asia Pacific Business Forum Podcast Professor Qiwei Chen brings insight to China’s possible reactions to the Trump Administration’s tariffs.
Will the tariffs push frosty neighbors in the region towards greater economic integration? Will second generation Chinese entrepreneurs increase their business with the 36,000 Japanese firms operating in China?
Join us for an inside look at how the economic ties across...
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May 7, 2025 • 26 mins
In this episode, we’re joined by renowned diplomat and scholar, Dr. Chung-in Moon, Professor Emeritus at Yonsei University and former advisor to the South Korean President. Dr. Moon offers rare insight into how President Trump’s sweeping tariffs are reshaping alliances—pushing South Korea, China, and Japan into closer economic coordination.
He also shares a candid analysis of the complex relationship between Trump and North Korea...
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April 29, 2025 • 25 mins
Narongchai Akrasanee Ph.D spoke with us on President Trump’s Liberation Day. Dr. Akrasanee, Thailand’s former Minister of Energy and Former Minister of Commerce spoke with Dick Drobnick about the implications across the Asia Pacific region.
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April 9, 2025 • 24 mins
Ronnie Chan is the Honorary Chairman of The Hang Lung Group and the Chairman of the Asia Society Hong Kong Center. He spoke with Dick Drobnick on the day after President Donald Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs were announced. In this conversation Ronnie looks at the recent events in the US, as viewed from countries across Asia.
Our next episode will feature Dr. Narongchai Akrasanee, a former Minister of Energy and Minister of Co...
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April 8, 2025 • 21 mins
Dr. Kang Kyung-wha, President of the Asia Society and former Foreign Minister of South Korea, joins Dick Drobnick, Ph.D., for this episode of the Asia Pacific Business Forum Podcast. Their conversation explores Dr. Kang’s vision for the Asia Society and examines how the Trump administration’s policies may influence relations across Asia.
Our next episode will feature Ronnie Chan, Honorary Chairman of the Hang Lung Group and Chairm...
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June 22, 2023 • 14 mins
Cecilia Chan is the Managing Director of a Manhattan-based private equity firm, Octonovem. In over 30 years as an investor, she has honed a style that focuses beyond the bottom line, to assess success by including a project’s effects on its community and the world. “Asset-light” companies, such as content creators, travel companies and products like perfume are included in her portfolio. Her “Doing good” maxim is supported by spend...
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July 10, 2020 • 20 mins
Cairn Spring Mills is a company that surprisingly is growing during the pandemic. The company is a varietal flour mill that produces a high quality locally sourced product. While other companies have been strapped by failing consumer demand and disrupted supply chains, Cairn Spring has increased sales by changing their business model - pivoting from being a strictly commercial wholesale outfit to being a nimble retail business.
C...
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June 19, 2020 • 23 mins
The #Covid-19 virus is changing accepted business norms around the globe. In this episode of Business Class, we spoke with #MarcusLu as he sheltered-in-place at his home in #China. With deep insight into business in China, Marcus described how the virus is changing long accepted patterns of how business is conducted. “We realize and are starting to accept the fact that doing business can be easier,” he noted, while saying that,...
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June 12, 2020 • 18 mins
In this episode of #BusinessClass, we return to Thailand for an #MBA review of the business skills needed to face this financial crisis. We spoke with PJ Van Hecke, a 2018 graduate of the #USCIBEARMBA program. PJ used his time in the program to shift from a global career in maritime engineering to the entrepreneurial side of book publishing. He is now a Co-Founder in #Bangkok-based #TheReadingRoom.
In conversation with IBEAR MB...
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The moment the St. Patrick’s Day Parade was cancelled, Janet Lightner - General Manager of Boundary Bay Brewery - knew they were in trouble. In this episode of Business Class, we move to the Microeconomic impact of the pandemic and go to the craft brewery nexus of Bellingham, Washington, to explore how the virus has upended the business model of a classic brew pub.
Boundary Bay, 25 years old, is a pioneer craft brewery that has bu...
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In this episode of #BusinessClass, we look at how the #Covid-19 pandemic is affecting the ASEAN nations, particularly #Thailand. We turn to #Dr.NarongchaiAkaransee, a former Thai government minister with extensive business knowledge.
Dr. Narongchai explains Thailand’s successful approach to control of the Covid-19 virus. In comparing the government’s reaction to the #CovidCrisis vs. the 2008 financial crisis, he explains how the ...
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May 15, 2020 • 20 mins
It’s always difficult to know what’s happening inside China. In this episode of Business Class, we hear first-hand information and analysis on China’s Covid-19 response from Shanghai resident, Jim McGregor, the CEO of APCO China.
In an interview with USC’s Dick Drobnick, Jim notes that “China’s exports have fallen off a cliff.” They explore if: having a two month head start with the virus is affecting the country’s recovery strat...
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May 8, 2020 • 18 mins
Millions of sports fans across the Asian sub-continent are watching the results of Jasdeep Pannu working from his living room. In this episode of Business Class, we speak with the Head of Digital Programming for ESPN India about how his organization saw the virus coming and moved #ESPNIndia out of the studio and into the guest room. The biggest problem? The virus coincided with the country’s most anticipated sporting event – The...
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Overnight, the Covid-19 pandemic moved much of the world’s business and business interactions online. In this episode of Business Class, we talk with Paul Wilson, Managing Director for Google Cloud (Public Sector) Asia Pacific. We asked Paul how this pandemic has created a moment in time, where technology tools are being adopted for use by people all over the globe and being put to work in ways no one ever imagined.
We had many qu...
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April 23, 2020 • 19 mins
Are the numbers coming out of China real? Will China record any positive GDP growth for the year? Will global companies change their strategies to remove the China bottleneck in their supply chains? Business Class continues its look at the economic impact of the Covid-19 virus with Clay Dube, Director of the USC US-China Institute. “The Chinese economy fell off a cliff,” notes Clay Dube as he takes us through what is known and wha...
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