Jeffrey R. Williams (韦杰夫) is a corporate director and independent consultant with over 40 years experience in the financial services and education industries in Greater China.

In 2004, Williams became the first foreigner to lead a Chinese bank – Shenzhen Development Bank – since the founding of the PRC. Previously, he had served in various roles for Citibank in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Shenzhen, and as the Taiwan general manager for American Express Company and Standard Chartered Bank. Most recently, Williams was the inaugural Executive Director and General Manager of Harvard Center (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., Harvard University’s base of operations in China.

In 1979-80 Williams taught at Peking University, shortly after the establishment of diplomatic relations between the People’s Republic of China and the United States.

Williams has extensive experience at the board level in private and listed companies as well as non-profit organizations in Greater China and globally. Currently, he is an advisor to UBS Asset Management in Hong Kong and China, and a director of UBS SDIC Fund Management Company, Ltd. and UBS Asset Management (China) Ltd., as well as an independent director at PharmaEssentia Corporation. He also volunteers on a number of non-profit boards: as a trustee of the China Medical Board, as a director of Koo Foundation Sun -Yat-Sen Cancer Center, as a foundation board member of UBS Optimus Foundation, as a trustee of Carleton-Willard Village, and as a council member of the Asian Corporate Governance Association. Williams formerly served an independent director at China Universal Asset Management, a Shanghai-based mutual fund company. He was chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei and chairman of Taipei American School. He has been the President of the Harvard alumni clubs of Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Williams graduated magna cum laude in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard College in 1978 and received his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1982 and is currently an associate at the Harvard Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. He is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.