2026 CHINA Town Hall: Local Connections, National Reflections
Join us for an engaging conversation on the current state and future trajectory of U.S.–China relations, featuring insights from local China experts. This event brings together community members, professionals, and students for a meaningful dialogue on one of today’s most important global relationships.
Following the discussion, continue the conversation at a networking reception with fellow attendees.
Event Details
Date: April 9, 2026
Town Hall Forum | Room 335
4:00 – 5:30 PMNetworking Reception | The Pub at Thunderbird
5:30 – 6:30 PM
Location:
Thunderbird School of Global Management at ASU
401 N. 1st St. | Phoenix, AZ 85004
Registration
$10 – General Admission (Non-members)
Free – GTAZ Ambassadors & Students
Admission includes access to the reception.
Speakers
Doug Guthrie
Professor & Executive Director of China Initiatives, Thunderbird School of Global Management at ASU
Doug Guthrie is an expert in international business and trade, technology and society, entrepreneurship and technology transfer, and organizational development. Guthrie uses his past experience in his teaching at ASU since he was a senior director at Apple in Shanghai, China, where he led Apple University efforts on leadership and organizational development in China.
Guthrie is a professor and the director of China Initiatives at the Thunderbird School of Global Management. He has spent his career researching, writing, teaching and advising companies about organizational development and the Chinese economic reforms.
He received an AB in East Asian languages (concentration in Chinese literature) from the University of Chicago and MA and PhD degrees in organizational sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, he studied in Taipei, Taiwan, during his undergraduate years and conducted PhD research in Shanghai, China. He has authored and edited books, academic articles, popular articles, reports on Chinese economic reform, leadership and corporate social responsibility, and strategic economic development in American cities.
Richard Fincher
International Labor Lawyer in Global Supply Chain | Adjunct Instructor, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at ASU
Richard Fincher is the Managing Partner of Workplace Resolutions LLC, a national practice in workplace mediation and arbitration. He is an Adjunct Instructor of Asian Studies and Dispute Resolution for the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution at Cornell University, and Executive Director of the Asia Labor Arbitration Project. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Arbitrators.
Richard served as a Labor Consultant in Hanoi/Vietnam for four years as a subcontractor with USAID. In 2015, he received a Fulbright Scholarship for teaching in Saigon/Vietnam. He currently teaches workplace ADR in Cambodia and Myanmar under a USAID grant, and teaches at law schools in China under a DOS grant. He also is on the faculty of the Lodestar Institute at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at ASU.
Mary Sully de Luque
Professor of Global Management,
Thunderbird School of Global Management
Mary Sully de Luque is the former Senior Associate Dean of Graduate Programs and Research, a tenured full Professor of Management, and ASU Senior Global Futures Scientist in the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University. She has published scores of articles, book chapters, and academic conference proceedings in the areas of global and responsible leadership, corporate sustainable performance, organization-level management issues, and cross-cultural management.
Her research interests include the micro and macro influences of culture in organizations, responsible leadership and organizational effectiveness, sustainable performance and stakeholder decision-making, and feedback-seeking behavior and processes. Sully de Luque serves on the editorial boards of, and published research in, many of the top academic management journals. She teaches courses focusing on cross-cultural organizational behavior, global leadership, sustainability, and corporate sustainable performance, in undergraduate, graduate, and executive programs at Thunderbird and other prestigious universities.
Marc Buckholz
Sinologist / Linguist
Marc Buckholz has a Bachelor's Degree in Chinese Language studies from Arizona State University and has worked in China as an academic team leader and teaching professional since 2012. He has been continuing his studies on Chinese-US relations as well as Chinese culture and linguistics since working in China and is a recent graduate of Thunderbird School of Global Management.
MODERATOR
Barry Wong
Attorney & Former Arizona State Legislator
Barry Wong was appointed by Arizona Governor Douglas A. Ducey on October 1, 2015 as Executive Director, Governor’s Office of Equal Opportunity (GOEO). “Opportunity for All” is a guiding principle for Governor Ducey; in furtherance of this principle, GOEO is tasked with helping the state of Arizona increase its reach to underutilized and racial/ethnic minority, disabled persons and women communities in the areas of state employment, procurement and appointments to boards and commissions, and to inform small businesses about state opportunities; and to serve as a state liaison to these constituencies and communities.
Barry, a native Arizonan, has an extensive background in state government service and private sector client representation. He served as a legislator in the Arizona House of Representatives (1993-2001) and was a member of the utility-regulating Arizona Corporation Commission (2006). He practiced law in the areas of business transactions, state regulation compliance, legislative affairs and community relations.
Barry is active in the community with service on many non-profit organization boards including the American Red Cross, YMCA, Phoenix History Museum and Arizona Asian American Association. He holds degrees from the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law (Juris Doctor), Arizona State University W.P. Carey School of Business (Bachelor of Science in Accounting, Magna Cum Laude) and Thunderbird School of Global Management (Certificate in Global Leadership).
