Robert Kapp
Dr. Robert A. Kapp 柯白博士 is former President (前会长) of The US-China Business Council 美中贸易全国委员会 and Robert A. Kapp & Associates, a private consulting firm. His firm provided consulting services to companies and nonprofit organizations seeking to develop successful activities with China or to engage with policy makers in the field of U.S.-China relations.
Dr. Kapp is Special Advisor, Planning and Publication 特派顾问 (筹划与出版), for the US-China Education Trust 美中教育基金, (Washington, D.C.) a nonprofit, non-governmental organization conducting extensive bilateral cooperative programs in education and Sino-American communication.
From April, 1994 to November, 2004, Dr. Kapp served as president of The US-China Business Council 美中贸易全国委员会, 会长the principal organization of American companies engaged in trade and investment with China. In addition to guiding the business services, publications, and program activities of the US-China Business Council from its offices in Washington, Beijing and Shanghai, Dr. Kapp regularly represented the American business community engaged with China, in both Washington and Beijing. He contributed regularly to informed U.S. dialogue on China, through Congressional testimony, published articles, frequent media appearances, and presentations to educational and community organizations nationwide.
In the field of corporate social responsibility; Dr. Kapp was the principal initiator of The US-China Legal Cooperation Fund （美中法律合作基金）, which provided more than a million dollars in support of a wide range of Sino-American cooperative legal initiatives between 1998 and 2012.
Dr. Kapp serves on the Board of The Blakemore Foundation, Seattle, Washington. The Foundation awards generous grants to Americans pursuing advanced study of Chinese, Japanese, and other Asian languages.
Dr. Kapp writes for a variety of publications. He is a listed Contributor to ChinaFile, The Asia Society’s innovative e-magazine (www.chinafile.com). He has published a series of feature articles (in Chinese translation) for the magazine China Newsweek. Other commentaries have appeared in American, Chinese and European publications. He has appeared at major conferences in the US and China.
Dr. Kapp has recently translated several books from Chinese to English, including pictorial biographies of Reform and Opening figures Gu Mu and Xiang Nan， and Playing Chess with the Devil （与魔鬼博弈）by Zhang Yawen 张雅文.
Dr. Kapp received his doctorate in modern Chinese history from Yale University (耶鲁大学历史系博士). From 1970 to 1980 he taught Chinese history at Rice University (莱斯大学) (Houston) and the University of Washington （华盛顿大学）(Seattle). He is the author of a scholarly monograph and other published academic research on 20th-century China. From 1986 to 1991, Dr. Kapp was Lecturer at the University of Washington School of Business Administration, where he received a Distinguished Teaching award. He was Editor of the scholarly publication The Journal of Asian Studies, 1978-80. Communicating With China (1980), which he edited, was an early contribution to effective popular communication between the United States and China.
Prior to his presidency of the US-China Business Council, Dr. Kapp served as the founding Executive Director of the Washington State China Relations Council (华州中国交流理事会, 理事长) (www.wscrc.org) from 1980 to 1987 , and from 1987 to 1994 as president of the Washington Council on International Trade （华盛顿州国际贸易委员会，会长） (www.wcit.org ). He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, and the World Affairs Council, whose World Citizen Award he received in 1994. He has been a frequent visitor to China since 1977. He and his wife Catherine live in Port Townsend, Washington State, USA.