Robert Lawrence Kuhn

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Robert Lawrence Kuhn

Robert Lawrence Kuhn (born 1944, New York) is an international investment banker, corporate strategist, and public intellectual. With a doctorate in brain research and the author or editor of over twenty-five books, he is a commentator on business, finance, and China; long-time adviser to the Chinese government; adviser to multinational corporations on China strategies and transactions; and adviser to Chinese companies on capital markets. For over 20 years, he has worked with China’s senior leaders, advising on economic policy, science and technology, media and culture, Sino-U.S. relations, and international communications. Kuhn is the creator, writer and host of the public television series Closer To Truth, which presents leading scientists and philosophers discussing fundamental issues, particularly cosmos, consciousness and God.

Biography

Early life

Robert Lawrence Kuhn received a bachelor’s degree in human biology from Johns Hopkins University (Phi Beta Kappa) (1964); a doctorate in anatomy and brain research from the University of California at Los Angeles (1968); and a master of science in management from the MIT Sloan School of Management (1980).

Career

Robert Lawrence Kuhn is the author of How China’s Leaders Think: The Inside Story of China's Reform and What This Means for the Future, featuring exclusive discussions with more than 100 Chinese leaders and officials. The book stresses President Hu Jintao’s philosophies and policies, and introduces China’s next generation of senior leaders including Xi Jinping, who is expected to be China's next president.

Robert Kuhn is the author of The Man Who Changed China: The Life and Legacy of Jiang Zemin, the first biography of a living Chinese leader to be published on the mainland. It was China’s best-selling book in 2005. Kuhn is co-editor in chief of China’s Banking & Financial Markets: The Internal Research Report of the Chinese Government.

Robert Lawrence Kuhn contributes to the media, such as CNBC, Euronews, BBC, Bloomberg, BusinessWeek, Forbes and Chief Executive. (See interview in Barron's). He is Senior Adviser to China Central Television (CCTV), Xinhua News Agency, and Global People magazine (published by People’s Daily). Kuhn is International Affairs Commentator on Euronews and Senior international Commentator on CCTV. He is one of the China Visionaries in the TV series produced for China’s 60th anniversary by Shanghai Media Group, and he was featured on CCTV Channel 1’s Focus Talk. Kuhn created, wrote and presented a six-episode series on Expo 2010 Shanghai, “Expo’s Meaning, Shanghai’s Mission,” broadcast on CCTV.

Robert Kuhn's articles on China’s economic future (“What Will China Look Like in 2035” and “China’s Elite Aims for Stability”) and China’s political future (“Building ‘Intra-Party Democracy’ in China” and “China’s New Roadmap for Political Reform”) are in BusinessWeek.

Kuhn is a partner in CCTV-IMG Sports Management Company, a joint venture between China Central Television, the state broadcaster in China, and IMG, the global sports and media company.

Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn is chairman of The Kuhn Foundation, which disseminates understanding in science and philosophy, supports cultural endeavors, and promotes good relations between America and China. The Foundation produces the Closer To Truth TV series. It produced the film Khachaturian, which won the Best Documentary award at the 2003 Hollywood Film Festival, and (with China Central Television) In Search of China for PBS.

Dr. Robert L. Kuhn first came to prominence in January 1972 when "Why the Vast Difference between Animal Brain and Human Mind?" appeared as a major series of articles in The Plain Truth magazine published by Ambassador College, an institution of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG). The WCG’s Systematic Theology Project (1978, which can be obtained on data disc from www.icg.org.au) was coordinated by Kuhn, but later banned by WCG Founder Herbert W. Armstrong. Kuhn severed his connection to the WCG and its affiliated entities, including the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation (classical music concerts, such as Vladimir Horowitz and Luciano Pavarotti), which Kuhn had created and managed.

During the 1980s, Kuhn represented Japanese companies. He advised the governments of China, the United States, Germany, and Israel on the commercialization of high technology.

From 1991 to 2001, Dr. Kuhn was president and co-owner of The Geneva Companies, the largest mergers and acquisitions ("M&A") firm representing privately owned, middle-market companies. During this period, Geneva initiated and closed over 1,200 M&A transactions and conducted thousands of corporate evaluations. In 2000, Dr. Kuhn sold The Geneva Companies to Citigroup.

Kuhn has written many articles. His “Science as Democratizer,” featured in American Scientist magazine, argued how the scientific way of thinking can influence global society. His scientific / philosophical article "Why This Universe? Toward a Taxonomy of Possible Explanations" is published in the Vol. 13 No. 2 2007 issue of Skeptic Magazine. Kuhn writes a regular feature, called “Uncommon Wisdom,” in Chief Executive magazine.

References

• "How China's Next Leader Will Guide," International Herald Tribune, March 23, 2012 [1]
• "A New Theory for China’s Next Generation of Leaders: The Three Blurs?" Wall Street Journal, November 4, 2011 [2]
• "Is China Really Changing," Interview with Robert Lawrence Kuhn, Barron's, June 19, 2010 [3]
• BBC World Service, "China Communists Meet," October 15, 2010 [4]
• CNBC: "China Under Pressure," August 12, 2010 [5]; "China’s Future Lies in China," May 2, 2010 [6]; "Getting Serious on the Yuan," October 23, 2009 [7]; "How China’s Leaders Think," September 22, 2009 [8]; "Xi Jinping vs. Hu Jintao," January 18, 2011 [9]
• Euronews: "US and China to press reset button," January 18, 2011 [10]; "Nobel Peace Prize: China's Anger," December 10, 2010 [11]; "North Korea 'embarrasses' China, says expert," November 10, 2010 [12]
• China Central Television (CCTV), “Expo’s Meaning, Shanghai’s Mission” (2010) [13]
• Closer To Truth: Cosmos, Consciousness, God [14]
• Closer To Truth: Science, Meaning and the Future -- [15] (hosted at PBS)
• "Why This Universe? Toward a Taxonomy of Possible Explanations," Skeptic (U.S. magazine) Vol. 13 No. 2 2007 [16]
• "Science as Democratizer", American Scientist, September–October, 2003 [17]
• Articles on investment banking, M&A in Chief Executive magazine. [18]
• "A Problem of Perception: Why China and the U.S. aren't on the same page," BusinessWeek, April 24, 2006, page 33 [19]
• "Mastering the Art of Doing Business in China," Chief Executive Magazine, December 2005. [20]
• Commentary on The Man Who Changed China: The Life and Legacy of Jiang Zemin -
  • Foreign Affairs [21]
  • Wall Street Journal [22]
• People’s Daily - Scientific Perspective on Development - March 21, 2005
  • [23] (English)
  • [24] (Chinese)
• Kuhn with Zhejiang Party Secretary Xi Jinping in Hangzhou [25]
• Kuhn with Jiangsu Party Secretary Li Yuanchao in Nanjing, July 13, 2007 [26]
• "Part I: Guangdong Visions: A Talk with Wang Yang", BusinessWeek, June 5, 2009 [27]
• "Does God Exist," China Daily. [28]
• "CCTV Channel 1’s Focus Talk" [29]
• "Foreign 'China Visionaries' speak", Shanghai Daily [30] [31]
• "China Visionaries", Robert Kuhn, Shanghai Media Group (International Channel Shanghai) [32]
• "China's Next First Lady Moves to a Bigger Stage," Newsweek, January 17, 2011 [33]
• "CPC helps build confident nation," China Daily, June 24, 2011, published as a China Daily supplement in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune [34]
• "Telling It Like It Is," China Daily, September 2, 2011 [35]