Virginia Kamsky

Virginia Kamsky is the Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Kamsky Associates, Inc. (KAI), a strategic advisory firm with offices in Beijing and New York City. KAI was established in 1980 and in the same year was one of the first twenty American corporations licensed by the Chinese Government to establish an office in Beijing. KAI was also the first approved foreign advisory firm in China. KAI has been responsible for advising on deals in excess of $10 billion for its client base, comprising preeminent companies worldwide. Ms. Kamsky has been General Partner in a private equity fund for direct investment in China. The firm focuses on investment into China by foreign entities and China’s deployment of assets overseas. In addition to China, KAI provides advisory services throughout the Pacific Rim, with specific focus on South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam.

In October 2009, Ms. Kamsky received a White House appointment for a two-year term as a member of the US Secretary of the Navy Advisory Panel (SNAP), an advisory body which provides the Secretary of the Navy with independent advice and recommendations on critical issues facing the Department of the Navy and the Navy Secretariat. In this capacity, Ms. Kamsky is serving on a special Navy task force on US strategy in the Asia Pacific region and providing her unique perspective to the US government as it builds partnerships, understanding and trust in Asia.

Ms. Kamsky was elected Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Chief Executive Officer of China Institute in America, positions she has held since December 2003. China Institute is the oldest not-for-profit U.S. organization focused on the US-China relationship.

Ms. Kamsky began the study of the Chinese language at the age of ten at China Institute. At thirteen, she was awarded a National Defense Foundation Fellowship to study Chinese at Columbia University and Yale University. Ms. Kamsky graduated in 1970 from The Dalton School in New York City. She spent her senior year of high school at Fujen Catholic University in Taiwan. Ms. Kamsky served on the Board of Trustees of The Dalton School for two consecutive terms, 2001-2006.

Ms. Kamsky graduated cum laude from Princeton University in 1974 with a B.A. in East Asian Studies.

She was awarded Princeton summer fellowships for intensive language study for Chinese at Stanford University in 1971 and for Japanese at Middlebury College in 1973. Ms. Kamsky attended the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs graduate MPA program on a Robertson Fellowship in 1975 and majored in Economics. She was granted an internship at the U.S. Embassy in Singapore where she served as Economic Analyst in 1975. She was featured in “In the Nation’s Service”, a Princeton publication about outstanding Princeton graduates.

Ms. Kamsky also served on the Board of Trustees of Princeton University from 1988–1992, and was a member of the Board’s Executive, Finance, Honorary Degrees and Building Committees. Ms. Kamsky served on the Advisory Board of the East Asian Studies Department at Princeton University and on the Board of Princeton-In-Asia. She was also a member of the Advisory Board of the Kennedy School at Harvard

Ms. Kamsky began her career at the then Chase Manhattan Bank in 1975 in its global credit-training program. She was the manager of Chase’s credit training program in Tokyo from 1976-1977, and head of Chase’s credit department in Tokyo. She served as an officer of Chase as Assistant Treasurer in the International Trade and Commodity Finance division in 1978 on the grains and metals team. In December 1978, Ms. Kamsky was a member of the first Chase Bank delegation to China. She was promoted to Second Vice President of Chase in 1978 and headed Chase’s corporate China division through the end of 1980. She was responsible for drafting the first foreign commercial bank loan to China.

Ms. Kamsky has served on several public company boards including Spectrum Brands, W.R. Grace and Company, Sealed Air Corporation, Tecumseh Products Company, Shorewood Packaging, Foamex International and Olin Corporation. She was Executive Vice President of Foamex during her Board tenure. She has served on and acted as Chairman of corporate governance, compensation and audit committees in her board capacities. She has been ISS certified by the American Management Association and by ODX (Outstanding Director Exchange) and was a speaker at the ODX conference in New York. Ms. Kamsky has also been a director of two Swiss joint ventures in China; SICPA-Kele Chemical Company in Shanghai and Global Aviation, a China Southern Airlines (CSA) partnership, based in Guangzhou.

Ms. Kamsky is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) where she has been both a speaker and moderator. At the invitation of the President, she is currently a member of the CFR’s Committee on Corporate Affairs. She has served as a Director of The National Committee on US-China Relations and as a member of the Advisory Board of AmeriCares. She is a Founding Governor of The American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing and of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center.

Ms. Kamsky’s writings have appeared in The Harvard Business Review and Directors & Boards Magazine. She was selected by Crain’s New York Business in 1990 as one of their “Forty under Forty to Succeed.” Ms. Kamsky was chosen by Newsweek as one of “America’s 25 Top Asia Hands.” She was featured on PBS in the award winning Adam Smith Money World production: Kamsky Associates: Models of Enterprise, and was a commentator on trade and investment in China for the PBS series The Heart of the Dragon.

Ms. Kamsky is a member of Century Association, the Cosmopolitan Club and the Links Club in New York City and the Norwalk Yacht Club. She resides in New York City and travels frequently to China and other countries in Asia.