Hugh Stephens

Mr. Stephens has more than 35 years of government and business experience in the Asia-Pacific region. Based in Victoria, BC, Canada, he is currently Vice Chair of the Canadian Committee on Pacific Economic Cooperation (CANCPEC), Distinguished Fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, Executive Fellow at the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary, Associate at the Center for Asia Pacific Initiatives at the University of Victoria, and an associate faculty member in the School of Business at Royal Roads University, Victoria, BC.

Before returning to Canada in December 2009, he was Senior Vice President (Public Policy) for Asia-Pacific for Time Warner for almost a decade, located at the company’s regional headquarters in Hong Kong. In this capacity he was responsible for developing and managing the public policy strategy for Time Warner and its brands in the Asia Pacific region. He was also active on the executive board of the US Korea Business Council, the US National Center for APEC and was a Vice Chair of the Quality Brands Protection Committee, an organization of some 180 multinational companies with investments in China.

In recent years, he has written and commented extensively on Canada’s engagement with the Asia Pacific region including articles published in The Globe and Mail, Post Media, Embassy, iPolitics, The Diplomat, Open Canada and others. He currently maintains an active blog on international intellectual property issues (www.hughstephensblog.net).

Prior to joining Time Warner in 2000, Mr. Stephens spent 30 years in the Canadian Foreign Service with the Department of External Affairs, later the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT). His last Ottawa assignment was as Assistant Deputy Minister for Policy and Communications in DFAIT. He also served abroad as Canadian Representative in Taiwan, Counsellor and Charge d’affaires at the Canadian Embassies in Seoul, Korea and Islamabad, Pakistan, among a number other overseas and headquarters assignments, including service at the Canadian Embassy in Beijing and Mandarin language training in Hong Kong.

Mr. Stephens was educated at the University of British Columbia (UBC), University of Toronto and Duke University (MA), and has a Certificate in Mandarin from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.