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ZHANG Mei is Founder and Chairperson of WildChina, a premium, sustainable travel company based in Beijing. Zhang is a native of Yunnan province in southwest China. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and worked for McKinsey & Company until she found her true passion in sustainable travel. While serving as a consultant to The Nature Conservancy, Zhang witnessed the push and pull between economic development and conservation of both nature and culture in Yunnan. She strongly believed that there was a for-profit solution to this – providing sophisticated interpretation of Chinese culture and nature through experiential travel.

This revolutionary concept led to the creation of WildChina in 2000. Together with former WildChina CEO Albert Ng, Zhang has transformed the company into an award-winning business: National Geographic Adventure – “Best Adventure Travel Company on Earth;” National Geographic Traveler – “Tours of a Lifetime;” Travel & Leisure – “A+ Agent for China;” Condé Nast Traveler – “Top Travel Specialist.” The WildChina story has been covered by Harvard Business Review, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, TIME and more. WildChina set the golden standard in luxury adventure travel in China, and its rigorous operation process is documented as a Harvard Business School case that is studied by all first-year Harvard MBAs. WildChina has also established many partnerships with villages, nature reserves and NGOs around China.

Realizing that WildChina alone cannot change the industry, Zhang is a frequent speaker on sustainable tourism and entrepreneurship in China. She served as a judge for the World Travel & Tourism Council’s Tourism for Tomorrow Awards and has previously served on the advisory boards of Adventure Travel Trade Association and The International Ecotourism Society, and is a founding board member of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) primarily funded by the UN Foundation.

In 2012, after spending four years in Washington D.C., establishing WildChina’s presence in the U.S., Zhang took another leap of faith, returning to China to build another venture: Beshan. She strongly believes, it is time to introduce the high-end sustainable travel lifestyle to the forever curious Chinese traveler.