Ge Xiaochen graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance, Accounting and Management from Nottingham University Business School China (NUBS China) in 2011, and gained her Master’s Degree in International Employment Relations and Human Resource Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2012. She particpated in an Organisational Behaviour exchange programme at the University of Amsterdam on an Erasmus Scholarship the next year. During the exchange, Xiaochen met her husband, and they currently live in the United States with their one-year-old daughter.
In 2015, Xiaochen co-founded SyncUS International, a boutique consulting firm that offers event organising, professional training, executive hiring and international brand promotion between China and the US with a UNNC schoolmate. In 2016, SyncUS International and LendIt Fintech established a joint venture, LendIt China, where Xiaochen serves as the Chief Operating Officer. LendIt is the world’s largest community and think tank in financial services innovation. It organises global fintech conferences in the US, China, and the UK every year, bringing together over 12,000 leaders in fintech, blockchain, lending and digital banking companies across 70 countries to learn, network and do business.
Xiaochen used to be the president of the Young Volunteers Association at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC). Her charitable work started here, which she has continued developing over the past 10 years. Besides participating in traditional charitable activities, she also promotes “social innovation”, which refers to the process of developing creative solutions to challenging social issues. In 2017, she co-founded SEED InVenture, a social enterprise, with her best friend Ma Jing, and Wu Zheng, founder of SEED for Social Innovation and a Doctor of Neuroscience from Harvard University. Social enterprises mainly aim to solve social problems and improve public welfare rather than maximize profits. Compared with traditional charities, they are more self-sufficient and more financially sustainable. SEED InVenture is a member of the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN). It provides professional courses and services for social innovation, which are project-based, participatory and internationalised.
Engaged in Charity: UNNC as the Starting Point
In 2007, Xiaochen was admitted to UNNC. She joined the Young Volunteers Association, where she was later elected president. She organised and participated in various volunteer activities both home and abroad. “My time at UNNC was life-changing. UNNC introduced me to many opportunities and interests, such as charity and social innovation. At this point, it has become a way of life for me. In the United States, I also advocate for participating in community service. I really enjoy doing these things.”
In 2013, after finishing her studies in the Netherlands, Xiaochen moved to Shanghai. She launched a social movement there called “Frame the Vow” to take wedding photos for elderly couples free of charge. Despite her busy work as a Management Trainee at Starwood Hotels at the time, she strove to allocate time for the programme. Within six years, “Frame the Vow” had recruited 600 volunteers and fulfilled 400 senior couples’ dreams across 8 cities in China and in New York. It was also adapted into a documentary aired on Hunan TV, and reported by China Daily, Zhejiang Daily, Hangzhou Daily , and various other media.
Through many years of participating in charitable activities, Xiaochen discovered that many charities have a common issue: they cannot fund themselves and are thus financially unsustainable. Social enterprises, on the other hand, have the ability to raise money to maintain operations through a market-driven approach. Therefore, in 2017, Xiaochen co-founded SEED InVenture. SEED is a registered NGO seeking to encourage Chinese youth to participate in social innovation and public affairs. With first-class resources for social innovation at home and abroad, SEED has supported over 400 members in getting involved in social innovation over the past eight years, 30 of whom have been listed in the Forbes 30 Under 30. SEED InVenture, the social enterprise owned by SEED, shares resources with SEED and supports SEED’s fund raising efforts. SEED InVenture has two flagship programmes: 1) SEED Youth, which selects Chinese students at high schools and universities every year to provide them with academic training and field experience in social innovation; 2) SEED Professional, which provides those already engaged in charity work such as entrepreneurs, CSR leaders, foundations and NGO managers with informed dialogue and customized plans for social innovation, impact investing, meeting United Nations sustainable development goals, and so on. Clients and partners include Harvard Kennedy School, Stanford PACS, Tencent Foundation, China Global Philanthropy Institute, and more.
Besides building a sense of social responsibility, Xiaochen mentions that UNNC also helps students cultivate a sense of identity. “A UNNC education is really different. It encourages students to be themselves, which allows them to see the world from a different angle.”
In the face of this year’s COVID-19 pandemic, SEED InVenture wasted no time reaching out to ten NGOs of various social backgrounds to lend its helping hand. Through interviews and surveys, SEED InVenture mapped out the impact of this pandemic on theses social enterprises, and proposed ways to fulfill their needs accordingly. SEED InVenture also launched the “Youth’s Light” initiative, which in four days recruited 240 volunteers, who assisted five NGOs in transitioning from offline to online-based services.
Starting a Business in the US
In 2013, Xiaochen returned to Shanghai from the Netherlands and worked as a management trainee at Starwood Hotels & Resorts (now merged with Marriott International). In 2015, she went to the US to stay with her husband, who was studying there for his doctorate in medicine. Three years ago, they met in the Netherlands and hit it off straight away. They became best friends and, together, shared a deep passion for life. “I’d never dreamed of living abroad. But when I met him, it was like he brought home to me.” Xiaochen explained with a smile.
After moving to the United States, Xiaochen accepted her schoolmate’s invitation to co-found SyncUS International. “It was really tough in the beginning — like a garage start-up. We lived in a shabby little room in New York City. Those were the days when we felt that there was no place for us in such a big city, in such a big world.
In 2016, Xiaochen’s team initiated and co-hosted the Sino-US Innovation and Credit Summit with the Mayor’s Office of San Francisco, where SyncUS and LendIt struck a lasting, fruitful and exclusive partnership. Xiaochen recollected that “many approached LendIt to do business in China, and the reason they picked us was that we were a young, energetic and hard-working group. We pulled all-nighters for days on end, to invite and contact people and market ourselves, which was the most difficult part of our work.” Within the last six years, Xiaochen has moved a total of seven times and lived and traveled frequently between Shanghai, San Francisco, NYC, Cleveland, Ann Arbor and Rochester. Her experience of starting a business in the United States gave her the ability to quickly adapt to a new environment and its culture.
This year Xiaochen’s family reached an important milestone. Her husband finished his medical training and was invited to join the Mayo Clinic as a physician, which brings her family to Rochester, Minnesota.
Looking ahead, Xiaochen is filled with optimism, and her positive energy is contagious to all of us.