Professor Dr. Won Kidane is the author of China-Africa Dispute Settlement: The Law, Economics and Culture of Arbitration (Kluwer 2012), and The Culture of International Arbitration (Oxford University Press 2017). He is a tenured faculty member at the Seattle University School of Law and the Principal of Addis Law Group LLP, an international arbitration firm, in Washington D.C. He has represented African States and their instrumentalities in a wide array of international litigation and arbitration matters ranging from infrastructure, construction, railway, and oil and gas to commodities trading. He has represented SOEs at critical stages of relationship formation ranging from contract negotiations, dispute prevention, contract management, mediation, and conciliation to arbitration and court litigation. He has also counseled companies in private equity ventures, contract negotiations, and dispute resolution. Professor Kidane is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia, Illinois, and Washington State. He holds SJD from Georgetown, JD from the University of Illinois, LLM from the University of Georgia, and LLB from Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia.

Joe is Deputy Secretary-General of HKIAC. Joe develops arbitration rules and procedures of HKIAC and promotes HKIAC’s dispute resolution services worldwide. He has acted as secretary to multiple tribunals in HKIAC-administered matters. Joe was a member of the HKIAC Rules Revision Committee that was responsible for drafting the 2018 and 2013 versions of the HKIAC Administered Arbitration Rules. He is also a principal contributor to Moser & Bao, A Guide to the HKIAC Arbitration Rules – a detailed commentary to the 2013 Rules published by Oxford University Press.

Before joining HKIAC, Joe worked as a registered foreign lawyer at a leading international law firm in Hong Kong, acting in numerous international arbitrations under the HKIAC, UNCITRAL, ICC, LCIA and ICSID Rules. Before he moved into private practice, Joe worked as Assistant Counsel at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre and interned at the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the Hong Kong High Court.

Ms. Maria Tan Pedersen is a partner at global law firm Dechert and a top international projects and commercial lawyer with an extensive and diverse background in international and U.S. commercial, M&A, capital markets, joint venture and financing transactions, as well as international arbitration. Ms. Pedersen has advised private and public corporates and governments in more than 35 countries worldwide and has practiced in the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific.

Over the course of her career, Ms. Pedersen has advised on many high-profile inbound and outbound commercial and project-related transactions globally and across a number of industries, including energy and infrastructure, consumer goods, technology and real estate.

Ms. Pedersen is regularly recognized as a top-ranking lawyer by publications such as, Chambers Global, Chambers Asia Pacific, The Legal 500 Asia Pacific and IFLR 1000.