Gabrielle Harris
Strengths: Social Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship; Finance; Business Development; Training Development; Design; Industry
Gabrielle is an expert in development issues in China as well as in Business Development Services for entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs. She is currently the Executive Director of PlaNet Finance China.
Since she joined PlaNet Finance in 2005, she has designed and directed several development projects with microfinance components, in both rural and urban China; she has managed and administered the PlaNet Finance Beijing representative office, been in charge of local fundraising and technical business development, spearheaded technical consulting with a scope including market studies, operation and credit process diagnostics, strategic advisory services; has been in charge of design of economic baseline studies, impact studies adapted to local areas of China. Gabrielle has also done event planning, and creation of training courses for the sector; development of a technical consulting team, and mentoring of junior Chinese staff; another part of the job is conducting advocacy work at central government level, as well as creation of excellent working partnerships with county-level governments and national financial institutions. Gabrielle has participated in sectoral round-tabling and feedback sessions with regulatory authorities.
Previous to joining PlaNet Finance, Gabrielle had been a designer and entrepreneur in Beijing. She set up her own joint venture manufacturing company Beijing Han-Link Crafts Company Ltd, which marketed under the Things of the Jing® brand name using her designs. The company became a premium supplier of corporate gifts to foreign companies in China and also ran a popular retail operation. Gabrielle was also the Chief Representative for Kamsky Associates in the early 1990s after working for Trade Media (now Global Sources) and International Data Corporation in the 1980s.
Gabrielle studied at the School of Oriental & African Studies in London and she pursued postgraduate history studies at Nanjing University.