David Hathaway is a nonresident senior fellow in the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub and a seasoned China specialist with nearly three decades of advising the US government, private companies, and nonprofit and multilateral institutions on China and the Asia-Pacific region. He brings broad experience on China, including the US-China bilateral relationship; the Chinese economy; and China’s growing role and ambitions on the world stage, energy and climate-change policies, technology policies, and aviation sector.
Hathaway is a Principal for China at The Asia Group, where he is a key leader for the firm in helping clients handle the complex challenges and opportunities of the China market. Formerly a senior vice president at the Albright Stonebridge Group, Hathaway advised US and non-US companies and nonprofit institutions on navigating business and other strategic decision making on China, including the impact of Chinese policies, regulations, and geopolitical developments on their operating environment. Hathaway has advised organizations across numerous sectors, including energy, climate technology and investment, aerospace and aviation, manufacturing standards and accreditation, oceans policy, next-generation nuclear technology, renewable energy, and China’s technology sector.
Before this, while at ICF International, Hathaway launched and managed its China practice in Beijing, where he advised and led operations for numerous US government bilateral programs between the United States and China in climate change and clean technology. He also led ICF efforts in implementing a five-year, $22-million US Agency for International Development climate-change policy capacity-building program across eleven countries in Asia, and launching a three-year, six-million-dollar greenhouse gas emissions trading capacity-building program for the European Commission in China. Hathaway also managed ICF International’s participation in the Aviation Cooperation Program and Energy Cooperation Program within the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing, including policy collaboration with the US Trade Development Agency and Chinese aviation policymaking bodies.
Hathaway obtained his master’s degree in public policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science, attended the Hopkins Nanjing Center, and received his bachelor’s degree in Chinese history from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He also studied at Beijing University and National Chengchi University in Taipei. He is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.