Andrew Cainey
Kennedy Scholar
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Asia featured prominently in my time at Harvard even in the late 1980s. Then, it was Japan rather than China in focus. I spent my summer working for ICI Chemicals in Tokyo, improving my very basic Japanese. And in my second year I did a field study report applying scenario analysis to Japan’s future, working with three Japanese and an American. Over 35 years later, we’re all still in close touch: I enjoyed a reunion dinner with my Japanese friends in Tokyo only 18 months ago. I also remember reading a book “Is Korea the next Japan?” My thoughts had not then turned to China. Time has though reconnected me with those fellow students who chose China for their career – and brought new connections. It has also taken to me the Kennedy School and Law School to discuss my book on China.
But what stays with me above all is the American experience, in a Harvard with fewer international students than today. Making friends with people who had never met an non-American before. A rousing chorus of La Bamba on the first day of ‘school’ hitting hard and loud on how different the culture was. Or at least some of it. Getting under the skin of American businesses and people management. Eating dinner sometimes at 530pm. Friends – then and for life. Trips to homes for Thanksgiving. A memorable outing to New Orleans. And now and forever more (!), the US way of alumni engagement and reunions – a well-oiled machine that, against all British cynicism, ensures warm, meaningful and long-lasting connections and memories. The 35th reunion last year was the best yet.
Andrew Cainey is a seasoned advisor, author and educator on geopolitics and business strategy with a focus on China and across Asia. He has over 35 years’ experience advising governments and businesses on strategy, organisation, economic development and geopolitics. He lived and worked for many years in China, Korea, and Singapore.
Now based in London, he has a portfolio of roles: Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), the UK’s leading security and defence think tank; a founding director of the UK National Committee on China, an eductional non-profit; Senior Advisor with Boston Consulting Group working on China and geopolitics; a Non-executive director of Schroder Asian Total Return Investment Company plc; and a Senior Advisor to Lumen Capital Investors in Singapore.
Andrew began his engagement with China in 1981 as a student visitor, an experience that sparked a lifelong interest in the country’s development and global role. He later led Booz & Company’s Greater China operations; led the Asian government advisory practice of Tony Blair Associates, and headed Boston Consulting Group’s Asia-Pacific financial institutions practice. He has also held roles at Chatham House, the Fung Global Institute in Hong Kong, and the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.
He co-authored Xiconomics: What China’s Dual Circulation Strategy Means for Global Business (2023), which explores how foreign businesses can adapt to China’s evolving political and economic landscape. Andrew continues to write and speak on the intersection of economics, security, and global governance.
A graduate of Cambridge, with a First Class MA (Hons) in Economics, Andrew earned his MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School as a Kennedy Scholar.
Andrew Cainey
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Harvard alumni reunion
Japan study reunion mentioned in quote above
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