Our Team

Isaac founded Strategy Risks because he believes firms and institutions need to better understand, manage and reduce their China risk. He shares these perspectives and insights as a contributing columnist at The Washington Post, an on-air contributor to CBSNews, a visiting fellow at the Atlantic Council, and a columnist on China risk at Barron’s. Previously Isaac served as a senior fellow at the Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations, Foreign Policy magazine’s Asia Editor, and as a Beijing correspondent for Newsweek. He has also written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, Slate, The Los Angeles Times, Foreign Affairs, Politico, The Daily Beast, and Time, and served as an international affairs analyst for PRI’s The World. His views on China have been quoted in most major English language news outlets, and in Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, and Vietnamese media.

Isaac lived in China for seven years, speaks fluent Mandarin, and has visited every Chinese province, special autonomous region, and municipality. His book, America Second: How America’s Elites Are Making China Stronger, on the Chinese Communist Party’s influence in America – and how to push back without being racist or McCarthyist – was published in February 2022. An adjunct at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs, a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations, and a Truman National Security Project fellow, Isaac is a regular speaker and lecturer at conferences and events around the world.

Brad O’Sullivan is the Chief Operating Officer at Strategy Risks. He has over 20 years of experience in general management, corporate finance, real estate and law; holding C-Level positions at various global organizations, both public and private, including the role of CEO. Brad has valuable experience in the Chinese market, most recently serving as the Executive Vice President for TOJOY’s U.S. operations in New York. Additionally, he was Managing Director & General Counsel at Ashir Group, Inc. in the U.S. and China.

Prior to that, Brad O’Sullivan was one of the Managing Partners at Patriot Title & Abstract Co., Inc., a real estate services company that he helped establish and operate for nearly a decade where he was responsible for initiating and maintaining substantial business development, and successfully closing a multitude of transactions. He was also Vice President at Brean Capital LLC, a boutique investment banking firm headquartered in Manhattan with offices worldwide.

Earlier in his career as an attorney, he was an Associate in the Corporate Practice Group at several major international law firms. During the course of his career, Brad has advised on a variety of transactions in excess of several billion dollars across a wide range of industries. He also holds an MBA from Columbia University Business School, and a JD from the Georgetown University Law Center. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Georgetown University.

Roxanne Khazarian is a senior legal, risk management, investment and finance and licensing executive with years of success as an in-house business partner across a global platform and a diverse range of industries. She has served on non-profit boards and supported boards for public companies, including in her roles as SVP, General Counsel at Gibson Guitar, and as General Counsel & Secretary of Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. She has also consulted for private equity, SaaS, sports, entertainment and lifestyle ventures and start-ups, a VC backed SaaS provider and private equity owned healthcare finance start-up.

Previously, she was the General Counsel of Gerald Holdings LLC, a $10 billion a year international commodities trader and financing house based in Stamford, Connecticut. In this role, she was responsible for legal support for day-to-day operations and structured trade, financing and development projects worldwide generated through the US headquarters office and its subsidiary and associated offices in the UK, Switzerland, China, Hong Kong, Russia and Singapore among others.

Piper is the Chief Research and Development Officer at Strategy Risks. For over 25 years, Piper has advised CEOs of multinational companies and start-ups, U.S. government officials and members of Congress, investors, and non-profit leaders on the business implications of working with China. Piper has over ten years of experience working within China leading diverse research and consulting teams, most recently as Executive Director of United Technologies and head of its China operation. She has held various management roles in high-tech companies such as The Boeing Company and served for several years at the U.S.- China Business Council in both Washington, DC and Beijing, China.

Piper graduated from Middlebury College and received her MBA from Norwich University. She is highly-proficient in Mandarin Chinese.

Elad Alyagon serves as Director of Investigations and Training on the Strategy Risks’ research team. Elad uses his experience as a historian to conduct open-source research, specializing in mapping social, political, and commercial networks, identifying bad actors in supply chains, and adversarial research.

Elad studied Chinese at Peking University and Yunnan Normal University. He holds a BA in East Asian Studies and History and an MA in East Asian Studies from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and a PhD in History from the University of California, Davis. Elad previously served as director of investigations for Channel Precision.

Ray is the Director of Research at Strategy Risks. He is a professional analyst of Asian political, business, and technology practices, and their implications. He is experienced in inter-agency collaboration, including government review of inbound foreign investment and outbound exports.

Ray has previously worked in corporate, government, academic, and foreign settings. He received his Bachelor’s in Economics at the University of Wisconsin and his PhD in Economics at the University of Michigan.

Akram is Director of Research at Strategy Risks. He is a professional analyst of China’s foreign policy, internal politics related to domestic security, social stability issues, and China’s economic and geopolitical interests and influence initiatives.

Having worked for the private sector, U.S. government, and a non-profit organization, Akram has briefed senior U.S. officials and executives on U.S.-China relations, most recently focusing on China’s digital currency efforts, China’s growing global authoritarian influence, disinformation campaigns, propaganda strategies, and human rights issues.

Akram received his MBA from the University of Kent in England focusing on supply chain management.

Edward is a China Investigative Research Manager on Strategy Risks’ research team. He has a comprehensive background in research on China-related issues, recently authoring the book Chinese Election Interference in Taiwan with Routledge, which details the Chinese Communist Party’s election interference activities in Taiwan from 2008-2020.

Edward studied Chinese at Fudan University and the University of British Columbia. He holds a BA in International Relations from the University of British Columbia and an MA in International Affairs from Carleton University. He is also a former recipient of the Taiwan Fellowship, which he used to conduct research on cross-strait affairs at National Taiwan University.

Vincent is the Senior Due Diligence Research Analyst for Strategy Risks. He holds a BA in International Studies and Political Science from the University of Washington, an MSc in Environmental Governance from the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, Germany, and received scholarships to study abroad at the University of Melbourne, Australia and the University of León, Spain.

Vincent has previously worked in corporate social responsibility and ESG reporting, translation and conference interpreting, and multilingual education.

Will is a Senior Research Analyst for Strategy Risks. He holds a BA in Global Affairs and an Advanced Certificate in Mandarin Chinese from Yale University. He has two years of bilingual, open-source research experience and has contributed to works published in Foreign Policy and the Washington Post, among other outlets.

Gray conducts research for Strategy Risks by utilizing open source materials. He holds a BA in economics and political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is an alumni of the Duke-UNC China Leadership Summit. He studied Mandarin at the Inter-University Program at Tsinghua University in Beijing and economics at Fudan University in Shanghai. Gray has worked with author Geoffery Cain on his projects related to China, assisted the US-ASEAN Business Council to advise multinational corporations on their Southeast Asian operations, and developed research materials for the Association of Diplomatic Studies and Training to train American Foreign Service Officers.

Sam is a China Research Analyst for Strategy Risks. He holds an MA in International Economics and China Studies from the Johns Hopkins University School of International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C. During his time with Johns Hopkins Sam was awarded a Graduate Certificate in Chinese and American Studies at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center in Nanjing, China. Sam holds a BA in Philosophy from Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, where he spent his junior year studying Mandarin at National Taiwan University.

Previously, Sam worked with the Ontario government in Canada, and spent three years in education and translation in Tianjin, China. Sam has professional fluency in Mandarin, French, and Spanish

Richard Wei-Yi Chen is a Research Analyst for Strategy Risks. He previously worked with the membership of the Truman National Security Project in Washington, DC and at the Taiwan Center for Security Studies in Taipei, Taiwan. During that time, Richard focused on traditional and non-traditional security issues, regional security, Chinese military policy, and US alliance structures in the Indo-Pacific.

Richard received his Advanced Master of Science in European Politics and Policies from KU Leuven (Belgium) and his Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown.

Dani is the Executive Support to our C-Suite Executives here at Strategy Risks. Dani brings eight years of SaaS start-up experience in both executive operations and people operations along with many years supporting key leaders in women’s initiatives and pharma at McKinsey & Company.

Dr. Richard (“Dick”) Thurston is the former Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd., 2002 – 2014; and a consultant to Dr. Morris Chang, 2014-2017. During his tenure as TSMC General Counsel, he resided in Hsinchu, Taiwan. While at TSMC Dr. Thurston assisted the company in developing its best-in-class intellectual property and trade secret promotion and protection program (“PIP”). Furthermore, in developing TSMC’s litigation strategies, he successfully litigated around the world against defendants who had misappropriated TSMC trade secrets, such as China’s SMIC And, he was instrumental in achieving major legislative reform in Taiwan for the protection of trade secrets. Dick also managed TSMC’s compliance program, M&A activities including joint ventures/venture capital investments etc. He helped to establish TSMC’s best-in-class policies, protocols and procedures for semiconductor investments around the world, such as in China, Singapore and the US to name a few.

Upon retiring from TSMC, Dr. Thurston assumed a number of advisory roles, most recently as an independent member of the Board of Directors of Nantero, Inc.  Dr. Thurston is also Principal at RLT Global Consulting, LLC.

Before joining TSMC, Dr. Thurston was a partner with Haynes and Boone, a Dallas, Texas-based law firm. There, he was Chairperson of the firm’s International Practice Section and he established their Richardson, TX office.  Previously, he had been the Regional Counsel, Asia Pacific, and Vice President, Corporate Staff, Assistant General Counsel at Texas Instruments (1984-1996), resident in Dallas and Tokyo (1987-1990), where Dr. Thurston devoted significant efforts in: government relations in the semiconductor battles with both Japan and China; promoting and protecting TI’s intellectual property; corporate compliance; mergers and acquisitions; and international trade and investment, among other disciplines.

Dr. Thurston graduated Cum Laude with a B.A. in History from Alma College (Alma, MI). He earned both M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in East Asian Studies from the University of Virginia, where he was a Jefferson Scholar. Dick’s J.D. degree is from Rutgers School of Law – Camden, NJ. He also studied law at Soochow University (Taiwan) while researching his Ph.D. dissertation: Civil Law Reform in China, 1906-1930. Dr. Thurston has taught both law and business classes at: SMU School of Law (Dallas, TX); University of Texas, Dallas; Soochow University (Taiwan); National Chiao Tung University (Taiwan); and National Cheng-Chih University (Taiwan). Dick is admitted to the practice of law and a member of the respective Bar Associations of Texas, New Jersey, New York, and of Dutchess County, New York and NYC. He is fluent in Mandarin.

Dr. Thurston has written and lectured widely on international, transactional, and intellectual property matters, most especially trade secret protection. He has been interviewed and quoted widely on matters affecting US-Taiwan-China relations. He has received many awards and recognitions throughout his career. In 2013, he was selected from 800 nominees as the ILO Asia-Pacific General Counsel of the Year. Dick is fluent in Mandarin.

Dr. Thurston serves as the elected Town Supervisor of the Town of Wappinger, Dutchess County, NY. First elected in November 2017, Dr. Thurston is now in his sixth year of service to the Wappinger community. He is also a member of many volunteer organizations and takes special pride in his membership in the Rotary Club of Wappingers Falls, where he sits on the Board of Directors.

Dr. Thurston and his wife, Yvonne, reside in the Town of Wappinger, NY. He has two children and two grandchildren.

Fraser Howie is co-author of three books on the Chinese financial system, Red Capitalism: The Fragile Financial Foundations of China’s Extraordinary Rise (named a Book of the Year 2011 by The Economist magazine and one of the top ten business books of the year by Bloomberg), Privatizing China: Inside China’s Stock Markets and “To Get Rich is Glorious” China’s Stock Market in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

He studied Natural Sciences (Physics) at Cambridge University and Chinese at Beijing Language and Culture University and for over twenty years has been trading, analyzing and writing about Asian stock markets. During that time he has worked in Hong Kong Beijing and Singapore.

He has worked for Baring Securities, Bankers Trust, Morgan Stanley, CICC and from 2003 to 2012 he worked at CLSA as a Managing Director in the Listed Derivatives and Synthetic Equity department. He writes on a regular basis for the Nikkei Asian Review, Reuters and Japan’s GRICI and is a frequent guest on CNBC, Bloomberg and the BBC.

George Magnus is an independent economist and commentator, and Research Associate at the China Centre, Oxford University, and at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London.

From 1995-2016, he was the Chief Economist, and then Senior Economic Adviser at UBS Investment Bank, and served for a few years as the Chair of the Investment Committee of the UK pension and life assurance fund. He had previously worked as the Chief Economist at SG Warburg (1987-1995), and before that in a senior capacity before ‘Big Bang’ at Laurie Milbank/Chase Securities.

George writes and is cited regularly in media outlets such as the Financial Times, Times, Daily Telegraph, Bloomberg, South China Morning Post, Prospect Magazine, theArticle.com, and CapX and is a contributor to UK and international TV and radio programmes. His written work and a blog can be found on his website at www.georgemagnus.com

George’s current book, Red Flags: why Xi’s China is in Jeopardy was published in 2018 by Yale University Press, and then in paperback in August 2019 with newly commissioned material. His earlier books addressed demographics in The Age of Aging (2008), and emerging markets in Uprising: will emerging markets shape or shake the world economy? (2011).

John is a recently-retired brigadier general and a national security expert. He has vast whole-of-government leadership experience that includes military, diplomatic, intelligence, and industrial instruments of power – from cutting-edge technology to our nation’s most sensitive international relationships.

John retired as the Assistant Deputy Undersecretary of the Air Force, International Affairs, responsible for world-wide international engagement on behalf of the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force while leading the services’ entire security cooperation portfolio. Prior to that, John was the Senior Defense Official and Defense Attaché to Iraq, leading on the front lines of whole-of-government national security strategy and policy in the most challenging of circumstances. He has been an F-15E combat pilot and an F-22 test pilot, and has commanded Joint Base Andrews and Edwards Air Force Base. He has written and spoken extensively on leadership, national security, security cooperation, risk management, and international affairs, and is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University. Additionally, he is the founder and president of Capital Leadership LLC, passionately developing the leaders our nation needs.

Tony Nash is the CEO and Founder of Complete Intelligence, a globally integrated machine learning platform enabling the digitalization & automation of enterprise & financial market forecasting.

Previously, Tony built and led the global research business for The Economist (EIU) and the Asia consulting business for IHS (now S&P). He has also been a social entrepreneur, media entrepreneur, writer and consultant.

Tony is a frequent public speaker and leader of closed-door dialogues with business and government leaders on markets, economics, risk and technology. He is a contributor to leading global media (BBC, CNBC, Bloomberg, etc) and has served as an advisor to government and think tanks in Tokyo, Singapore, Beijing, Washington DC and others.

Tony is an International Advisory Board member for Texas A&M University has been a non-executive director with Kredit Microfinance Bank in Cambodia. He has a master’s degree in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University and a BA in Business Management from Texas A&M University.