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Peter Nolan

Sinyi Professor of Chinese Management
Chair of the University of Cambridge's Development Studies Committee

BA (Univ. of Cambridge), MSc , PhD (SOAS, Univ. of London), Hon PhD (Copenhagen Business School)

Professional Experience

Peter Nolan is Director of the Chinese Big Business Programme (CBBP) at Cambridge Judge Business School, which organises regular meetings involving leading Chinese and international firms. The meetings are based on fieldwork conducted by Professor Nolan and his research team, both in China's leading indigenous firms and in many of the world's largest corporations.

Peter Nolan has for many years been closely involved with China's policy discussions about the integration of China with the global economy and business system. He spoke at a series of key meetings held in Beijing in 2000/1. These involved Chinese and international political and business leaders, who met in order to evaluate the impact of China joining the WTO. He has testified before the US Congress' US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. He has contributed to the UK China Forum and served as an Advisor to the World Bank.

Peter Nolan is an advisor to Coca-Cola and Standard Chartered Bank. He has been a participant in public discussions with CEOs of BP, HSBC, Coca-Cola, Michelin, Ernst & Young, Tesco, Vodafone and WPP. He has convened meetings of China delegates with Tony Blair in 2005 and 2006.

In their January 2000 report on the China Big Business Programme, The Financial Times commented: "Peter Nolan knows more about Chinese companies and their international competition than anyone else on earth, including in China."

Previous Appointments

Peter Nolan has held a visiting appointment at Copenhagen.

Awards and Scholarships

• China and the global economy (2001) selected as one of the ten books on the JP Morgan Private Bank Third Annual Summer Reading List, 2002

Research Interests

Big business; globalisation; China; developing countries; poverty and migration; economic development; the transition of former planned economies; comparative development in China and India; Chinese agriculture; system change in China and the former USSR; poverty, famine, inequality and migration; restructuring large global firms in the epoch of the global business revolution; the transformation of large Chinese firms since the 1980s; the evolution of China's system of political economy; the interaction between Chinese and global firms in the epoch of the global business revolution.

Peter Nolan is a member of the International Business research group and the Strategy & Marketing teaching group.

Selected Publications

Nolan, P. (1995) China's rise, Russia's fall: politics, economics and planning in the transition from Stalinism. Basingstoke: Macmillan.

Nolan, P. (1999) Coca-Cola and the global business revolution: a study with special reference to the EU. Cambridge: Judge Institute of Management.

Nolan, P. (2001) China and the global business revolution. Houndsmill: Palgrave.

Nolan, P. (2001) China and the global economy: national champions, industrial policy and the big business revolution. Houndsmill: Palgrave.

Nolan, P. (2003) China at the crossroads. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Nolan, P. (2004) Transforming China: globalization, transition and development. London: Anthem.

More publications »