My contribution to a board
I would bring a board the view of someone who has sold medicines in China under three regimes: the hospitality-led promotion of the early 2000s, the self-pay biologics market of the 2010s, and today's system of negotiated reimbursement, volume-based procurement and close scrutiny of promotional spending. Many healthcare boards in China and Hong Kong understand their products and finances well but struggle to judge their commercial practices until something goes wrong. I can read a marketing budget and tell a board which lines are likely to be education, which are promotion and which deserve questions.
I would also bring experience of the controls that matter most in healthcare commerce: fee bands and caps for speakers, documented educational need, audits of third-party agencies and the separation of patient data from sales. Under the Personal Information Protection Law, health information is sensitive personal information, and companies that serve patients directly will increasingly be judged on how they treat it. I designed a programme that supports 23,400 patients without giving our sales force sight of a single one.
My strongest committee fit is remuneration and appraisal. In commercial healthcare, incentives decide behaviour more reliably than codes of conduct, and at Tanqiao I helped redesign specialist representatives' incentives so that sales are not the only measure. The CSRC's rules require independent directors to form a majority of a listed company's nomination committee and its remuneration and appraisal committee, and to convene them; the audit committee must be convened by an independent director who is an accounting professional. I am not one, and I would join an audit committee only as a member if asked. I would be ready to convene a remuneration committee after a year of membership, once I understood the company's pay structure and its history.
Last, I would bring the practice of putting disagreement in writing. My launch plan, the closure of sponsored meetings and the withdrawal of our agency's chart each began as a paper that set out the cost of my own recommendation. A board that receives papers like that can decide; one that receives only enthusiasm cannot.
My first year on a board
Before my first meeting I would want to see how the company actually reaches the people who use its services. I would ask for the commercial organisation down to the field, three years of promotional and educational spending by type, the list of agencies and distributors with what each was paid, and every compliance finding of the period with its remediation. I would also ask to spend a day where the product meets the customer, whether a clinic, a hospital ward or a shop, watching how it is explained.
For the first two quarters I would mostly listen in the committees I joined, and ask about the measures behind incentive pay from the chief executive down to the sales force: which behaviours each one rewards in practice, not only on paper. If the company's practice allows, I would meet the head of compliance and the head of internal audit without management present.
By the end of the year I would hope to have proposed one change to how the board sees commercial conduct, such as a twice-yearly report on promotional controls like the one I give Tanqiao's Audit Committee. I would then ask the chair for a frank view of whether my questions had helped the board or merely added to its agenda.
Conflicts and their management
Three kinds of conflict would need managing, and I would rather name them before any approach than discover them afterwards.
The first is commercial. I would not join the board of any company that makes or sells prescription medicines in immunology or dermatology; any company that supplies, distributes or dispenses Tanqiao's products; any agency or nurse-service provider we use; or any company in which Tanqiao's founder's family has a significant interest. That excludes more of healthcare than people expect, and it is why my interest lies in specialist hospital chains, devices, consumer health and care services.
The second is information. I hold confidential knowledge of Tanqiao's pricing, negotiation strategy and pipeline. If a board discussion touched a market where Tanqiao competes or negotiates, I would declare it, leave the room and ask for the declaration to be minuted.
The third is time. Tanqiao's busiest months are the autumn negotiation season and our results periods. I would agree the external board's calendar a year ahead, keep twenty-six days free for it, including the on-site work that mainland rules expect of independent directors, and tell the chair at once if my executive role ever made that impossible. Tanqiao's board would need to consent before I accepted any seat.
My independence statement
I would sit as an independent director only where neither I, my relatives, Tanqiao nor its founder's family has a business, employment or shareholding tie to the company that a reasonable shareholder might think could colour my judgement. My own interests are simple to state: I am a full-time Tanqiao executive and hold restricted shares under its employee incentive plan. Mainland and Hong Kong rules each define what disqualifies an independent director, and it is for the board concerned, with its advisers, to decide whether I qualify once I have disclosed everything in writing.
Judgement in practice
01Setting the walk-away price before the reimbursement negotiation
Before the 2024 negotiation, Tanqiao's board had to authorise the lowest payment standard our team could accept, because negotiators cannot leave the room to consult. Our CFO proposed a floor 45 per cent below the launch list price; below it, he argued, the antibody would not repay its development within the period the board had been promised. I argued for authority down to 62 per cent below list. My paper showed the patient numbers our budget-impact model expected at each price, and the cost of failing to list: another year as a self-pay medicine in a class where competitors were already reimbursed. The board authorised 60 per cent, and the negotiated result was 57 per cent below list. As a director I would ask management for the same thing before any decision that cannot be revisited: the cost of the alternative, stated in the same units as the recommendation.
02Taking an agency's irregular invoices to the Audit Committee
In 2024 our internal review of third-party agencies found that an events agency had invoiced RMB 3.2 million for online educational sessions whose platform records showed far fewer participants than the invoices claimed. Nobody inside Tanqiao had been shown to benefit, and some colleagues suggested we simply end the contract quietly. I ended it, but I also reported the finding to the Audit Committee within a week, commissioned a forensic review of the agency's other work for us, and changed our rules so that payment for any event depends on participation data from the platform rather than from the agency. The forensic review found no further irregularity. On a board I would expect the same reflex from management: report a finding before deciding how small it is.
03Opposing paid placement for prescription medicines at Shuiyun Health
In 2019 Shuiyun's investors proposed selling manufacturers premium placement for prescription medicines on the platform's front pages and in search results, which would have added meaningful advertising revenue. I presented the opposing case to the board: a patient searching for a prescription medicine should see what the doctor prescribed and its alternatives in a neutral order, and paid prominence would give manufacturers influence over choices that belonged to prescribers and pharmacists. The board accepted a compromise, allowing clearly labelled paid placement only for non-prescription products and disease education. I did not win the whole argument. I learnt that a board will move further on a question of principle when the paper also shows what the principled option costs and how that cost can be absorbed.
Committee contribution
Chair and member readiness| Capacity | Committees |
|---|
| Ready to chair | Remuneration and appraisal committee, after a year as a member |
|---|
| Ready to join | Remuneration and appraisal committee · Strategy committee · Nomination committee · ESG or sustainability committee, where the company has one |
|---|
Board and committee exposure
Presented to the Board or a committee
Tanqiao Pharmaceutical Company Limited
Board strategy committee: launch plans, pricing, the reimbursement negotiation mandate and the second indication
April 2021–present
Presents commercial recommendations, including the negotiation walk-away price; not a director and holds no vote.
Reported to a committee
Tanqiao Pharmaceutical Company Limited
Audit Committee: controls over promotional and educational spending, the speaker register and third-party agencies
September 2023–present
Reports twice a year on spending controls and agency audits, and reported the 2024 agency invoicing finding.
Member of a committee
Tanqiao Pharmaceutical Company Limited
Management compliance committee (an executive committee, not a board committee)
April 2021–present
One of six executive members; approves promotional policies and reviews compliance investigations involving commercial teams.
Presented to the Board or a committee
Shuiyun Health Technology Company Limited
Board of directors, including two investors' representatives
January 2018–March 2021
Presented the chronic-disease refill business every quarter, including the paper on paid placement for prescription medicines; not a director.
Capacity and preferences
- Time available
- 26 days per year
- Current directorships
- 0
- Sectors
- Specialist hospital chains, such as eye and dental care · Medical devices moving into home use · Consumer health outside prescription immunology and dermatology · Elderly care and rehabilitation services
- Company type
- A company listed in Shanghai, Shenzhen or Hong Kong, often founder-led, that serves patients or consumers directly and has no commercial relationship with Tanqiao
- Company stage
- Within a few years of listing, or at a point where the company is changing how it sells, for example from hospital channels to consumers or online
The seat I am pursuing
I am looking for one independent directorship at a company listed in Shanghai, Shenzhen or Hong Kong that serves patients or consumers directly in healthcare: an eye or dental hospital chain, a medical-device company moving into home use, a consumer-health business or an elderly-care operator. These companies share a problem I know well. They sell trust as much as a product, their marketing is closely regulated, and their boards often have more depth in finance and operations than in how the company persuades people.
I want to join the remuneration and appraisal committee and, after a year, to convene it if the board wishes. I would also be useful on a strategy committee and, where one exists, on an ESG committee that covers patient data and responsible marketing. I am not looking for a seat that simply makes up a number, and I would not take a second while I remain a Tanqiao executive. Mainland rules cap how many listed companies one person may serve as an independent director; my own limit is lower, because my employer and the company both deserve my attention.
Governance learning and readiness
IICA Independent Directors’ Databank: Not yet registered
India keeps the IICA Independent Directors' Databank for candidates to independent seats on Indian company boards. I am based in China and am not seeking an Indian board seat, so I have not registered and the databank does not apply to me. The preparation that matters in my market is different: mainland listed companies follow the CSRC's rules for independent directors, and Hong Kong-listed companies the exchange's Listing Rules and Corporate Governance Code. I have studied both.
- Study of the CSRC's 2023 measures on independent directors of listed companies, with Tanqiao's board secretary
- Reading of Hong Kong's Corporate Governance Code and its expectations of independent non-executive directors
- A governance programme for prospective listed-company directors at Yanlan School of Management in 2025
- Twice-yearly reporting to Tanqiao's Audit Committee on promotional spending controls since 2023