Mary Wadsworth Darby

Mary Wadsworth Darby

As Chief Representative of CKGSB Americas, Mary Darby helps identify CKGSB Americas strategic initiatives and build brand awareness of the business school in both North and South America. She works closely with all the CKGSB centers to strengthen cross-marketing and program development. Mary also works with CKGSB partnering schools and collaboration in response to changes in market dynamics and trade and capital flows.

Previously, Mary worked for Morgan Stanley in Firm Management and headed the Asia and China Desks. She moved to HK and headed Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) in Hong Kong and developed the first institutional sales initiative with Chinese Financial entities. At Morgan Stanley, she also created and ran a series of educational programs for the fixed income division and other departments with a focus on China.

Mary has worked extensively in China and Asia for more than 30 years. She founded Peridot Asia Advisors, a strategic transactions advisory firm. She has substantial experience negotiating market entry strategies over a board range of industries, as well as with Chinese Financial institutions, state-owned enterprises, regulatory authorities and other government entities responsible for regulating and supervising the insurance and banking industries.

She also served as the Executive Director of the America-China Society, a non-profit organization devoted to the promotion of US-China relations chaired by former US Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and the late Cyrus Vance and traveled regularly to China with them for meetings with leaders.

Mary graduated with a BA degree from Princeton University. A fluent Mandarin speaker, she also holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and an MIA from the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs. She is the Chair of the Hong Kong Association of New York; serves as a Senior Professional Fellow at the Chazen Institute at Columbia Business School; a Trustee of Concord Academy; and was for many years a Trustee of Princeton-in-Asia. She serves as an Independent Director of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC, USA), whose parent company is the world’s largest bank. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.