Robert Lawrence Kuhn is an international investment banker, corporate strategist

Strategist

A design strategist has the ability to combine the innovative, perceptive and holistic insights of a designer with the pragmatic and systemic skills of a planner to guide strategic direction in context of business needs, brand intent, design quality and customer values...

, and public intellectual. With a doctorate in brain research and the author or editor of over twenty-five books, he is a commentator on business, finance, and China; long-time adviser to the Chinese government; adviser to multinational corporations on China strategies and transactions; and adviser to Chinese companies on capital markets. For over 20 years, he has worked with China’s senior leaders, advising on economic policy, science and technology, media and culture, Sino-U.S. relations, and international communications. Kuhn is the creator, writer and host of the public television series Closer To Truth

Closer to Truth

Closer To Truth is a continuing television series on American public television / PBS, created, produced, and hosted by Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn.-Summary:...

, which presents leading scientists and philosophers discussing fundamental issues, particularly cosmos, consciousness and God.

Early life

Robert Lawrence Kuhn received a bachelor’s degree in human biology from Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins University

The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...

 (Phi Beta Kappa) (1964); a doctorate in anatomy and brain research from the University of California at Los Angeles (1968); and a master of science in management from the MIT Sloan School of Management

MIT Sloan School of Management

The MIT Sloan School of Management is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts....

 (1980).

Career

Robert Lawrence Kuhn is the author of How China’s Leaders Think: The Inside Story of China's Reform and What This Means for the Future, featuring exclusive discussions with more than 100 Chinese leaders and officials. The book stresses President Hu Jintao

Hu Jintao

Hu Jintao is the current Paramount Leader of the People's Republic of China. He has held the titles of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China since 2002, President of the People's Republic of China since 2003, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission since 2004, succeeding Jiang...

’s philosophies and policies, and introduces China’s next generation of senior leaders including Xi Jinping, who is expected to be China's next president.

Robert Kuhn is the author of The Man Who Changed China: The Life and Legacy of Jiang Zemin

The Man Who Changed China: The Life and Legacy of Jiang Zemin

In 2005 a biography of Chinese President Jiang Zemin by Robert Lawrence Kuhn was published simultaneously in English and Chinese, generating attention and controversy.-Publisher:...

, the first biography of a living Chinese leader to be published on the mainland. It was China’s best-selling book in 2005. Kuhn is co-editor in chief of China’s Banking & Financial Markets: The Internal Research Report of the Chinese Government.

Robert Lawrence Kuhn contributes to the media, such as CNBC, Euronews, BBC, Bloomberg, BusinessWeek, Forbes and Chief Executive. (See interview in Barron's). He is Senior Adviser to China Central Television (CCTV), Xinhua News Agency, and Global People magazine (published by People’s Daily). Kuhn is International Affairs Commentator on Euronews and Senior international Commentator on CCTV. He is one of the China Visionaries in the TV series produced for China’s 60th anniversary by Shanghai Media Group, and he was featured on CCTV Channel 1’s Focus Talk. Kuhn created, wrote and presented a six-episode series on Expo 2010 Shanghai, “Expo’s Meaning, Shanghai’s Mission,” broadcast on CCTV.

Robert Kuhn's articles on China’s economic future (“What Will China Look Like in 2035” and “China’s Elite Aims for Stability”) and China’s political future (“Building ‘Intra-Party Democracy’ in China” and “China’s New Roadmap for Political Reform”) are in BusinessWeek.

Kuhn is a partner in CCTV-IMG Sports Management Company, a joint venture between China Central Television, the state broadcaster in China, and IMG, the global sports and media company.

Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn is chairman of The Kuhn Foundation, which disseminates understanding in science and philosophy, supports cultural endeavors, and promotes good relations between America and China. The Foundation produces the Closer To Truth

Closer to Truth

Closer To Truth is a continuing television series on American public television / PBS, created, produced, and hosted by Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn.-Summary:...

TV series. It produced the film Khachaturian, which won the Best Documentary award at the 2003 Hollywood Film Festival, and (with China Central Television) In Search of China for PBS.

Dr. Robert L. Kuhn first came to prominence in January 1972 when "Why the Vast Difference between Animal Brain and Human Mind?" appeared as a major series of articles in The Plain Truth

The Plain Truth

The Plain Truth is a U.S.-based magazine founded by Herbert W. Armstrong, who also founded the Radio Church of God , Ambassador College, and The World Tomorrow radio and television programs. Herbert W...

magazine published by Ambassador College

Ambassador College

Ambassador College was a four-year, liberal arts college run by the Worldwide Church of God. The college was established in 1947 in Pasadena, California by radio evangelist Herbert W. Armstrong, leader of what was then the Radio Church of God, later renamed the Worldwide Church of God...

, an institution of the Worldwide Church of God

Worldwide Church of God

Grace Communion International , formerly the Worldwide Church of God , is an evangelical Christian denomination based in Glendora, California, United States. Since April 3, 2009, it has used the new name Grace Communion International in the US...

 (WCG). The WCG’s Systematic Theology Project (1978, which can be obtained on data disc from www.icg.org.au) was coordinated by Kuhn, but later banned by WCG Founder Herbert W. Armstrong. Kuhn severed his connection to the WCG and its affiliated entities, including the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation (classical music concerts, such as Vladimir Horowitz and Luciano Pavarotti), which Kuhn had created and managed.

During the 1980s, Kuhn represented Japanese companies. He advised the governments of China, the United States, Germany, and Israel on the commercialization of high technology.

From 1991 to 2001, Dr. Kuhn was president and co-owner of The Geneva Companies, the largest mergers and acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions refers to the aspect of corporate strategy, corporate finance and management dealing with the buying, selling, dividing and combining of different companies and similar entities that can help an enterprise grow rapidly in its sector or location of origin, or a new field or...

 ("M&A") firm representing privately owned, middle-market companies. During this period, Geneva initiated and closed over 1,200 M&A transactions and conducted thousands of corporate evaluations. In 2000, Dr. Kuhn sold The Geneva Companies to Citigroup

Citigroup

Citigroup Inc. or Citi is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Citigroup was formed from one of the world's largest mergers in history by combining the banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomerate...

.

Kuhn has written many articles. His “Science as Democratizer,” featured in American Scientist magazine

American Scientist

American Scientist is the bimonthly science and technology magazine published since 1913 by Sigma Xi. Each issue includes four to five feature articles written by scientists and engineers. These authors review research in all fields of science...

, argued how the scientific way of thinking can influence global society. His scientific / philosophical article "Why This Universe? Toward a Taxonomy of Possible Explanations" is published in the Vol. 13 No. 2 2007 issue of Skeptic Magazine. Kuhn writes a regular feature, called “Uncommon Wisdom,” in Chief Executive magazine.