Dr. Weng Chi Lei (Florence)
Keynote Speaker/ Conference co-chair
Coordinator for the Sustainable Business Lab | Associate Professor | University of Saint Joseph, Macao
Assoc. Prof. Weng Chi Lei (Florence) earned her PhD in Economics from the University of Washington, Seattle in 2018. She joined the University of Saint Joseph, Macao in 2013 and has since taught various economics courses to undergraduate and graduate students, in addition to supervising master’s and doctoral theses in multiple disciplines, including Business Administration, Community Development, Government Studies, and Environmental Sciences and Management. From 2017 to 2023, she served as the Coordinator for the bachelor’s and master’s programs in Government Studies. Recently in 2025, Dr. Lei takes up the role as the Coordinator for the Sustainable Business Lab. Dr. Lei’s main research fields are international economics and industrial organization. Her research project, “Economic Integration of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area: An Assessment Study,” was supported by the Higher Education Fund of the Macao SAR Government. This project led to the publication of a book chapter, “Digital Renminbi: Impacts on Economic Integration of the Greater Bay Area,” in the proceedings of the Asia-Pacific Conference on Economics & Finance (APEF), and a subsequent journal article, “Impacts of Central Bank Digital Currency on Regional Economic Integration: Evidence from the Greater Bay Area of China,” in The Chinese Economy. Dr. Lei actively engages in international research collaboration. Her latest publication, “Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation in ASEAN Countries,” was co-authored with Dr. Katerina Toshevska-Trpchevska and Dr. Viktor Stojkoski of Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje, and it marked her third conference presentation and publication with East Asia Research. Currently, Dr. Lei also serves as a reviewer for various academic journals, including The Chinese Economy, and as a technical committee member for various academic conferences in Asia.
Dr. Jenny Phillips
Keynote Speaker/ Conference co-chair
Dean of the Faculty of Business and Law | Research Coordinator for the Faculty of Business and Law | Associate Professor | University of Saint Joseph, Macao
Jenny Oliveros Lao Phillips is the Dean of the Faculty of Business and Law at the University of Saint Joseph (USJ). Prior to her current position, Prof. Phillips was appointed Registrar from 2016 to 2018, and Head of Public Relations Office from 2015 to 2018. She started working as a full-time academic at USJ in 2008. Before joining USJ, Prof. Phillips taught Business English at the Macao Polytechnic Institute and worked as a Cantonese/English interpreter and translator. She holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration awarded with the highest honor of summa cum laude from USJ in 2015. Prof. Phillips was born and educated in Macao. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Tourism Business Management from the Institute for Tourism Studies, where she also received a higher diploma in Hotel Management and undertook specialized management training in public relations. She finished her MBA at USJ (IIUM) in 2003 with a thesis on customer satisfaction. Then, diverging from her management studies, she devoted her time in studying Literature and completed an MA dissertation on “The Ritual and the Sacred in Peter Shaffer’s Theatre”. In 2008, she was awarded a Master of Arts in English Studies (Literature Specialisation) with the highest grade of “Excellent” from the University of Macau. Prof. Phillips has over 20 years of teaching experience and has taught a wide range of courses, including Creativity, Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Global Strategy, Service Operations, Managing Social Services, Creative Writing, and Literature. Her publications and research interests are in the areas of family business, social entrepreneurship, organizational behaviour and innovation, e-government, tourism and hospitality, empathy, and catharsis in tragedy and modern theatre. She has been a researcher at the Faculty of Human Science at the Catholic University of Portugal, working on a research project bridging cognitive science in empathy and literature studies in catharsis focusing on tragic theatre. She is also a writer and a poet featured at the Macau Literary Festival in 2018 and 2020. Her first children’s novel, The Legend of the Chinese Zodiac, was published in 2006. Her poems, poetry translations, and articles have appeared in Poesia Sino-Occidental, Poetry.com, The Drunken Boat, Poetry Sky, and other publications and local press. She wrote a bi-weekly column about local culture and tradition, “Made in Macao”, in the English newspaper Macau Daily Times from 2015 to 2019. Prof. Phillips’ latest research and academic projects focus on the development of sustainable business. She believes that business enterprises are social entities and should be viewed and developed sustainably as innovative solutions to societal issues and people’s daily lives.