Coffee with the Council Podcast: Meet This Year’s Asia-Pacific Community Meeting Keynote Speaker, Sharon Gai
episode
Coffee with the Council By PCI Security Standards Council
20 min
2 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
Transcript
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This episode of Coffee with the Council is brought to you by our podcast sponsors, Faeroot and Jscrambler. Welcome to our podcast series, Coffee with the Council.
Who is Sharon Gai and why is she the Asia‑Pacific Community Meeting keynote?
I'm Alicia Malone, Director of Communications and Public Relations for the PCI Security Standards Council. Today, I am so excited to bring you a sneak peek interview with PCI SSC's Asia Pacific Community Meeting keynote speaker, Sharon Gai. Sharon Gai is a global expert in e-commerce, digital strategy, and cross-cultural innovation. After nearly a decade at Alibaba guiding global brands through China's digital market, she authored e-commerce reimagined and now helps companies bridge East and West. Sharon, it's a pleasure to have you with us today.
Thank you so much, Alicia. I am so honored to be invited to this podcast and super excited to be jumping into this conversation with you today.
So Sharon, I've just introduced you as an expert in retail innovation and artificial intelligence, but I'm curious. How do you define yourself? What title best suits you?
I usually go with author and keynote speaker, mainly because that's what I do day to day.
How did a LinkedIn message launch Sharon’s career at Alibaba?
In sort of one sentence, I help organizations and knowledge workers figure out tomorrow or the future in this AI-driven age. So you could also call me a bodyguard of work or for workers, if you wish. Where I hope, hopefully, that with my content, I'm imbuing people with the right skill sets, the right mindsets, pointing them in the right direction of what to concentrate on, because there's going to be a lot of change that's coming down the pipeline. And it's important for more and more of us to know and understand what that change is going to be so that we can orient ourselves to be better positioned for the future.
I'm always curious about how people carve out unique global careers like yours. Did you always envision yourself working at the intersection of tech, e-commerce, and culture? What is your story and how did your journey begin?
So my story began, I guess, with a LinkedIn email that I received one day. I don't remember the year by now because it was a very long time ago. So I was originally born in China, grew up in Canada, came to the U.S. right after college, and then I eventually went back to China. But that journey or that ping pong or that boomerang of back and forth wasn't as smooth as it is after everything has happened. And I'm telling telling you about the story.
What roles and experiences shaped Sharon’s cross‑border e‑commerce expertise?
But all of the cross-section of the technology, commerce piece, and the cultural piece, it really came together when I received that LinkedIn in-mail. It came from a VP at Alibaba at the time. He was employee 52. Funnily enough, he wrote that in his in-mail. And at the time, Alibaba was already hundreds of thousands of employees. So when someone says, I was employee 52, you kind of pay attention. First, You know, like everyone, I was like, is this spam? Because we all get a lot of those as well. But then I went, I read more into it, his background and whatnot. And it was an invitation to a event at Asia Society. Asia Society is this think tank that we have in New York City where I live, where at the time I was already going to every other week or so because I was part of this young leaders program there.
So I was already familiar with the location and I thought, why not go? Because I would have already been there already. um so i went and funnily enough at this event i bumped into my high school roommate so someone from my past life decades ago um and i said what are you doing here um and then she said oh i didn't know that you were thinking of going back to china also to work I said, I actually didn't have that thought at all. So we both sat in the audience, went through the presentation, went through the event, and it was a recruiting event. So at the time, Alibaba was a company that was globalizing.
What does Sharon enjoy about being an author and keynote speaker and what challenges does she face?
So it had reached, it knew it would be reaching the peak of its user base in China. So it was expanding all around the world. And that was right around when I joined that company. company.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:12–0:22
2
Who is Sharon Gai and why is she the Asia‑Pacific Community Meeting keynote?
0:22–1:24
3
How did a LinkedIn message launch Sharon’s career at Alibaba?
1:24–2:47
4
What roles and experiences shaped Sharon’s cross‑border e‑commerce expertise?
2:47–4:22
5
What does Sharon enjoy about being an author and keynote speaker and what challenges does she face?
4:22–7:30
6
How did Alibaba use micro‑behavior data to inform product strategy?
7:30–12:03
7
How is AI changing how brands predict consumer behavior and run marketing campaigns?
12:03–16:03
8
What topics will Sharon cover in her keynote about AI, LLMs, and the future of payments?
16:03–20:11
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Coffee with the Council By PCI Security Standards Council
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