James Liang is both a prominent business leader and an accomplished economist. He is the co-founder and Executive Chairman of the Board of Ctrip.com (NASDAQ: CTRP), the largest online travel company in the world in gross merchandising volume in 2016, and the largest online travel company in China since 2003. Dr. Liang also served as Chief Executive Officer from 2000 to 2006 and from 2013 to 2016.

Dr. Liang is a Research Professor in Economics at Peking University. He received a PhD in Economics from Stanford University in 2011. He publishes academic papers in top economics journals (such as The Quarterly Journal of Economics and the Journal of Political Economy) on a broad range of labor economic topics such as demographics, innovation, entrepreneurship, and productivity. He has also written extensively on policies related to demographics and innovation. He is the author of China Needs More Babies, the first book published in mainland China that criticizes the “one-child policy.”

Prior to Ctrip.com, Dr. Liang held a number of technical and managerial positions with Oracle Corporation from 1991 to 1999 in the United States and China, including Head of the ERP Consulting Division of Oracle China from 1997 to 1999. He received his master's and bachelor's degrees from Georgia Institute of Technology. He also attended the “China Gifted Youth Class” at Fudan University at the age of 15.