How Dui Hua Works

John Kamm is an American businessman and human rights campaigner active in China since 1972. He is the founder and chairman of The Dui Hua Foundation. Kamm was awarded the Department of Commerce’s Best Global Practices Award by President Bill Clinton in 1997 and the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights by President George W. Bush in 2001. In September 2004, Kamm received a MacArthur Fellowship for “designing and implementing an original approach to freeing prisoners of conscience in China.” Kamm is the first businessman to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. In 2022, he was awarded the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Centennial Medal, citing his “tireless, personal commitment to opening mutually respectful dialogues with Chinese officials about at-risk prisoners, an innovative approach that has spared and improved the lives of so many.”

Since his first intervention on behalf of a Chinese prisoner in May 1990, Kamm has made more than 100 trips to China to engage the government in a dialogue on human rights, focusing on the treatment of prisoners and conditions in prisons. He has made 10 visits to Chinese prisons and has submitted requests for information on more than 1,000 prisoners. In the words of The New York Times, “No other person or organization in the world, including the State Department, has helped more Chinese prisoners.”

Kamm received a BA from Princeton University (1972) and an MA from Harvard University (1975). He was the Hong Kong correspondent and representative of the National Council for US-China Trade (1975-1979) and President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong (1990). He also managed Occidental Chemical Corporation’s business in China and the Far East (1986-1991).

Irene Chan Kamm was on Dui Hua’s founding team. She earned a BA in Sociology from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a Master of Social Science in Economics from the University of Hong Kong. Initially employed as a government statistician and economist, she later joined the business sector managing the research department of an international consulting firm and overseeing finance and administration at Diamond Shamrock China and Diamond Shamrock Far East. Irene oversees Dui Hua’s programs, human resources, finance, and development, and works with the Board of Directors to formulate strategies and plans for program and organization sustainability.

Jeffrey S. Muir has served as CEO of the EMB Citrus Company (Hong Kong) Ltd. since its formation in 2006. He is responsible for providing strategic vision and overseeing all business operations and government relations related to the company’s Hong Kong office and two operating companies in Chongqing.

Muir resided in Hong Kong from 1975 to 2013, and much of his career has focused on China. Muir was Director & Partner at CCI Asia Pacific Ltd., which provided publishing, translation, and consultancy services related to China, from 1979-1990. He also served as Vice President for Greater China of Hill & Knowlton Co. Ltd, managing the firm’s Beijing, Shanghai, and Taipei offices.

Muir was Director of External Affairs, Seagram Asia Pacific from 1996-2003. While at Seagram, Mr. Muir initiated and managed the Seagram citrus project, which provided 1.6 million citrus seedlings to Chongqing farmers free of charge to encourage citrus development. From 2004-2005, Muir was Managing Director, Modern Citrus (Chongqing) Co. Ltd., which investigated the feasibility of investing in orange juice processing in Chongqing.

Mr. Muir graduated from Princeton University in 1973 with a BA in East Asian Studies.
He held leadership positions in the Hong Kong business community for more than 25 years. In 1998, he was appointed the Chairman of the Hong Kong American Chamber of Commerce (then the largest AmCham outside North America). The Chongqing Government recognized Mr. Muir’s contribution to Chongqing’s economic development in 2001 by presenting him with the Three Gorges Foreign Expert Friendship Award. Mr. Muir speaks Mandarin and Cantonese and has a reading knowledge of French. He currently resides in Philadelphia.

Bill McCahill is a Senior Resident Fellow at the National Bureau of Asian Research in Seattle. He joined NBR in November 2016, focusing on Chinese domestic politics and policies, and on how those affect foreign investors and businesses in China. His professional experience in China dates from 1976.

Before joining NBR, McCahill had been Senior Advisor for China at Mirabaud & Cie., a Geneva-based Swiss private bank. Working from Hong Kong and Suzhou, McCahill advised Mirabaud’s equities traders, capital markets and private banking teams, and their clients. From 2012 through 2014, McCahill had done similar work with the emerging markets investment bank Religare Capital Markets. He had previously co-founded and managed a China-focused equities and macro-economic research firm, opened the Beijing office of a major American law firm, and operated a business consultancy in China.

A 25-year Foreign Service career preceded McCahill’s China business activities. He began his diplomatic service in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Beijing; subsequently held senior posts at US missions in Western Europe, Scandinavia, and Canada; and in 2000 retired from his last posting as Chargé d’affaires at the American Embassy in Beijing.

His academic credentials include undergraduate and graduate degrees from Boston College and Harvard University in Theology, English, the History of Religion, and Sanskrit & Indian Studies.

William Simon is the Managing Partner of Kura Holdings LLC, a private equity company. Previously he served as the Executive Vice Chairman of Cole Haan LLC and as Managing Partner of Infinity Associates LLC, a business that specialized in acquiring, operating, and nurturing global companies, including those with strong ties to private and governmental entities in China. Over the years, Simon has held the positions of Chairman and/or CEO of more than 20 companies, including The North Face and Converse.

Simon began his involvement with China while attending a trade fair in Shanghai in 1976, where he first met John Kamm. After moving to Hong Kong in 1978, he established a manufacturing enterprise that eventually opened branch offices in nine provinces in China to oversee production of high-end outdoor and apparel products. Other accomplishments include the establishment of one of the first compensation trade agreements between a foreign and Chinese company; acting on behalf of the Chinese Government to obtain licenses to export certain products to the US prior to the establishment of diplomatic relations; and testimony before US Senate and House hearings on China’s Most Favored Nation status.

Simon was born and raised in Michigan and received a BA degree in English Literature from the University of California at Berkeley. After working in Hong Kong and China for 15 years, he returned to San Francisco where he currently resides. Having a strong desire to help improve relations between American and Chinese citizens, Simon has been an active advocate and supporter of John Kamm since 1990 and Director of Dui Hua since its founding.

Magdalen Yum is a wealth management banker by profession. Having begun her banking career in Hong Kong, Yum immigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1990 and has since developed expertise in US and Asian markets.

Yum attended Hong Kong’s Maryknoll Sisters School for both her primary and secondary education and graduated in Business Management from Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Yum has always had a special concern for the development of rule of law and juvenile justice in China. She has been a supporter of Dui Hua since its founding.

Harold W. Furman II is the co-founder and chairman of The Furman Group, Inc., a public affairs and professional consulting firm with offices in Washington, DC, and San Diego, California, that provides consulting services to public and private-sector clients involved in the development and financing of water, sanitation, energy, and transportation projects.

Prior to founding The Furman Group in 1992, Furman was a partner in the Washington, DC office of an international law firm that he joined after serving as principal deputy assistant secretary of the Interior for water and science in President Ronald Reagan’s administration. In that capacity, Furman was responsible for the management of the Bureau of Reclamation, the US Geological Survey, and the Bureau of Mines. Furman served as the principal water policy adviser to three secretaries of the Interior. Prior to joining the Reagan administration, Furman served as legislative counsel to US Senator Paul Laxalt of Nevada and was a practicing attorney in Reno, Nevada.

In 1994, Furman was a candidate for the US Senate in Nevada. He captured the Republican nomination but was narrowly defeated in the general election by the incumbent US senator.

Following the 2000 elections, Furman served as member of the Department of the Interior transition team for President-Elect George W. Bush. Furman currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Hubbs-Seaworld Research Institute, an internationally recognized marine research institution.

Furman graduated from the University of Southern California and earned a juris doctor degree from the University of Southern California Law Center.