Heimowitz, who speaks fluent Mandarin (as well as Cantonese, French and some Japanese, Thai and Malay) and who was brought up in New York, first came to China in 1979 to study at Beijing Normal University as part of his University of Pennsylvania degree in Oriental studies.

"When I first came off the plane it was like landing on Mars. What I have learned from decade after decade of being here is that China has begun to act and smell like the rest of the world. Living in Beijing now is like living in any other capital city around the region."

Capitalizing on the sweeping new zeitgeist

Harnessing the power of ideas

After doing an MBA in finance at Wharton he returned to China with David Rockefeller, chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan Bank, to help the bank set up branch offices. During this time he was photographed with Deng Xiaoping who met with Rockefeller in Shenzhen.

"He was explaining the significance of special economic zones and their importance to the future of China's economic development at the time. I still have the photograph," he says.

Heimowitz went on to be managing director of corporate strategy for Deutsche Bank and then manager of Boston Consulting Group's Asia team. After that he set up his own consultancy, JBH Consulting, which he sold to advertising giant WPP in 2004.

The deal led to him becoming CEO for Asia of WPP's subsidiary Hill & Knowlton where he managed 500 staff members in 13 offices and after some time handled the Beijing Olympics account.

"China's senior leadership was determined to show that China was becoming part of the global community, and they wanted to engage an international communications agency to help them.

"It was a turning point for China since the international media had never descended on the country in such a way before. I was very proud of the work we did and I think the world had a different insight on China post-Olympics than before."