Investor Relations Management Team

Merle Hinrichs
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Merle Hinrichs founded Global Sources in 1970 and serves as its Chairman and CEO. Under his leadership, the company has created the industry’s most comprehensive platform for international trade, connecting buyers and suppliers online, face-to-face and in print. Mr. Hinrichs graduated from the University of Nebraska with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration and Mathematics, and from the Thunderbird School of Global Management with a Master’s degree in International Trade. In 1996, the University of Nebraska awarded Mr. Hinrichs an Honorary Doctorate degree. He is also an Investment Promotion Ambassador with Invest Hong Kong.

Sarah Benecke
Executive Director

Sarah Benecke is executive director of Global Sources Ltd. and oversees the company's flagship China Sourcing Fair trade shows. Ms. Benecke served as the company's chief executive officer from 1994 to 1999, when under her leadership, the company launched its flagship website, Global Sources Online in 1995, its CD-ROMs as well as a number of new and successful publications.

Ms. Benecke first joined the company in May of 1980 and has served in a number of key positions, including publisher from 1988 to December 1992 and chief operating officer in 1993. Ms. Benecke received her Bachelor of Arts degree from University of New South Wales, Australia.

Craig Pepples
Chief Operating Officer

Craig Pepples is chief operating officer of Global Sources. Mr. Pepples is responsible for the company's worldwide operations including interactive media, corporate marketing, community development, content and human resources and acts as the publisher of Chief Executive China and Elegant Living. Mr. Pepples joined Global Sources in October 1986, moving on to manage the company's China sales operations from 1989 to 1992 and was country manager for China from 1992 to 1999. Mr. Pepples graduated with a B.A. in Linguistics from Yale University.

David Gillan
Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Gillan has been the Chief Financial Officer since June 30, 2009. He joined us in October 2008 as Deputy Chief Financial Officer. Prior to this, he was based in Shanghai as China Managing Director and CEO for the Dennis Family Corporation Pty. Ltd., a private Australian real estate investment and development fund. From 2000 to 2003, he was Finance Director, Tax & Treasury and Director of Project Development for the Intercontinental Hotels Group – Asia Pacific. He has over 15 years of senior management experience in Asia, predominantly in China where he has held various senior finance roles with public and private firms. He began his finance career with Arthur Andersen in Canada and holds an MBA in International Management, Marketing and Finance from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada and a BBA in Finance from the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Spenser Au
President of Asian Sales

Spencer Au
Spenser Au was appointed Global Sources' president of Asian Sales in June 1999 and is a member of Global Sources' senior management board. He joined the company in 1978 as an account executive and moved progressively to senior management positions including regional sales manager in September 1988, associate publisher in January 1991 and publisher in 1992.

Peter Zapf
Vice President of E-Commerce Services

Peter Zapf is Vice President of Community Development for Global Sources. He is responsible for building Global Sources' buyer community by attracting international buyers to use the company's online, face-to-face and print channels.

Mr. Zapf began his career in software project management with the United States Air Force. He then joined Global Sources in Phoenix, Arizona, working on the development, sales and marketing of the company's early software and e-commerce products. Later, he worked as a research analyst at Bear Stearns in New York, focusing on the B2B market, after which he joined Hong Kong-based AsiaCommerce, a startup incubator, as Chief Executive Officer. He rejoined Global Sources in 2001.

Mr. Zapf holds a BSC in Electrical Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University, an MSC in Computer Science from Troy State University, and an MBA from Thunderbird, the American Graduate School of International Management.

Mark Saunderson
President of Electronics Business Unit

Mark A. Saunderson is president of Global Sources' Electronics Business Unit. His responsibilities include management of online and print editions of the company's Electronics verticals, which consist of Computer Products, Electronics, Electronic Components, Security Products and Telecom Products.

Additionally, Mr. Saunderson also oversees eMedia Asia, the company's joint venture with TechInsights, a division of United Business Media LLC, that includes the online and print editions of EE Times - Asia and Electronics Supply & Manufacturing - China, as well as a range of customized marketing services and technical events. He also leads the company's strategic alliance with Penton to execute the online and print editions of Electronic Design China.

Mr. Saunderson joined the company in 1990 as regional sales manager for one of Global Sources' electronics industry titles. He has since moved progressively to management roles within the company, most recently as publisher of Global Sources' multilingual websites and magazines serving the spectrum of Asia and China's electronics industry from design to export sales.

James Strachan
Executive Vice President of Corporate Development

James Strachan is Global Sources' executive vice president of corporate development, responsible for operations in the United States including business development, partner and investor relations, and strategic planning. Mr. Strachan joined the company in Hong Kong in 1979. He was appointed vice president of sales and marketing in 1984, computer and consumer electronics group publisher in 1988, and executive vice president of sales and marketing in 1994. Mr. Strachan graduated with an MBA from the University of Hawaii.

Bill Georgiou
Chief Information Officer

Bill Georgiou was appointed Global Sources' chief information officer in January 2001. Since 1989 he has held senior management positions in IT and related business fields with major corporations in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore. He has directed the development and implementation of major business systems and e-commerce applications (B2C, B2B), managed data center and network infrastructure, and negotiated outsourcing contracts and hardware and software acquisitions. He has also played a leading role in the commercialization of new technologies and adoption of best practices in IT management. For over 7 years, he has developed specialist expertise in supply chain web enablement and systems. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a member of the Hong Kong Computer Society. He holds an MBA from Adelaide University, Australia.

Board of Directors

Merle Hinrichs
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Sarah Benecke
Executive Director

Eddie Heng
Mr. Heng has been a director since April 2000. He joined us in August 1993 as deputy to the vice president of finance and was the Chief Financial Officer (previously entitled vice president of finance) from 1994 until June 30, 2009. He received an MBA from Shiller International University in London in 1993, is a Singapore Certified Public Accountant, a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Singapore, and a Fellow Member of The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in the United Kingdom. Prior to joining us, he was the regional financial controller of Hitachi Data Systems, a joint venture between Hitachi and General Motors.

Roderick Chalmers

Mr. Chalmers has been a director since October 2000. He has been the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Valletta plc, Malta since 2004. He was chairman, Asia-Pacific, of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (“PwC”) and a member of PwC’s Global Management Board from 1998 until his retirement in July 2000. He is a 30-year veteran with PwC’s merger partner Coopers & Lybrand with specialist experience in the securities industry. He has at various times been a non-executive director of the Hong Kong SAR Securities and Futures Commission, a member of the Takeovers and Mergers Panel, and chairman of the Working Group on Financial Disclosure. He is a director of Gasan Group Limited (Malta), Middlesea Valletta Life Assurance Co Limited (Malta), Simonds Farsons Cisk Limited (Malta) and of Middlesea Insurance plc (Malta).

David Jones

Mr. Jones has been a director since April 2000. Mr. Jones joined CHAMP Private Equity, a leading Australian buyout firm, in 2002 where he is currently Managing Director. He has spent the last fifteen years in the private equity industry, and was previously in management consulting, investment banking and general management. In 1999, he founded and until 2002 led the development of UBS Capital’s Australian and New Zealand business. Prior to that, he spent four years with Macquarie Direct Investment, a venture capital firm in Sydney, Australia, and one year at BancBoston Capital in Boston, Massachusetts. Mr. Jones began his career as a consultant with McKinsey & Company in Australia and New Zealand. He left McKinsey to take the role of general manager of Butterfields Cheese Factors, of the King Island Dairies group. He is a director of Centric Wealth Limited and The Beacon Foundation. He was previously Chairman of the Australian Venture Capital Association Limited and a director of various listed and unlisted companies in Australia. Mr. Jones holds a Bachelor of Engineering (First Class Hons.) from the University of Melbourne and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

James Watkins

Mr. Watkins was appointed as a casual director on February 28, 2005, and was elected as a director at the Annual General Meeting on May 9, 2005. Mr. Watkins was a director and group general counsel of the Jardine Matheson Group in Hong Kong from 1997 until 2003. He was group legal director of Schroders plc in 1996 to 1997 and of Trafalgar House plc from 1994 to 1996. He was previously a partner and solicitor in the London and Hong Kong offices of Linklaters from 1975 to 1994. He currently is a non-executive director of Mandarin Oriental International Ltd., Jardine Cycle & Carriage Ltd., MCL Land Ltd., Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation Ltd., IL&FS India Realty Fund II LLC, Asia Satellite Telecommunications Holdings Ltd. and Hongkong Land Holdings Ltd. and is a member of the audit committees of Jardine Cycle & Carriage Ltd., MCL Land Ltd. and Asia Satellite Telecommunications Holdings Ltd. and the chairman of the audit committee of Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation Ltd. Mr. Watkins has a law degree from the University of Leeds (First Class Hons.).

Robert Lees

Mr. Lees was appointed as a casual director on July 30, 2007, and was elected as a director at the Annual General Meeting on June 11, 2008. Mr. Lees is a senior executive and global expert and has nearly 30 years of experience working with decision-makers in business and government at the most senior levels across the Asia-Pacific region. He is a senior advisor to the University of Cincinnati. Mr. Lees served for many years as secretary general and then president and chief executive officer of the Pacific Basin Economic Council, the Asia-Pacific region’s oldest business organization. He serves as a director of the Japan America Society and Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Cincinnati and the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Hawaii Foundation in Honolulu. Mr. Lees holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Cincinnati and an MBA from The Thunderbird School of Global Management. He also completed studies at the Institute of International Studies and Training in Japan.