Leadership

Carl L. Harstad, Owner and General Manager

Carl Harstad founded C. Harstad Associates in February 1990 and incorporated it in October 1993. 

He has had careers in journalism and information technology.  He also served in the US military for seven years.  He recently taught English and business in Beijing for two years. 

Carl has studied China for the past 23 years.  He has made seven recent round trips from Minnesota to China and spent most of three years there.  He has contacts and friends in China, including members of the CCP, consultants to the government, entrepreneurs and other businesspersons and college faculty members.

Carl has a bachelor's degree (BA) in News-Editorial Journalism and master's degrees (MA) in Urban Journalism from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and a master's in Management and Administration (MMA) with emphasis in International Business from Metropolitan State University in St. Paul.  He received his MMA in 1998.

Some of his photographs of China are posted at www.pbase/charstad/china.

Email: carl.harstad@charstad.com

Sophie Yang, Senior Partner

Sophie Yang is a native of Beijing.  She held staff positions at prestigious Tsing Hua University for 22 years.  During most of her tenure at Tsing Hua, she arranged and attended meetings and conferences for the Computer Management Information Systems Department.  She has extensive connections in China among businesspersons, Tsing Hua faculty members and other individuals.

She also owned businesses in China, including a clothing design business and a restaurant in Chao Yang District of Beijing, in addition to her real estate ventures.

She has traveled extensively throughout China and also to several countries in Europe.

Email: sophie.yang@charstad.com

Advisors

We solicit advice from several very experienced former colleagues and friends who are or were senior project managers, executives of nationwide firms or in another position of importance in the US or China.

Associates

We employ or contract with associates who are specialists in whatever skills a project requires.  We utilize consultants who are adept at information technology, marketing, management, linguistics. political science and other areas of expertise.

Business Partners

We team with business consulting firms to provide a wide range of business services, including those described on the Services page.

Environment

We operate in a virtual environment without a central office in part because some of our clients and associates are in China or elsewhere outside of the US.  A virtual environment also maximizes our available work time and keeps our overhead expenses to a minimum, allowing us to charge lower than average fees.

References

We provide references from previous clients to our potential customers on request.  We are proud of our excellent track record and confident our previous clients will highly recommend us.