About Us
E Larus, PhD
Elizabeth Freund Larus Ph.D., is Founder and President of E Larus Consulting LLC, and Professor Emerita of Political Science and International Affairs at the University of Mary Washington. A Fulbright Scholar and Taiwan Fellow, she specializes in East Asian political, economic, and security dynamics.
Dr. Larus draws on more than 30 years of experience with the Asia-Pacific. She is author of the books Politics and Society in Contemporary China and Economic Reform in China, as well as dozens of book chapters, articles and online commentary on Chinese politics, Taiwan politics, China-Taiwan relations, US in Asia, and security dynamics in the Asia-Pacific. She regularly contributes her insight to international media outlets, such as the Financial Times, Fortune magazine, CNBC, BBC, CGTN America, Channel NewsAsia, and Indus News.
Foreign Language: Mandarin Chinese.
Ross Darrell Feingold, JD
Ross Darrell Feingold is our economic development and business development expert and is based in Taipei. Mr. Feingold has an extensive background in law, business development, and public policy in Taiwan.
Mr. Feingold is also the Senior Adviser to the Asia Pacific Youth Association and a board member of the Association of Americans Resident Overseas. Prior to settling in Taiwan, Mr. Feingold worked in Hong Kong for The Royal Bank of Scotland supporting its Asia Sale Program, where he advised on the bank's disposal of investment, small and medium enterprise, and consumer banking franchises comprising billions of dollars in assets. He was also the project manager for the bank's opening of a new office in Taiwan. He also worked for the derivatives legal team of Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong, where he was a vice president, advising on the daily activities of trading desks offering equity linked products to hedge funds, institutional counterparties, and retail investors in jurisdictions across Asia. Mr. Feingold also worked for J.P. Morgan in Singapore advising on credit derivatives transactions and in the Taipei office of the international law firm Russin & Vecchi, advising global investment banks and multinational corporations on projects in Taiwan. Earlier in his career, Mr. Feingold worked in the equity research department at Jardine Fleming in Taipei.
Mr. Feingold received undergraduate degrees in East Asian Studies and Political Science, cum laude, from Bucknell University. He holds a juris doctor from American University's Washington College of Law and he is admitted to practice law in New York and Washington DC. Mr. Feingold studied Mandarin at National University of Singapore and National Taiwan Normal University. Mr. Feingold speaks frequently about political and foreign policy issues, appearing on BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Channel News Asia, Voice of America and other networks.
Foreign Languages: Mandarin Chinese
Shirley Martey Hargis
Ms. Hargis is Nonresident Fellow at the Atlantic Council's Global China Hub and Digital Forensic Research Lab, a Term Member with the Council on Foreign Relations, and a Rhodium Group Fellow. She has more than a decade of research and practical experience in the foreign relations and domestic politics of China and Taiwan. Her areas of expertise include US-China relations, cross-Strait relations, and China-Africa relations.
She graduated cum laude with a BA in Political Science from the University of Mary Washington. She was awarded a National Security Education Program Boren Scholarship, an IIE Gilman International Scholarship, Huayu Enrichment Scholarship, and US Department of State Critical Language Scholarship. She also participated in the Taiwan-United States Sister Relations Alliance Ambassador Scholarship Program. Ms. Hargis co-authored “The US Space Force: Not Quite Ready for Liftoff” for IPP Review (2019) and “President Obama’s China Policy: A Critical Assessment,” for TEKA (2017) with Dr. Larus.
She regularly offers commentary on pressing issues in the Indo-Pacific to Al Jazeera and other international media.
Foreign Languages: Mandarin Chinese and Fante
Scott W. Fischer, PhD
Scott W. Fischer Ph.D., is our expert in American government and US domestic policy. Dr. Fischer and has twenty-five years of experience as a Congressional staffer and has taught American National Institutions at the undergraduate and graduate level. His 1994 dissertation from the University of Virginia was entitled, “Confrontation versus Compromise: The Role of the Minority Party in the House of Representatives under Divided Government.”