“In my opinion, the successors should do much better than their predecessors.   Every one of us has such an ambition and gives unreserved encouragement and support. Every day, I have discussions with Mr. LIU Xiaoguang and Mr. Wang Shi. It is really nice that you are not fighting alone.

Mr. Mark Han Jia-Hwan is a bit different from the outstanding male figures that the media has been wild about showing to the public: no chiseled or cool or smile face, no sham style or manner in front of cameras, and no desire to utter sentences that can be directly used as the headline or be very readable.

Our food traceability system is the leading one in the world

As the supplier of 1/3 of chicken meat material of KFC in China and the largest chicken meat supplier of McDonald’s in China, DaChan Great Wall Group was established by Mark Han’s father in 1957 in Taiwan. Dedicated to forge the industrial chain of animal meat protein featuring vertical integration of “farms-feeds product factories-farmhouses-food-processing factories”, the parent company was listed in Taiwan and the subsidiary in mainland China was listed in 2007 in Hong Kong. In 2008, DaChan Food (Asia) Limited became one of two licensed chicken meat suppliers to 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, thanks to the establishment of traceability system that Mark Han learned during his visit of food companies in the U.S and Europe in 1980s and has practiced in his company.

At present, there are two well illustrated ways available to learn about when the chicken meat and its products have been produced and what kinds of feeds that the chicken has eaten before being slaughtered and which factory the feeds are produced in: one way is that you can input the “reassurance code” on the package of DaChan Food’s product and send a text message to the specially designated number and receive an automatically replied message; the other way is that you can input the “reassurance code” in the specially designated space on the website of ttp://www.sisterskitchen.cn and find all relevant information and analysis report just as what you expect from Facebook. However, the slight difference is that all you “good friends” are directed to the chicken you have eaten or are eating. This has become a necessary quality of an enterprise serving the public.

Previously chicken-filled brain has made some room for desert.

So far, Mark Han has got another public identity: the top leader of the NGO that has the exclusive qualification of consultation and discussion membership at the environmental conference of the United Nations. In his words, his previously chicken-filled brain has made some room for desert.

Though born in Taiwan, Mark Han is not a stranger to the national situation and conventions in mainland China. He jokes that after his family made investment in mainland China for more than 20 years, he is more a Shandongnese than a Taiwanese. “Chinese society is nothing but the society of Chinese. There are too many similarities in mainland China and Taiwan, no matter in official circles or in businesses. As for the group of entrepreneurs, there is always more general character than difference, and there are closeness in the objects of attentions and the blind spots of thinking among the entrepreneurs”. There is no so-called cognitive difference.

When talking of Taiwan’s experience in the field of environment, he was a little shy because he just learned about the number that Taiwan is one of the places that have the highest carbon emission per capita. Mark Han said that he recently surprisingly found that there were many excellent Taiwanese paid attention to desert, and they did not communicate with each other at all previously.  

Reporter: Do you have any ideas about the goals in your term of serving as the Chairman of SEE?

Mark Han : There has been significant change from the first term to the second term. At the very first beginning, SEE just concentrated on the control of sand without the observation of rules. During that period, the highlight was that Mr. Xiaoguang gathered so many entrepreneurs. I often tell Mr. Xiaoguang that maybe he has done many great things in his life, but the greatest thing that he has ever done is to establish SEE and bring so many people together. Mr. WANG Shi has done two big things: one is to make distinctively big strategy to take the prevention and control of desertification as the core and fund other environmental organizations at the same time; the other is to establish the internal governance structure of SEE with a complete division of work.   In my opinion, the successors should do much better than their predecessors. Every one of us has an ambition and gives unreserved encouragement and support. Every day, I have discussions with Mr. Xiaoguang and Mr. Wang Shi. It is really nice that you are not fighting alone.

Reporter: How do you interpret the development direction of internationalization?

Mark Han : I think it should cover two aspects: one is just what Mr. WANG Shi has ever said. Since we are one of the most important NGOs dedicated to the prevention and control of desertification in the world, we should do something that will affect the rest of the world; the other is that in China, who pay attention to the environment of this country should not be the China’s enterprises themselves only. Many multi-national companies have their branches or offices in China, shouldn’t they pay attention to China’s environment and make some contributions? We have a special International Cooperation Committee under SEE. Mr. CHEN Zhi, the person-in-charge of the Committee, was the President of GE Medical System in China and is the Vice President of GE Group. I am sure that he will make some achievements.  

The ideality of the entrepreneurs in mainland China is respectable
Reporter : You have ever been the Chairman of YPO Taipei Branch. I guess that after you came to the mainland, you may have had some contacts with other entrepreneur groups in mainland China. Comparatively speaking, what has made SEE special?

Mark Han : The most essential value of SEE is that it is not merely a club of a small number of elite entrepreneurs. We plan to call on every member company to do fulfill an environment-related task no matter within the enterprise or to the public besides attending meetings every year. The entrepreneurs in SEE are tremendously different from other entrepreneurs I have ever met in mainland China in terms of temperament, and they embrace extremely high humane pursuit and ideality. It is very respectable that they have the intention hoping to make contributions to the country, the nation and the society, and have been cherishing the great achievements obtained since China’s reform and opening-up to the outside world and plan to benefit the public.

Reporter : What impacts have imposed on you from the participation in the affairs of SEE?

Mark Han : There are two things astonishing me most: one is what I have told many entrepreneur friends, to learn to be humble. The complexity of environment-impacting factors and the different tightly-linked social problems have decided that every wrong move will conflict one another and bring about severe consequences. And the risk within is hundreds of times more than to operate an enterprise. The other thing is that I have learned to get along with others out of no profits. In this group, everyone has been accustomed to be a decision maker. Furthermore, they will speak loudly when they do not quarrel for their own interests and often get hot and lose temper. It may be even better to think about how to get along with others, to learn good lessons from others and to slowly arrive at a conclusion. This is a valuable experience.   

At first, I did not think that I was the right candidate for the Chairman. After all, the entrepreneurs in mainland China know better about the situations here. However, the tendency of closer cross-straits ties has made two predecessors encourage the entrepreneurs from Taiwan to participate more in the affair of SEE. My election to be Chairman of SEE will enable Taiwan entrepreneurs to play more positive roles. And I, with a background totally different from the entrepreneurs in mainland China, may come up with some original thoughts for SEE.