Duncan Jepson

Duncan Jepson teaches policy and social entrepreneurship at Princeton University and strategic leadership at the National Defense University. He is founder and managing director of Liberty Shared, www.libertyshared.org, a leading global anti-trafficking NGO working on counter modern slavery and anti-wildlife trafficking. Liberty Shared designed and runs www.freedomcollaborative.org and the victim case data management platform, www.vcms.app. Their work has been a leading influence in the use of anti-money laundering mechanisms to disrupt trafficking. Duncan has a particular focus on forced labor, particularly in the palm oil industry, tobacco in Malawi and in the fishing industry.

Duncan was regional general counsel and head of compliance in the financial services industry across Asia Pacific for nearly fifteen years and prior to that worked in corporate finance. Before practicing law, he worked in manufacturing and supply chain management between China and the UK. He is a qualified solicitor of England and Wales and has an MBA and a degree in accountancy and financial management. He is currently a director and vice chairman of Fair Rubber Association and CINTOC (The Center on Illicit Networks and Transnational Organized Crime).

Duncan has written three novels and produced a number of feature films and documentaries.

Duncan Jepson’s current novel, Emperors Once More, the first in a crime series, publishes in March 2014. His previous published works include All the Flowers of Shanghai and the graphic novel, Darkness Outside the Night, which was highly acclaimed by Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan.

Duncan was the editor of the Asia-based culture and fashion magazine WestEast and one of the founders and managing editors of the Asia Literary Review. He is a social commentator on Asia and writes for The New York Times, The Daily Telegraph, Publishing Perspectives, South China Morning Post and Hong Kong Tatler.

He is also an award-winning director, writer and producer of five feature films and has produced documentaries for Discovery Channel Asia and National Geographic Channel.