Iris Cai

Iris is the Founder and Director of Positive Speaking Ltd, strategic consultant, coach and lecturer. She lectures on ‘Business in Chinese- Chinese language, culture and doing business in China’ in London Business School since January 2009. The course uses a combination of language and culture, as well as Chinese ancient wisdom together with her first hand experience of doing business in China, to provide insights and practical applications in conducting business with Chinese people. As a business expert, she participated in 78 editions of ‘On the Money’ on BBC Radio 5 LIVE talking about Chinese culture and doing business in China from February 2011 to June 2014. Her consulting work specialises in strategy for the China market. Clients include The Royal Mint. Her advice also influences the UK government in setting policies helping SMEs to export to China.
Iris is a professional Personal Performance Coach and Business Coach as well as a NLP Practitioner. Praised as 'Ideal Coach' by her clients, Iris helps people working internationally.
She received the Mu-Lan Achievements Award in October 2009, which celebrates Chinese women’s achievements in the UK at the House of Lords, in honour of her dedication and contribution to cultural bridge-building between the UK and China. She was invited to attend the Queen’s Garden Party in Buckingham Palace in May 2012, to recognise and appreciate her efforts in enterprise promotion and public service.
She became a Fellow of RSA in June 2017. The mission of the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) is to enrich society through innovation and action. From 1999 to 2009 Iris worked as a finance professional for several international advertising companies. Iris was a Finance Manager at WPP Group in China, and also Saatchi & Saatchi China from 1999 to 2003. In 2003 she transferred and worked for its UK group until 2009. From 1994 to 1999 Iris worked as an Assistant to the Group CFO of Midea Group, a Fortune 500 company, the main producer and exporter of home appliances in southern China (with £35 billion revenue in 2018). In 1998 She took a one-year work break to go to university to study business English full time. Iris was born in Beijing, educated in Xi’an with majoring in Finance and Accounting and then worked in Guangzhou China. Iris now lives in London. Her life mission is to have positive influence on people and add value to their lives.