John Kamm

John Kamm "is a human rights campaigner and former businessman active in China since 1972. Founder and chairman of The Dui Hua Foundation, Kamm has made more than 100 trips to Beijing to engage the Chinese government in a non-governmental dialogue on human rights, focusing on the treatment of prisoners and conditions in prisons.

"Kamm was awarded the Department of Commerce’s Best Global Practices Award by President Bill Clinton in 1997 and the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights by President George W. Bush in 2001. In September 2004, Kamm received a MacArthur Fellowship for “designing and implementing an original approach to freeing prisoners of conscience in China.” Kamm is the first businessman to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, which recognizes “individuals who have demonstrated extraordinary originality and dedication to their creative pursuits and who have contributed importantly to society through their work.”

"Kamm received a B.A. (1972) from Princeton University and an M.A. (1975) from Harvard University. In 1979, Kamm started his own chemical company with offices in Hong Kong and China. He served as the Hong Kong representative of the National Council for US-China Trade (1976-1981), and president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong (1990). He holds honorary professorships at the Guangzhou Foreign Trade Institute and Qingdao University in China, and is a visiting professor at Renmin University in Beijing. He also directs the Project in Human Rights Diplomacy at Stanford University and sits on the Board of Advisors of the Berkeley China Initiative at the University of California at Berkeley."