China expertise: market entry strategy, start-ups, SME business planning, streamlining costs, new business channels and local partners
With more than six years’ hands-on experience in managing a business in China, Rafael offers advice for European SMEs in developing practical market entry strategies in the country.
Following a career at a senior level within the F&B and ICT industry, he arrived in China in 2009 as Director of a Spanish F&B company involved in the restaurant and trade business. He helped the company set up a Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise (WFOE) in China, ran operations for three years and led a team of more than 100 employees. More recently he was Shanghai Office Director at a Management Consultancy Firm.

Before joining the China IPR SME Helpdesk, Reinout has gained working experience as an IP lawyer in the Netherlands, working for a Magic Circle law firm and after that as the head of the China desk at a Dutch law firm. He also worked as a delegate of the EU China Co-Reach IPR project and as a researcher and lecturer at Utrecht University in The Netherlands.
Reinout is a Dutch citizen and speaks English, Chinese, Dutch and German. He holds a Master of Laws in Chinese Law from Peking University and a Master of Dutch Law in Civil Law, specialising in Intellectual Property Law, from Utrecht University. Reinout is also a guest lecturer at various prestigious Chinese and European Universities and Institutions.