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- Jan 8 2017 at 5:02 PM
- Updated Jan 8 2017 at 8:49 PM
Jessica Rudd and Albert Tse start an accidental work partnership
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Albert Tse and wife Jessica Rudd at their holiday home in Port Douglas. Brian Cassey Photographer
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by
Michael Smith
Jessica Rudd and Albert Tse first discussed the idea of working together almost by accident during chaotic evenings at the dining table of their Brisbane home.
Rudd was juggling motherhood
with her booming online retail business and a role as Australian ambassador for Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. Tse, a former Macquarie banker, was in the throes of
setting up a private equity fund which was attracting attention from Beijing's business elite.
"When we came to the end of each day and were sitting around the table with a high-chair covered in spaghetti, between those normal snippets of normal family life, we were talking about our day," Rudd, 33, says.
"I'd say a great brand approached me today. A sample would arrive and Albert would say that's cool, I want to talk to those people. I would introduce him. Then we realised we were working together."
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Insights: Albert Tse and Jessica Rudd. Brian Cassey
"Neither of us really knew there would be this much overlap. It's been really nice … most of the time," Rudd adds, laughing.
They are the power couple with connections in China most Australian businesses can only dream about. Rudd, 33,is of course the daughter of former prime minister Kevin Rudd but gets more headlines these days for her own career. The lawyer and writer turned entrepreneur has a profile in China thanks to her blogs and video posts, which receive millions of hits. The couple have a one-year-old son McLean (or "Mack") and four-year-old daughter Josie, who sometimes feature in videos Rudd posts on Youku, China's version of YouTube, to promote Australia's clean, green and natural environment..
Tse, 37, runs a $200 million fund called Wattle Hill and has high-level connections in Beijing, where the couple lived for five years before moving back to Australia in 2014 to escape the pollution and raise the kids. Wattle Hill last week floated its second major investment, organic baby food company Bubs Australia. The company's share price quadrupled in its first week of trading and it expects to close another deal within the next month.
The couple are talking to
The Australian Financial Review from Port Douglas, where they are supposed to be on their first holiday in 20 months. It is the only interview they have done as a couple and it has not been widely known they were working so closely together until now.
They are not alarmed by growing concern around China's opaque e-commerce rules and unexpected regulatory changes which have caused problems for companies such as vitamins maker Blackmores. ASX-listed Bellamy's Organics has also run into supply issues in China, with investors expecting more bad news when the company comes out of a trading halt this week.
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Jessica Rudd is the owner of Jessica's Suitcase an online business selling infant products and food and health supplements into China. Glenn Hunt
Through Jessica's suitcase, they have sales data which gives them a read on new trends such as an unexpected swing towards pre-packaged baby food. They also believe they have the relationships to help Australian companies find the right investors in China. It was Tse who convinced Nancy Zhang, the billionaire wife of JD.com founder Richard Liu, to come onto the board of Bubs.
"In a nutshell we are not worried," Rudd says of the regulatory changes expected to come into force this year.
"The reality is that so long as the Chinese people have demand for foreign products they will find a way to get them, just as we as foreign suppliers need to find a way of supplying that. There will always be a way because the Chinese government is not going to prevent or limit that access, because it is not in their interest to."
Between them, they have China's two biggest and competing e-commerce platforms, Alibaba and JD.com, covered. Tse is mates with prominent Chinese investor Zhang Lei, who has investments in FD.com and tech giant Tencent, which owns the country's most important social media portal, WeChat. Their friendships are crucial when dealing with a country where relationships are everything.
"How I got to know these people and understood the market was because of his [Zhang's] introduction and learning from him as well. Jessica had her own relationship with Alibaba and Jack Ma," Tse says. "She's considered a key opinion leader in China. Whatever Jessica sells are things we would be proud to give to our own children."
Rudd adds: "It does make us a bit weird. I haven't come across anyone else who has a foot in both camps. We are really focused on trying to use all of that to the advantage of Australian businesses, particularly businesses that really represent brand Australia."
The couple left London during the global financial crisis and moved to Beijing, where they were overwhelmed with requests from friends for Australian products such as baby food and infant formula every time they returned from trips home. Rudd established Jessica's Suitcase, which sells more than 150 mother and baby products in China. Tse, meanwhile, was sowing the seeds for Chinese investment in companies such as confectionary ginger manufacturer Buderim and Bubs.
Both admit China was daunting at first, which is why many Australian companies are reluctant to make in-roads. Hong Kong-born Tse only spoke Cantonese at first, which also made life difficult in Beijing, where Mandarin is the official language.
"The problem is when you look Chinese and you only speak Cantonese everyone is rather disappointed with your broken Mandarin, but I would say 'Ni Hao' and get a round of applause," Rudd says.
"We learnt quickly it is about having respect for that place, the systems and rules and way of doing things and not applying a western-blend to the way business is done in China. It is about accepting this is how things are and learning to understand that and learning who's who and who's real and who's not."
While the couple are ambitious, Rudd plans to take a leaf out of her entrepreneur mother Therese Rein's book and structure things so she can spend more time with the kids in their early years and "run my business in my pyjamas" while Tse travels between Brisbane, Sydney and China at least once a month. "I'm quite blessed to have seen how my mum has managed growth in her businesses at different stages of our lives as kids and that's what I'm trying to emulate."
Neither of her high-profile parents are involved in their business interests, except for one crucial support role. "Mum and Dad are providing excellent baby-sitting services at the moment," Rudd says.
But what is it really like working together?
"Firstly, to answer your question, I am the boss," Rudd says.
"What has been nice about working together – and neither of us thought this would happen – is that now when Albert takes the call and has to step away from the dinner table, instead of groaning and muttering under my breath, which I still often do, because we are working on a lot of projects together we both understand the importance of what we are working on."
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Jessica Rudd is also an ambassador for A2MC in China...
(20min delay)