About Michael Backman
"A brilliant writer on regional business strategies."
Rowan Callick, Australian Financial Review
Rowan Callick, Australian Financial Review
Michael Backman is an internationally renowned writer, columnist and speaker. He specialises in writing and speaking about Asia: its
economies, politics, business groups and business practices. He has a well-earned reputation for thorough, independent and highly-
detailed analysis. He divides his time between writing, speaking engagements and occasional consulting. He has lived in London,
Paris, Jakarta, Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra.
His books have appeared on best seller lists across Asia and his writings have been the subject of debate in the Australian
Parliament, the subject of a Wall Street Journal editorial, and been cited in the National Day Address of Singapore’s Prime Minister
and in speeches by other politicians around Asia.
He is the author of the international best seller Asian Eclipse: Exposing the Dark Side of Business in Asia, which was named by The
Economist magazine as one of the ‘finest’ general non-fiction books published for the year and listed by Thailand's then prime
minister Thaksin Shinawatra as a books that "all Thais should read." It is now on higher education reading lists including at the
London School of Economics and Wharton Business School.
Backman is also the co-author of Big in Asia, and author of The Asian Insider and Inside Knowledge, all published by Palgrave-
Macmillan, an imprint of Macmillan.
He is also the principal author of the landmark Overseas Chinese Business Networks in Asia, published in 1995 by the Australian
Government.
He has a regular Asian business column with the Melbourne Age newspaper and has authored numerous articles on the
complexities of Asian business, cultures and corporate governance for The Times of London, the International Herald Tribune, the
Asian Wall Street Journal, the Far Eastern Economic Review, the Australian Financial Review and the Business Times of Singapore,
among others.
He is a frequent speaker at seminars and conferences in Asia, Europe and Australia and a regular commentator in the media on
Asian business matters, having appeared in publications such as Euromoney, Time, Fortune, the New York Times, and the Financial
Times.
Mr Backman holds a First Class Economics Degree. He lives in London when he is not travelling. Another of his ventures is a gallery
in central London that specialises in Asian art.
economies, politics, business groups and business practices. He has a well-earned reputation for thorough, independent and highly-
detailed analysis. He divides his time between writing, speaking engagements and occasional consulting. He has lived in London,
Paris, Jakarta, Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra.
His books have appeared on best seller lists across Asia and his writings have been the subject of debate in the Australian
Parliament, the subject of a Wall Street Journal editorial, and been cited in the National Day Address of Singapore’s Prime Minister
and in speeches by other politicians around Asia.
He is the author of the international best seller Asian Eclipse: Exposing the Dark Side of Business in Asia, which was named by The
Economist magazine as one of the ‘finest’ general non-fiction books published for the year and listed by Thailand's then prime
minister Thaksin Shinawatra as a books that "all Thais should read." It is now on higher education reading lists including at the
London School of Economics and Wharton Business School.
Backman is also the co-author of Big in Asia, and author of The Asian Insider and Inside Knowledge, all published by Palgrave-
Macmillan, an imprint of Macmillan.
He is also the principal author of the landmark Overseas Chinese Business Networks in Asia, published in 1995 by the Australian
Government.
He has a regular Asian business column with the Melbourne Age newspaper and has authored numerous articles on the
complexities of Asian business, cultures and corporate governance for The Times of London, the International Herald Tribune, the
Asian Wall Street Journal, the Far Eastern Economic Review, the Australian Financial Review and the Business Times of Singapore,
among others.
He is a frequent speaker at seminars and conferences in Asia, Europe and Australia and a regular commentator in the media on
Asian business matters, having appeared in publications such as Euromoney, Time, Fortune, the New York Times, and the Financial
Times.
Mr Backman holds a First Class Economics Degree. He lives in London when he is not travelling. Another of his ventures is a gallery
in central London that specialises in Asian art.