Michael Dunne

Michael J. Dunne is an entrepreneur, author and keynote speaker with special expertise in China and its massive and complex automotive market.

He has a talent for sensing what’s coming next – and then building successful enterprises around that.

Dunne is currently CEO of ZoZo Go, an investment advisory firm that focuses on the intersection of China and the coming wave of electric and autonomous vehicles.

Dunne’s strong abilities in foreign languages – he reads and writes Chinese, Thai and Indonesian – have proven instrumental in navigating the distinctly different Asian business cultures.

A short narrative outlines Dunne’s experience and achievements:

1990s: Getting Started — On the Other Side of the Pacific

Only days after graduating from Michigan with an MA in Chinese studies and an MBA in 1990, Dunne packed up his Apple computer and $3,000 and flew to Asia. There he established his first company, Automotive Resources Asia Ltd (ARA).

Operating offices in Bangkok, Shanghai, Hoi Chi Minh City and Beijing, ARA assisted Chrysler, GM and Ford, Mercedes and Volkswagen and many global parts suppliers with entry into the key markets of China, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam.

2000s: Moving with Changing Market Needs & JD Power (2000s)

ARA shifted it services to customer perceptions about quality and value.  ARA started working closely with JD Power. In 2006, JD Power acquired ARAand appointed Dunne to lead China operations of the combined ARA-JD Power firm.

 2010s:  New Frontiers: Indonesia, Car Keys Asia & GM

In 2010, Dunne completed his earn-out with JD Power and moved with family to Jakarta, Indonesia where he sensed untapped opportunity in a country of 250 million.

In 2011 he founded Car Keys Asia Ltd, an independent Internet portal based on the Cars.com business models. Car Keys Asia Ltd. was acquired by Chinese and Australian investors in 2013.

Dunne was then recruited by General Motors to run its revamped Indonesian operations, which included both manufacturing and sales. He was appointed president of GM Indonesia in September, 2013, a position he held until 2015.

Today:  Mobility Revolutions in California & China

In 2015, Dunne to California to be part of the most important changes confronting the auto industry in our lifetimes – the emergence of autonomous vehicles, EVs and mobility services.

Dunne started ZoZo Go, to advise companies on future trends in China, electrics, autonomous vehicles and mobility.

In 2019, Dunne was featured on a 60 Minutes segment that looked at China’s ambitions to become the world leader in electric vehicles.

 More About Dunne:  

• Dunne is author of American Wheels, Chinese Roads, a book published by John Wiley & Sons in 2011 that received widespread praise, including a column at the coveted top right column of the Wall Street Journal’s Op-Ed page. He is also co-author of Three Revolutions, Steering Automated, Shared, and Electric Vehicles to a Better Future, published in March, 2018.
• Dunne was the perennial keynote speaker on the automotive business at the highly-regarded JP Morgan China Conference Between 2006-2014, attended by thousands of the world’s top investors.
• His columns about Asian automotive business trends have been published in the Wall Street Journal, Automotive News, the New York Times and Forbes.
• Some of Dunne’s leadership qualities trace back to the Platoon Leadership Class, U.S. Marine Corps (OCS) training in Quantico, Virgina.
• Dunne and his wife, Merlien, have four children. The family is based in California and they visit their home in Asia regularly.