Living, working, communicating and connecting with others in foreign countries typically involve a myriad of challenges that take time and curiosity to sort through and figure out.
For instance, in China, it’s not only spoken and written Mandarin Chinese that are so very different from its American English counterparts, but also legal, political, economic, business, technological, social and cultural philosophies, institutions, customs and norms.
At 9:15 a.m. today at the CWC House, Natalie de St John-Pyrce (Sammarco) will talk about “The Art of Connection: What 15 Years in China Taught Me About Communication” for the Chautauqua Women’s Club’s Chautauqua Speaks program.
“My husband would describe my longest relationship as being China,” said de St John-Pryce. “… I’ve been in China for 20 years. … I hit the wave before everyone went.”
Growing up in Cincinnati, Ohio, as the youngest of five children, she said her parents were very encouraging and told her that “the world is big and there’s no reason you shouldn’t explore it.”
Because of this support, “I took the opportunities presented to me,” she said.
At Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, from 2005 to 2009, de St John-Pryce completed intensive, immersive, year-round coursework in Chinese language and East Asian politics.
“I was learning so much,” she said. “The thing that got me going was I studied politics. I kept hearing that China’s so crazy, but I was thinking that they don’t think they’re crazy.”
de St John-Pryce spent her sophomore year in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province in East China, where she lived “in university accommodations and took language classes and architectural courses trying to find out what China was about.”
There, she said she began “learning to communicate with people who think I’m weird because I have ginger hair and I’m tall; I’m 5’9”.” She became “open to letting it all wash over” her.
Graduating in the midst of the global financial crisis, de St John-Pryce said, “There were absolutely no jobs, so I went back to Cincinnati. I took a job as a lunch lady at a grade school and wore a hair net. They needed people quick after a (staff) walkout. That was for half a year.”
When her parents encouraged her to move on, she said she spent a year earning a certificate in political economics at Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies in Washington D.C.
From there she moved to Connecticut to teach Mandarin for two years.
In 2012, de St John-Pryce returned to China. In Nanjing, she completed a dual-degree program at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center at Nanjing University and earned a Master of International Studies in Chinese Studies.
As a Virtual Student Foreign Service Officer for the U.S. Consulate General based in Shanghai, she assessed “China’s social climate and changing technological trends,” and analyzed “China’s technological transition to the digital age.”
Her thesis, which she wrote and defended in Mandarin Chinese, was titled “China, Syria, & Kazakhstan Internet Control: A Comparative Study.”
“My thesis … was on censorship in China,” de St John-Pryce said. “It got censored.”
Next she moved to Shanghai, where for two years she worked fully in Mandarin Chinese — she is “business fluent” — as an investment sales associate for the New York City Regional Center.
According to de St John-Pryce, she raised $275 million “advising clients in Mandarin Chinese on high-tech, fiber-optic, digital and commercial investment opportunities in New York City, in partnership with the city government.”
She said she “got into technology because (China) went from a cash to a no-cash economy” within two decades. “We’re talking about a country that’s four times the size of the U.S. (population-wise) in the same geographical footprint as the U.S.”
In addition, she regularly “presented in-depth New York City real estate knowledge to investors in 27 major Chinese cities.”
Because there were “holes” in her financial knowledge, de St John-Pryce relocated to New York City in 2016 to earn her Master of Business Administration at New York University. During the following summer, she returned to Shanghai as a summer consultant at Monitor Deloitte.
In 2017, she founded Gallant Ventures and became its managing partner. Based in Shanghai, New York and Hong Kong, Gallant is a “specialized global consulting practice focused on finance, UX (user experience), market research and strategy, digital marketing, retail/apparel and audio media strategy and production, catering to a diverse client base.”
Then for about five years, from 2019 to 2024, de St John-Pryce worked in data and analytics for the London Stock Exchange Group, which initially was called Refinitiv.
She started in New York as the Market Development Manager and Director for Innovation (Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa) before her promotion to Global Head, Innovation and Wealth — Sales Effectiveness. In 2021, she moved to Hong Kong where she focused on sales strategy and execution.
In 2024, de St John-Pryce left LSEG for HSBC Holdings where she leads a team of people who are based in several countries.
“I look after internet banking now,” she said. “It’s very fun for me because I’m into it. Banking is not shake-your-pom-poms sexy. I’m protecting HSBC from the baddies.”
Last year she also launched an online apparel shop — Life. Pep. Vigor. — which offers a “range of clothing inspired by the historic Chautauqua movement.”
About her talk at the CWC this morning, de St John-Pryce said she’ll get into the “five main things (she’s) learned about communications in general.”
Because she’s a “political analyst at heart,” she’ll focus on the question, “What can we do now that facilitates communications and doesn’t make it agitating?”
