Damien founded and led Macro Polo, a think tank at the Paulson Institute in Chicago that focused on China’s economy and technology sectors from 2017 to 2025. Previously he helped build and lead the China practice at Eurasia Group. He is also an adjunct professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

His books are In Line Behind a Billion People: How Scarcity Will Define China’s Ascent in the Next Decade (Pearson); The Economics of Air Pollution in China (Columbia University Press); and China’s Economic Arrival: Decoding a Disruptive Rise (Palgrave MacMillan). His articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic, and the New York Times. He speaks fluent Mandarin.