eiLi & Robert A. Hefner III are both business entrepreneurs and philanthropists. Robert is a long time natural gas producer, a pioneer in ultra deep exploration and founder of The GHK Company in Oklahoma, a privately-owned natural gas exploration and production company. From the late 1960's to the early 1980's, he led the technological innovation necessary for GHK to drill many of the world's deepest and highest pressure natural gas wells. Hefner is on the Council of Advisors at the National Geographic Society, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in London, a Fellow National in The Explorers Club, Member of the International Council at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and Member of the Society of Fellows at the Aspen Institute, and Mr. and Mrs. Hefner serve on the Board of the Hefner China Fund. MeiLi was born in Singapore, of parents from Fujian and Guangdong, China. She has a cosmopolitan background and has traveled and lived abroad extensively (Brazil, South Korea, Hong Kong, Nigeria, Portugal, and London) for much of her life. She specialized in hotel management and has worked in leading hotels in Asia and Europe. For many years, MeiLi owned her own business specializing in global branding, marketing, communications, design and event planning.

"Putting this collection together, traveling in China and particularly meeting the many artists, has given me an extraordinary education about one of the world's greatest periods of human change." - Robert A Hefner III

"Watching the collection develop has been an extraordinary journey; most exciting and inspirational, and it continues to grow. Chinese artists have produced some of the world's most important and creative works. They have captured life after the Cultural Revolution, applying oriental techniques to modern oil painting with a great depth of style grounded in Chinese history." - MeiLi Hefner

In 2005, MeiLi & Robert established the Hefner China Fund with the John F. Kennedy School of Government (KSG) at Harvard to provide scholarships to up and coming Chinese leaders for studies at the KSG. The Hefners established the fund because of their belief that the defining relationship of the 21st century is the relationship between China and America, with the two superpowers having the capacity to lead the world out of the instability of recent globalization and into an era of new formed economic and political stability and economic expansion. The Hefners also established the Hefner China Fund with the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore (LKYSPP).

The Hefners plan to continue their work to facilitate better understanding between the people of China and the United States.