Mr. Cassone is a third generation Irish-Italian American. He's a direct descendant of General Philip Sheridan and US Supreme Court Justice William Brennan. Anthony Cassone his great grandfather was a palace guard for the House of Savoy. During the height of Roman sufferage in New York his great grandfather died, leaving his oldest son to care for his wife and seven children. In order to secure a decent job at that time with an employer whom strictly forbid hiring Italians (the New York Railroad) the family dropped the "e" from its name and posed as French. One hundred years later, Jean-Paul Cassone' has restored the family's true name, only with a French pronunciation; in tribute to the fact he says that 'it was that very moment in time in which if my family had not posed as being French, my family tree might have very well perished"! Mr. Cassone is a south China Buddhist. Previously Mr. Cassone has written articles for The Shanghai Star, The China Daily, The Rhinoceros Times, The High Point Enterprise, The Gulf Times, The Iran Daily, The Economistan, Al Bawaba, The Standard Times India and The New York Times blogrunner.

He was born in Manhattan and patted on the head at the age of 3 by Howard Hughes on the steps of an old New York A&P which had sawdust on the floors. He has had close associations with former vice presidents of Aetna, Merrill Lynch, IBM, Smith Barney and Black Enterprise. Many a summer he enjoyed afternoon discussions and debates with the late Thomas Chandler, editor of the former Boston Herald Traveller at Mr Chandler's Cape Cod home. Previously he was in wholesale distribution at Polo Ralph Lauren L.P. for seven years. After he married, he remained in China for 3 years doing business language coaching, conceptual instructions, negotiations and research for 25 separate organizations and companies such as Total-Fina-Elf, Rockwell Automation, Whirlpool, New Oriental School, Nanhua University of Industry and Commerce, Sci-Head Patient Lawyers and True Alaska Bottling. He is currently employed with a small publishing firm in Palo Alto, CA. He is also the editor of the online publication "The Herald Traveller".

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