PHILADELPHIA, June 15, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania hosted 35 of the top Chinese CEOs during its executive education program in partnership with the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB). The program was held at Wharton's campus in Philadelphia from May 28 to June 2, 2006.
The Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business has partnered with Wharton Executive Education and INSEAD to deliver a four-module senior executive development program for CEOs in China. The first module of the China CEO Program was held in Hong Kong in early April 2006, and the second module was held at the Wharton School from May 28 to June 2, 2006. Other modules will be held at INSEAD's campus in Fontainebleau, France and at the CKGSB campus in Beijing.
"Wharton Executive Education has designed a 5-day program for Chinese CEOs that focuses on strategy, globalization, change management, human resources, and marketing," said Vice Dean Jon Spector, director of Wharton Executive Education. "The goal is to share best practices from Western companies -- across many industries and disciplines -- to enable Chinese executives to gain access both to Western investment capital and investment opportunities outside of China," he continued.
Participants consisted of CEOs from the private sector and top managers from state-owned enterprises across many industries. Sectors represented include finance, real estate, telecommunication, retail, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, manufacturing, textile, dairy products, IT, transportation, and automobile manufacturers. The participants represent China's top leaders in the business sector. Participants included Niu Gensheng (Meng Niu Dairy Group), Li Dongsheng (TCL Group), Wu Ying (UTStarcom), Wan Jianhua (China Unionpay), Wang Licheng (Holley Group), Guo Guangchang (Fosun Group), Jiang Nanchun (Focus Media), and Zhang Wenzhong (Wu Mart Group).
The program began May 28, 2006 at Wharton's campus in Philadelphia, PA and included site visits to both UBS and Lehman Brothers in New York City. The program culminated with a panel discussion, "The Future of Chinese-US Business Relations," moderated by Marshall W. Meyer, Richard A. Sapp Professor, The Wharton School. Panelists included Charles W. Freeman III, managing director, China Alliance; Patricia Haas Cleveland, senior vice president, senior relationship manager , office of vice chairman, Lehman Brothers; Linda Lord, UBS; and David M. Lampton, director of Chinese studies at The Nixon Center, George and Sadie Hyman Professor of China Studies at the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). The class sessions featured discussions on systems thinking, marketing, global brand management, mergers and acquisitions, strategic human resources, and the management of multinational corporations from emerging economies.
"Through our strategy of combining Chinese and Western ways, CKGSB is seizing the favorable opportunities of China's rapidly growing economy," said CKGSB Dean Xiang Bing. "By partnering with a top-tier business school like Wharton, we expect to develop world-class business leaders in China. Wharton worked with us to design the program in which the cohort of China's top business leaders are encouraged to sharpen their global perspectives in business competition, and to share ideas and information while learning from academic thought leaders across a wide range of business disciplines."
Some of the participants already had personal experience in having their firms listed on the Nasdaq, New York Stock Exchange, and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, among other places. With robust dialogue, the program bridged eastern and western business practices, allowing the Chinese CEOs, speakers, and panelists to learn from each other.
The UBS-sponsored session featured Jeff McDermott, joint global head of investment banking, who discussed UBS' view of the global economy and its efforts in China; Wendong Zhang, head of the Beijing office for the investment banking division, who gave a detailed overview of China's investment banking strategy; and Tom Fox, the co-global head of equity capital markets, who gave a capital markets update.
The Lehman Brothers-sponsored session featured an overview of Lehman Brothers' 25-year commitment to China, given by Theodore Roosevelt IV, managing director, business development, Investment Banking Division; Zhizhong Yang, managing director, head of investment banking China, Hong Kong and Beijing; and Patricia Haas-Cleveland, senior relationship manager, Office of the Vice Chairman. It also featured a client's perspective on investing in China, given by Daniel Och, senior managing member and founder, Och-Ziff Capital Management Group; an overview of the Firm's capital markets business and a discussion of cross-border mergers and acquisitions, with Mark Shafir, managing director, Global M& A, Investment Banking Division, Lehman Brothers. The group also toured Lehman's Fixed Income and Equities trading floor.
About Wharton Executive Education
Each year, Wharton Executive Education works with more than 8,000 business leaders on its campus in Philadelphia, at Wharton West in San Francisco, and at sites around the world. The Wharton Learning Continuum is Wharton Executive Education's model for delivering Impact Through Education(tm) -- supporting companies and individuals in a 9- to 12-month learning process that is designed collaboratively with clients, delivered by Wharton faculty, and monitored to produce specific outcomes.
About the Wharton School
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania -- founded in 1881 as the first collegiate business school -- is recognized globally for intellectual leadership and ongoing innovation across every major discipline of business education. The most comprehensive source of business knowledge in the world, Wharton bridges research and practice through its broad engagement with the global business community. The school has more than 4600 undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, and doctoral students; and an alumni network of more than 81,000 graduates.
Visit the Wharton 125th anniversary website.
About Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business
Founded in 2002, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) is the first and only independent, freestanding, and not-for-profit- business school in China. It confers MBA and Executive MBA degrees, and offers a wide spectrum of executive education programs.
Headquartered in Beijing, with satellite campuses in Shanghai and Guangzhou respectively, the School has successfully offered MBA, EMBA and EDP programs to several thousand students, representing leading Chinese corporations, across a wide spectrum of industries. Its curriculum is designed to address business knowledge unique to the Chinese context, with a global perspective, as well as to build students' competencies in social responsibility, professionalism, teamwork and humanity. The School's strategic goal is to become one of the top ten business schools in the world in 10 years.
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania logo is available at http://www.primezone.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=2130