NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Veteran business journalist Joya Dass joins Merle A. Hinrichs, Chairman & CEO, Global Sources Ltd. (GSOL) to discuss the company's industry, strategy, financials and positioning.
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Under Mr. Hinrichs' leadership, the company was the leader in the use of the Internet for international trade, launching Asia's first B2B online marketplace in 1996. The Economist magazine recognized Mr. Hinrichs as "Asia's e-commerce king," while Forbes Global magazine has repeatedly voted Global Sources "Best of the Web."
A keen desire to advance education opportunities, drive business innovation and leverage technology are guiding principles of Mr. Hinrichs' approach to developing international commerce and philanthropy. He graduated from the University of Nebraska with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration and Mathematics, and from the Thunderbird School of Global Management with a Master's Degree in International Trade. In 1996, the University of Nebraska awarded Mr. Hinrichs an Honorary Doctorate Degree.
Mr. Hinrichs merged his passion for higher education, information and technology by spearheading the creation of a state-of-the-art library at Thunderbird, which opened in 1994.
In China, Mr. Hinrichs' education initiatives include the Global Sources Information Centre, an electronic information library at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai, which ranks among the top MBA schools in the world. He has made a significant commitment to the advancement of journalism in China by promoting the Global Sources Hall at the influential Tsinghua University's School of Journalism and Communication in Beijing.
Mr. Hinrichs remains committed to educating Chinese management executives. He conceived and formulated training for the one-of-a-kind Excellence in Export Marketing program. This intensive three-day, executive-level course is held throughout the year across China in association with the prestigious Beijing University.
He developed Chief Executive China magazine to provide best-practice international management expertise for China's high-level executives and managers. It is the widest-circulated BPA-audited (Business Publication Auditing) management publication in China. More than 1,000,000 senior managers read the magazine each month and use its complementary website (www.ceconline.com).
As an advisor at the Hong Kong Baptist University, Mr. Hinrichs has promoted innovative theoretical and applied educational models for academic curriculum and intern development for students from around the world.
He is co-founder and former Chairman of The Society of Hong Kong Publishers, an active member of the Pacific Basin Economic Council, and a board member of the Economic Strategy Institute in Washington, D.C. He is also an Investment Promotion Ambassador with Invest Hong Kong.
Mr. Hinrichs actively supports the Kearny Alliance (www.kearnyalliance.org), an internationally focused foundation with offices in Scottsdale, Arizona. With a mission of Aid through Trade, the Alliance focuses on innovative trade-related educational initiatives, and on assisting developing countries in export facilitation and business skills development to create jobs and alleviate poverty.
Leveraging his decades of international trade expertise, Mr. Hinrichs has lent this expertise in the creation of a social entrepreneurship model that is successfully connecting small and medium-sized, economically challenged producers with the global economy, thereby creating sustainable employment in developing economies of Asia, including Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos and Afghanistan. Kearny Alliance's core program is the Export Service Centre (www.exportservicecentre.com) based in Denpasar, Indonesia.
Mr. Hinrichs and his wife Miriam reside in Hong Kong.
About Global Sources
Global Sources is a leading business-to-business media company and a primary facilitator of trade with Greater China. The core business uses English-language media to facilitate trade from Greater China to the world. The other business segment utilizes Chinese-language media to enable companies to sell to, and within Greater China.
The company provides sourcing information to volume buyers and integrated marketing services to suppliers. It helps a community of over 829,000 active buyers source more profitably from complex overseas supply markets. With the goal of providing the most effective ways possible to advertise, market and sell, Global Sources enables suppliers to sell to hard-to-reach buyers in over 240 countries.
The company offers the most extensive range of media and export marketing services in the industries it serves. It delivers information on 4.3 million products and more than 196,000 suppliers annually through 14 online marketplaces, 13 monthly magazines, over 100 sourcing research reports and 12 specialized trade shows which run 29 times a year across 10 cities. Suppliers receive more than 81 million sales leads annually from buyers through Global Sources Online (http://www.globalsources.com) alone.
Global Sources has been facilitating global trade for 38 years. Global Sources' network covers more than 60 cities worldwide. In mainland China, Global Sources has over 2,500 team members in more than 40 locations, and a community of over 1 million registered online users and magazine readers for its Chinese-language media.
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