July 19, 2018. London – The opportunities for China and the UK to collaborate within the financial sector in today’s post-Brexit, fintech and big data focused environment were explored in depth today during a forum co-hosted by China’s leading international business school, CEIBS, and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in the UK. As is usually the case with any recent discussion on fintech, the issues of data security and privacy protection were also raised.

“A financial service company that provides the most efficient, best quality, and lowest cost financial services while substantially controlling risk is the ultimate success,” said Prof. Jianqing JIANG, Chairman of the SINO-CEEF Capital Management Company that has financial oversight over the China-led Belt and Road Initiative. He is also former Chairman of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and currently CEIBS Adjunct Professor of Finance as well as Director of CEIBS Lujiazui Institute of International Finance. “Companies that deviate from the very essence of the financial markets and fail to prevent and control financial risk cannot survive for long,” Prof. Jiang warned. He stressed the need for China and Britain to work closely together to harness fintech while also ensuring that clear rules are in place. “We will further promote cooperation in financial innovation and green finance, strengthen financial risk prevention and control as well as regulatory policies,” he said. “[We will] strengthen network security, data security and consumer protection, find innovative models for supervision, enhance regulatory capabilities, and achieve a balance between risk prevention and control and innovative development.”

In keeping with the event’s overall theme, Prof. Jiang also spoke of other potential opportunities for collaboration – in the area of fintech – between China and the UK, pointing out that both sides have their own unique advantages. “China's huge market potential has attracted a large amount of international capital and talent, and some of the most ambitious financial technology companies in the UK have begun to actively explore opportunities in the Chinese market,” he said. “Given the depth and strong innovative capabilities of the world's leading Chinese and British fintech industries, there are numerous cross-border investment opportunities available in the sector between the two countries,” he added.

Earlier during the day, the benefits of Sino-UK collaboration were also emphasised by Mr. Qin ZHU, Minister of the Chinese Embassy in the UK. Pointing to milestones in the relationship – including the 15^th anniversary of the China-EU Comprehensive Strategic Partnership – he told the audience of more than 300 people that there will be even more opportunities for financial cooperation with the launch of the Shanghai-London Stock Connect later this year. He also spoke of opportunities for China and Britain to collaborate on the Belt and Road Initiative, saying the project will “bring out the potential for cooperation” between both sides.

That was a point also raised by Sir Douglas Flint, the UK’s Special Envoy to the BRI. “Through harnessing the BRI expertise within China and third countries and building incremental global financing capacity through the international financial and professional services community based in the UK, we can help the BRI meet its economic and commercial objectives,” he said.

“I am encouraged by the fact that in recent years, no two countries have done more to prepare global capital markets for the twenty-first century than the UK and China working together,” added Flint, the former head of HSBC.

Throughout the day, there were also two panel discussions that respectively examined the big data ecosystem and security, and how AI can empower the fintech industry.

Today’s event is the second in a five-part series to mark the 15th anniversary of the China-EU Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and highlight CEIBS’ role as a platform to further enhance China-EU communication and cooperation, both in business and culture, along with providing a window into China's reform and opening up in the education sector.  The first forum was held in Munich on July 17 and the next one will be in Prague on September 25.

April 11, 2018. Paris – The newly-elected council of the CEIBS Alumni Association France Chapter held their first meeting today. They enjoyed a long but fruitful evening of getting to know each other better, strategic planning and – of course – Chinese food.

Topics on the agenda included overall strategy and direction for the France chapter, the Paris forum and the 1+1 event due to take place this October, as well as roles and responsibilities of council members. “It was a productive meeting and a lot of decisions were made including the overall objective of the chapter which is ‘to facilitate networking in France to increase the brand awareness of CEIBS’,” said Chapter President Frederik Cornu (EMBA06). “We are a committed team, motivated to grow the chapter and successfully achieve the objective.”

Supporting Frederik is Thomas Morlot (GEMBA13), who has accepted the responsibility of Vice President, as well as Charles Chen (EMBA13), Linda Cappelle (EMBA98), Ruben Rico (MBA08) and Damien Allemand (MBA10).

Exciting times ahead for the France Chapter, watch this space!

To join, or provide support to the Chapter’s efforts, you may contact Frederik on WeChat (FrederikCORNU) or by email.

March 18-20, 2018. West Africa – A lecture on business opportunities in Africa for Chinese investors, a company visit that provided real life insight into the processes, marketing and financial issues involved in innovation and scaling up, a look back at the history of CEIBS’ entry into Africa and a visit to a castle whose historical roots are entangled with the slave trade made this CEIBS EMBA overseas module a truly worthwhile experience. Here are a few highlights, in pictures.

March 18: Welcome dinner at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel in Accra.

March 19: Journey to Cape Coast for a visit to historic Cape Coast Castle, one of the facilities that facilitated the slave trade in West Africa [watch the video].

March 20: Morning lectures by CEIBS Vice President & Dean Ding Yuan, who explored business opportunities, and CEIBS President (European) Pedro Nueno who gave a historical perspective of CEIBS Africa Campus. An afternoon company visit to Niche Cocoa, a locally and privately owned and operated cocoa processing company in the Tema Free Zones Enclave in Ghana.

For more on CEIBS Chinese language EMBA visit http://www.ceibs.edu/emba-introduction
For more on CEIBS programmes in Africa see http://www.ceibs.edu/africa
For more on CEIBS English language Global EMBA please click http://www.ceibs.edu/gemba   

The CEIBS Alumni Chapter in Germany celebrated the Chinese Spring Festival with a dinner in Berlin at the city's best Chinese restaurant on March 1. The dinner featured a guest speaker, renowned business journalist Mr. Wolfgang Hirn, who discussed his book, Chinas Bosse. The book includes coverage of the Chinese automaker Geely and just this week the company's CEO Li Shufu announced a strategic investment in the German automaker Daimler. The 10 alumni who joined the dinner were glad for the opportunity to discuss this news about the company with Mr. Hirn. President of the Germany Chapter, Mr. Johannes Muffler, updated the alumni on latest developments at CEIBS .

(CEIBS Alumni Celebrate Spring Festival in Berlin)

The CEIBS Alumni Chapter in the UK celebrated Spring Festival on February 10 in London during the chapter's first official meeting with its new leaders. Around 20 MBA and EMBA alumni attended, and they were joined by former CEIBS faculty member David de Cremer who is now based in the UK.

(CEIBS Alumni Celebrate Spring Festival in London)

January 27, 2018. Zurich – The UK, France, Switzerland, Spain and Germany were just some of the countries represented at the first Alumni Europe Chapter Head meeting which took place on the Zurich campus today. The Shanghai-based CEIBS Alumni International Chapter also joined in via Skype, as did The GAA Club. Swiss chocolate and lake views provided a great atmosphere for a day of sharing best practices, idea generation and strategic planning.

The day began with a networking lunch, followed by a tour of the campus. A video welcome message from CEIBS Vice President and  Dean Prof. Ding Yuan, which focused on CEIBS Internationalisation Strategy 2.0 and the important role alumni in Europe will play in this, set the scene for the discussions and brainstorming that followed. Each chapter had an opportunity to share their status and explain their priorities for the coming year. The overall CEIBS strategy in Europe, including 1+1 events, European Forums, Excellence Exchange Programmes and faculty visits, all of which present opportunities for alumni gatherings and activities in Europe, were also discussed.

Chapter representatives brainstormed ideas about the main tasks of a chapter head, a chapter and the alumni relations office, and developed a matrix of ideas about the roles and responsibilities that can help provide guidance on expectations. The day’s discussions will be summarized in a report which will include priorities for the year and recommendations for new initiatives. 

​

From left: Johannes Muffler, Germany; Rolf Kessler, The GAA; Frederik Cornu, France (on behalf of Jeremy Rubel); Hannah Saxby, Alumni Relations Manager for Europe; David Vinagre Solans, The UK (on behalf of Gu Xuebin); Niklaus Mueller, Switzerland; Juan Ferrer, Spain (on behalf of Santiago Fernández Suárez); Urs Casagrande, Switzerland.

October 21st, 2017. Moscow - MBA Admissions caught up with MBA 2016 alum Ivan Vostrikov at the QS World MBA Tour in Moscow.  He was on hand to discuss his MBA experience at CEIBS with the next generation of MBA applicants, and also shared with us how his life had changed since returning to Moscow after graduation.

“For starters I have another mouth to feed,” Ivan said. “I had never been to China before enrolling at CEIBS and having moved to Shanghai with my now wife, we found a place to live near the campus. One day after class I came home to find a small stray kitten on our kitchen floor, the subject of a daring rescue by my wife who had bravely snatched him from the jaws of a dog on the roadside. Batman has since been fully inoculated and we brought him back to Moscow with us after I graduated in 2016.” 

When it came to researching and applying for business school, needless to say that favourable cat adoption and repatriation policies were far from Ivan’s key criteria; instead rankings and class size were his top priorities. “CEIBS was #11 in the Financial Times global MBA rankings at that time, and continues to be consistently ranked within the top 20.  I was also encouraged by my peers at US schools to pay close attention to class size. Given the considerable investment, I didn’t want to feel like one of 700+ students that needed attention and was searching for more of a family feel, and CEIBS didn’t disappoint. Just to name a few examples; Kenny Xie from foreign affairs helped both me and my wife get visas for China; Alicia Bi from the programme team helped me find an apartment; former MBA Director and Professor of Accounting Dr. Shimin Chen always had his door open for a quick chat about his financial accounting course; and Annie Wu in the Career Services Centre helped me find a summer internship at globalizing Chinese investment powerhouse Fosun Capital. If you are not familiar with the company, you soon will be as they are the financial muscle behind international brands such as Cirque Du Soleil and Thomas Cook Group. In fact, riding my electric scooter through the streets of Shanghai’s financial centre, Lujiazui, and across the river to Fosun’s offices is among my happiest memories of my time in China,” Ivan said.

Fast forward 12 months and Ivan has settled back in Moscow, having expanded his career from a technical engineer in his own business to the Team Leader of infrastructure projects at the largest fashion e-commerce group in Russia and CIS; Lamoda Group. “They were looking for someone who understood the Russian market but who also had international experience. CEIBS helped me to upskill in almost every aspect of my profile for the role. I gained an understanding of how to implement operations management strategies from Professor of Management Tae Yeol Kim and received faculty mentorship from Professor of Marketing Lydia Price and Professor of Economics Bala Ramasamy throughout the compulsory, high-level Integrated China Strategy Project,” said Ivan.  “I was also thinking the other day about how the MBA helped me to grapple with the complex nature of cultural diversity in the workplace. I recall one role-play exercise during the core modules that required us to write a letter to a partner in the class giving him/her notice of dismissal from an imaginary job. I received a two page essay from my Peruvian partner, whereas I had only written ten words. He was genuinely upset about the tone of my letter, whereas in Russia this communication style is quite normal. We have since made up following his fake dismissal but the key takeaway for me was how the class explored how to navigate some of the challenges associated with cultural diversity in the workplace.”

Ivan expects to be back on the Shanghai Campus for the next MBA 2016 reunion, but in the meantime he remains a keen China and APAC watcher. He offered us his thoughts on the secret behind China’s success, and why it provided him with such a fascinating background to his MBA. “Few people outside of the country fully appreciate the drive for innovation in China. I observed that an extremely strong spirit of competition has been ingrained in entrepreneurs and start-ups since the days when they were competing for business in a China that was predominantly the factory of the world. Now that China has moved significantly up the value chain this same competitive spirit is helping Chinese companies to push themselves, and the boundaries of innovation, across multiple industries,” he said.

FRIDAY MARCH 11, 2016, 07.30pm.

We meet for the second time at the Naked Hub, 3F, 1237 Fuxing Road corner of South Xiangyang Road. 复兴中路1237号3楼, 近襄阳南路.

RMB 150: pre-registration for a (seriously filling) walking dinner, unlimited flow of wine and soft drinks. RMB 200 at doors.

The MIXER proudly opens its doors for CEIBS and INSEAD alumni.

A lucky draw is open to everyone who leaves her/his business card at the entrance.