Top business leaders graduate from MBA program in China

June 29, 2010

Some of the top business leaders in China are taking home diplomas from the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. Over the weekend, 82 students graduated from the school’s prestigious executive MBA program in Shanghai, ranked among the best in the world. At their “day jobs,” the impressive class is in charge of the financial equivalent of 10 percent of China’s gross domestic product.<separator></separator>“We’re very proud of our EMBA program in Shanghai and its impact in educating global leaders,” said W. P. Carey School of Business Dean Robert Mittelstaedt. “We teach students at the highest levels of the Chinese business community about strategy, finance and management, and we explain how to apply those subjects to the country’s changing economy. The program is helping to shape relations between the U.S. and China for years to come.”<separator></separator>The Financial Times, Britain’s equivalent of The Wall Street Journal, ranks the program No. 41 in the world, ahead of all other EMBA offerings from Arizona universities. Faculty members are recruited from Arizona State University and other top universities including Yale University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California at Berkeley.<separator></separator>“We probably have the most exciting faculty lineup and the most prestigious EMBA program in China because we have students who are senior-level executives and government officials in charge of policymaking that can influence millions of people,” said professor Buck K. W. Pei, associate dean of Asia Programs at the W. P. Carey School of Business.<separator></separator>Past graduates have included the CEO of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the deputy commissioner of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the chairman of Shanghai Airlines, the chief executive officer of Baosteel, three vice governors of China’s major provinces and four vice mayors of Shanghai, a city of 19 million people. This year’s graduating class includes the head of risk management for the China Foreign Exchange Trade System, several bank presidents and the vice president of the Shanghai United Assets and Equity Exchange.<separator></separator>In the program, students learn how their organizations can improve business practices and work better with businesses in other countries. This includes an emphasis on how China can move away from relying primarily on manufacturing, which pollutes the environment and isn’t sustainable, toward a services-oriented economy.<separator></separator>This year’s graduation ceremony was accompanied by a high-level forum about using more sustainable energy in China. The nation plans to use 15 percent sustainable energy by 2020. The forum featured Michael Ahearn, executive chairman of First Solar, Inc., an Arizona-based company that generated more than $2 billion in revenue last year. Other participants included the vice president of the China Development Bank Research Institute and the chief executive officer of the Shanghai Electric Group, China’s equivalent of General Electric.<separator></separator>The Shanghai program is offered in conjunction with China’s Ministry of Finance and the Shanghai National Accounting Institute. The EMBA program in China is just one of the highly ranked programs from the W. P. Carey School of Business, which graduated a record 2,000 students in Arizona this spring. The school overall is ranked top 25 in the world for business school research productivity. The full-time MBA program is ranked top 30 in the country by U.S. News & World Report, and the evening MBA program is ranked top 20.

Business W. P. Carey School of Business