On September 25, 2005, the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business held its first EMBA/MBA commencement Ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Present at the grand gathering, apart from CKGSB teachers and students and their relatives and friends, are officials from China’s Ministry of Education., the Academic Degree Office of the State Council and Hong Kong & Macao Office of the Ministry of Education, Director-General of the Education Department of the Guangdong Province, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education and Mr. Li Ka-shing, founder of the Li Ka-shing Foundation and Shantou University. The grand gathering was presided over by Dr. Daqing Qi, Associate Dean in charge of Administrative Management at CKGSB.
The National Steering Committee for China’s MBA Education sent a letter of congratulations to CKGSB, noting that “since its establishment, CKGSB has been fully committed to blazing new trails and trying for continued innovations, and now, we are very glad to see that, by being deep rooted in the lessons from prestigious business schools both at home and abroad, and through successfully integrating the domestic developmental dynamics and international best practices, the school has, after nearly 3 Vyears of intense efforts, managed to make considerable progress in key areas such as faculty development, curriculum planning, MBA admission & education, and teaching management, amongothers. The graduation of the first MBA/EMBA students is another milestone on the road to being a top international business school.”
At the commencement, the first for CKGSB since its establishment more than two years ago, more than 330 MBA/EMBA graduatesreceived their diplomas respectively from the hands of Mr. Li Ka-shing and a number of CKGSB professors in the majestic Great Hall of the People. The entrepreneurial skills they developed at CKGSB–social responsibility, strong teamwork, professional integrity and humanistic care–will contribute to enrich their future life. The management theories and the best practices deeply rooted in multicultural contexts they have learned from the world-class professors and experts at CKGSB will greatly benefit them. They are sure that, with what they have learned at CKGSB, they will be able to achieve more ambitious goals in their pursuits, and lead Chinese enterprises to take a lead over their peers in the global economic arena, contributing greatly to the continued revitalization of China.
“Today is a historic moment for CKGSB,” announced professor Qi to kick off the ceremony. All attendees stood up,saluting the National Flag and humming the National Anthem.
A video briefing on CKGSB, entitled “For the benefit of the Yangtze River”, brought us back to the initial stage of the newly founded CKGSB in November 2002. With strong support from the Chinese government, CKGSB has been striving to realize one of Mr. Li’s dreams, which is to help build a strong nation and cultivate a fair and equitable society. CKGSB has attracted business executives and leaders from top commercial enterprises and government agencies.
Within three years, CKGSB has made considerable progress. , The School’s success should mainly be attributed to its innovative development strategies and objectives, its advanced concepts of school management and its core values. For the purpose of fulfilling its great mission of building a world-class business school for China and developing world-class entrepreneurs for China, CKGSB is focused on developing a set of business leaders with international perspective, humanistic spirit and social responsibility by insisting on its strategic choice of “developing the advantages, identifying the approaches and optimizing the tactics” and adopting a unique multicultural concept of school management, and has encouraged every student to build the philosophy of “study theories for the practical applications and run businesses for the benefit of the nation and the people”, helped the students to set their ambitious goals and take on more social responsibilities.
Dr. Xiang Bing, Dean of CKGSB, delivered a speech at the ceremony and then declared the resolution of the Academic Degree Committee of CKGSB. He congratulated the students on the successful completion of their study at the school and obtaining their EMBA/MBA degree. In his passionate speech, Dr. Xiang told the graduates that the next five to ten years is a critical period for the economic growth of China. There is still a long way ahead to go to create a large group of real world-class enterprises. So, it is imperative for our graduates to make more contributions to our society and to redouble our efforts to promote the great cause of the continued revitalization of China . “We hope that you will be able to make some great achievements, making all Chinese, and your school, feel proud of you. For a business school, the real success, in essence, is the success of its alumna. I sincerely wish you success both in your life and your careers. All of you are integral components of the CKGSB, which is, forever, your spiritual habitat.”
In his speech, Dr. Xiang also said that since its establishment three years ago, CKGSB has made outstanding achievements, adding a splendid page to China’s education history. He stressed that it would be impossible to make such great achievements within so short a period without strong support and unremitting efforts and seeing things from a radically different perspective. He added: “I would like to take this opportunity to extend our heartfelt thanks, on behalf of all the staff and faculty of CKGSB, to all the leaders present at the ceremony, Mr. Li Ka-shing and the foundation as well as all the friends from all circles. At the same time, I also would like to take this opportunity to extend our sincere thanks, on behalf of the leaders of CKGSB, to all the teachers and students as well as their relatives and friends for their valuable contributions to the extraordinary development of CKGSB. Looking forward, CKGSB will make continued efforts to realize its great dream of making CKGSB to be one of the top ten business schools in the world. I am sure that all of us will witness the realization of the goal.”
In his speech, Dr. Bing Xiang pointed out that CKGSB could not make such a great achievement without the strong assistance and support from Li Ka-shing Foundation. Apart from providing considerable financial assistance, during the past two years, Mr. Li Ka-shing has personally visited CKGSB three times to share his business wisdom and life philosophies with our students and teachers, which is the greatest encouragement .
At the ceremony, after expressing his congratulations, Mr. Li Ka-shing, once again, gave his encouragement to our graduates in his passionate speech entitled “The Strength of a Strong Man”, sharing with attendees the beliefs he himself has cherished and adhered to in his life. In the speech, he pointed out that the strength of the strong man is defined by their steadfastness to ideals and principles, marked by their diligence to duties and responsibilities, and the way they use their intellectual capability to illuminate and create a humane and bountiful society. Whether we can weave our wisdom and our strength into our culture, enabling its renewal and relevance to withstand the test of time; and to contribute to the building of a joyful, a brighter, and a more prosperous future for our beloved country.
Mr. Yang Lin, the Executive Director and Executive Vice President of Digital China Corporation, and Mr. Molin Sheng, working at the Customers’ Finance Company Group of the General Electric Corporation, delivered their speeches at the ceremony on behalf of the EMBA and MBA graduates respectively.
At the ceremony, CKGSB graduates also presented commemorative gifts to Mr. Li Ka-shingXa packet of elaborately crafted white marble seeds and a long scroll entitled “CK Is Our Family”. At the end of the ceremony, the graduates sang the CK Schoolfellows Song and Mr. Li posed for photos with the teachers and students of CKGSB.
Sep 25, 2005