Deans capitalise on the China connection

Della Bradshaw:

On the window sill in Qian Yingyi's Beijing office, a framed photo of Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, sits next to one of Goldman Sachs's Lloyd Blankfein and another of Vikram Pandit of Citigroup. All three bankers are members of the advisory board for Tsinghua's school of economics and management where Prof Qian has been dean since 2006.

Few, if any, business schools anywhere in the world can rival Tsinghua in attracting these captains of business and Prof Qian is understandably proud as he talks through the list of board members. At the annual get-
together, Pepsi's Indra Nooyi shares the boardroom table with Coca Cola's Muhtar Kent; they rub shoulders with Axa's Henri de Castries, Victor Fung of the Li & Fung group, Renault-Nissan's Carlos Ghosn and Howard Stringer, chairman and former chief executive of Sony.

For these corporate superstars, the draw is a foothold in what is arguably China's most influential university and one that has the ear of government. Prof Qian was even approached personally by Zhu Rongji, China's former premier, to be the dean of Tsinghua's management school.

"If the premier asks you to come back [from the US] to be dean, how can you say no?" he asks.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at October 2, 2012 1:30 AM
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