Dear CEIBS Community:

2009 －CEIBS' 15th Anniversary Year－ was a milestone for the school by many measures. The year began with a bang on January 5 when the school received accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). Just 21 days later, the CEIBS MBA Programme rocketed into the Top 10 in the Financial Times annual ranking of business schools.

But January was just the beginning. High profile successes continued throughout the year as CEIBS launched an ambitious slate of 15th Anniversary activities culminating in 12 high-profile events held in the 10 days between October 30 and November 8. CEIBS is proud to have hosted hundreds of high-profile government officials, business leaders and academics as well as more than 2000 alumni. This issue's Cover Story (page 44) is dedicated to the 15th Anniversary festivities and to all those who worked behind the scenes to realize the school's dreams.

Throughout last year, CEIBS operations in Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen achieved a number of other accomplishments. Here is a recap:

CEIBS EMBA Programme graduated a record 698 students in 2009 and welcomed a record intake of 740, further securing the school's lead in operating the world's largest EMBA programme. In May 2009, CEIBS inaugurated the EMBA Programme in Africa, teaching its first cohort of 42 students from Nigeria and Ghana from facilities in Accra, Ghana.

CEIBS MBA Programme attracted its highest-ever number of applicants last year. Partly due to the global financial crisis, the programme saw a 32% increase in applicants over the numbers in 2007, while the number of applicants from the financial services rose by 113%. Proving the school's growing international appeal, the percentage of non-Chinese passport holders in the MBA 2009 class reached a record 45% (from 42 countries) and the number of inbound Exchange Students increased by 20% over the previous year. The number of student clubs rose to an all-time high of 35, and MBA students brought glory in the following competitions:

•     Indian Institute of Management Calcutta's (IIMC) Intaglio Olympus, 2008-09 (Winner: Joo Yi)

•     Innovate CHINA Grand Challenge 2009 (Winning Team: Joo Yi, Johannes Muffler, Frank Zhu)

•     MIT Sloan's OpsSimCom (1st Runner Up Team: Arthur Su, Carol Cai, Jason Zhang)

•     Peking University Case Competition (2nd Runner Up Team: Yuyu Chang, Bobby Deng, Sami Liao, Lydia Wu);

•     "NET Impact － Access: Voice of the Next Generation Essay Competition" (Outstanding Essay, Asia Pacific Region: Jitesh Jaipuriyar).

•     2009 BP Antarctic Expedition (Participant: Joseph Yu)

CEIBS' Alumni ranks swelled to 8,694 last year, while Alumni Association chapters reached 33 (including Singapore, Toronto and Europe) and the number of Alumni Clubs jumped to 27.

During 2009, CEIBS faculty handled a record number of teaching hours and also reached a record high in research output by seeing 20 academic papers accepted by the prestigious FT40 and 19 books slated for printing. 

The CEIBS Marcom Events team hosted six industry forum last year, including the debut Innovation & Entrepreneurship Forum and the 2009 Global Management Forum which featured two Nobel Prize Laureates. Meanwhile, the media team secured media coverage of a record 2,238 print or online Chinese-language articles plus 1,281 foreign language articles, as well as 69 TV or video webcast programmes. Highlights include CCTV-2's “Dialogue” featuring Economics Professors Wu Jinglian and Xu Xiaonian plus Executive President Pedro Nueno, and ICS TV's “The Next 60 Years,” featuring CEIBS Dean Rolf D. Cremer and three professors. 

Overall, 2009 marked a spectacular year for CEIBS and sends the school sailing into 2010 full of energy and determination. As editors of TheLINK, we look forward to covering the successes of our alumni and our school in the coming year. Best wishes to the entire CEIBS Community for a happy, healthy and fruitful 2010!

Snow Zhou
Assistant President

Laurie Underwood
Director, External Communications & Development