December 14, 2018. Shanghai – 2018 was both an exciting and inspirational year at CEIBS. We take another look at some of the highlights, milestones, and firsts from the past 12 months.

Opening the calendar year, CEIBS accepted an invitation to join the Asian Management Research Consortium. The AMRC focuses on promoting networking and research collaboration among Asia’s top business schools. In the process of accepting the invitation, CEIBS also became the first business school from Mainland China to be included in the prestigious academic group.

On January 29, the CEIBS MBA moved up 3 spots to #8 in the Financial Times ranking of the world’s top 100 full-time MBA programmes. In doing so, CEIBS made its way back into the top 10 and cemented its position as #1 in Asia according to the world’s most authoritative business school ranking.

On March 21, Polish Ambassador to China, H.E. Mr. Wojciech Zajączkowski visited the CEIBS Lujiazui Institute of International Finance where he exchanged views on Sino-Polish economic and academic cooperation with CLIIF Director and CEIBS Adjunct Professor of Finance Jiang Jianqing and CEIBS President Li Mingjun.

On March 20, CEIBS organised its first ever event in Cote D’Ivoire, with Vice President & Dean Professor Ding Yuan speaking on the timely topic of investment opportunities available through the China-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The event was also an opportunity for alumni from Francophone Africa to gather and network with guests interested in CEIBS and its programmes.

Also in late-March, CEIBS hosted the finals of the 2018 INNOVATEChina global business plan competition, bringing together teams from top business schools across five continents. The theme of this year’s competition was (Re)Inventing Entrepreneurship, and the top prize was won by a team from the Yale School of Management for designing an app that helps China’s elderly population find and join social activities

In May 2018, CEIBS officially partnered with École hôtelière de Lausanne to jointly launch a new Hospitality Executive MBA (HEMBA) Programme to address the growing need for talented people in the service industry. CEIBS and EHL then teamed up again in November to co-host the First Global Service Excellence Forum at our Shanghai Campus.

TEDxCEIBS 2018 landed at the CEIBS Conference Centre on May 26. The event drew a crowd of more than 700 guests who listened as pioneering leaders from industries such as architecture, food and beverage, healthcare, and entertainment shared their thoughts on how the concept of ‘origin’ has impacted their lives.

In June, CEIBS Vice President and Dean Ding Yuan visited the Charles de Gaulle Foundation (FCG) in Paris where he signed an agreement to establish the Charles de Gaulle Chair in Global Leadership. The chair was subsequently awarded to former French Prime Minister and CEIBS Distinguished Professor Jean-Pierre Raffarin.

On July 17, CEIBS kicked off the 4th Europe Forum series at Munich’s BMW Welt. The Munich event focused on the rise of the digital economy and the of role digital finance in fostering Sino-European cross-border integration and innovation. Two days later, CEIBS hosted the second leg of the forum series in London with a focus on potential opportunities for China-UK collaboration in the area of fintech.

In the first week of September, during a ceremony attended by more than 70 guests, former Prime Minister of France and CEIBS Distinguished Professor Dominique de Villepin was inaugurated as the new Chairman of the CEIBS International Advisory Board. As the head of the IAB, Prof. de Villepin will lead a committee of eminent leaders from the international business community in advising the school’s leadership on various strategic issues.

September was also a bittersweet time for many at CEIBS, as Professor Pedro Nueno took a step back from his role as CEIBS President (European) to begin a new chapter as CEIBS Honorary President (European). The historic moment was marked with an official ceremony during which the school also welcomed his successor CEIBS President (European) Dipak Jain.

On September 25, the historic Prague Castle played host to the third leg of the 2018 Europe Forum series where the focus this time was on China-CEE cooperation. The event welcomed nearly 200 participants, including China’s new Ambassador to the Czech Republic, H.E. Jianmin Zhang, for an in-depth discussion on how China and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe can work together to drive mutual economic growth.

From September 28 to 30, CEIBS held its largest ever European alumni reunion in Berlin. The gathering attracted over 80 MBA, EMBA, GEMBA and FMBA alumni from over 10 countries including the UK, France, Poland, the Netherlands, South Africa, and China, representing graduating classes dating back as far as 1998 and also including students from the current MBA2019 cohort.

In October, the CEIBS Global Executive MBA came in at #5 in the Financial Times ranking of the world’s top 100 EMBA programmes, moving up nine spots from the previous year. Following the #8 ranking for the CEIBA MBA in January, this made CEIBS the first ever Asian school to have two programmes in the FT’s top 10. It also placed CEIBS Global EMBA as the highest-ranked stand-alone programme in the world.

Paris was the scene of the fourth CEIBS Europe forum of 2018. On October 19, more than 300 participants gathered in the French capital for a discussion about opportunities for Chinese and French enterprises to collaborate in the field of artificial intelligence. The forum also explored different approaches to AI as well as its potential impact on the field of medicine.

Less than a week later, about 200 participants from both the Chinese and Swiss healthcare industries gathered in Zurich for the final leg of the Europe forum series. The event highlighted innovations in smart healthcare products and services, how to leverage smart healthcare technology as a way to reshape the industry, and how China and Switzerland can work together in the field.

In November, CEIBS Africa launched a new Business Accelerator Programme at our Accra Campus. The initiative is aimed at providing African enterprises with the support needed for growth, increased revenue, and profitability. Fourteen businesses made up the initial batch of the programme, in which they will receive mentoring from both local and Chinese peers as well as access to much needed inputs, new markets and industry experts.