Shanghai 2016: a gathering in China for Bocconi alumni
Back to Asia, to Shanghai, comes the Bocconi Alumni Global Conference for its fourth edition, taking place on March 11 (globalconference.bocconialumni.it). The gathering is the international event that the Bocconi Alumni Association organizes each year in a city between Asia, Europe and the Americas (Singapore, New York and London were the venues of the first three editions) to rally its members. Attending in Shanghai will be Mario Monti and Andrea Sironi, President and Rector, respectively, of Bocconi, along with the BAA's chairman, Riccardo Monti. There will be many names from the worlds of finance, entrepreneurship and institutions, among whom Marco Bizzarri, President and CEO of Gucci, Ren Jianxin, Chairman of China National Chemical Corporation (who will be guest speaker at the gala dinner), and the Italian Ambassador to China, Ettore Sequi.
Silk Road: Eurasia Connectivity, the title of the event in Shanghai, will be an occasion for networking among the alumni and at the same time an opportunity to reflect on the economy and finance that travel the modern Silk Road.
«China is an important market for Bocconi, both as a talent pool and for our alumni community, which in recent years has continued to grow», explains Bocconi Rector Andrea Sironi. «The collaboration with Fudan University for the China MIM, which this year celebrates its tenth anniversary, and with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology for the World Bachelor in Business, are two excellent fruits of our strategy of internationalization and penetration in Asia. The choice of Shanghai for this edition of the Global Conference was born precisely of the solid relations that we've built over the years at various levels.»
«We started from Singapore with our first Global Conference, and we immediately saw the importance of a continent that is growing and increasingly important,» explains Riccardo Monti. «We are meeting in Shanghai on the strength of an expanding global network, which now has 9 chapters in the Far East and more than 500 alumni in China alone.»
After a discussion on the relations between Italy and China, hosting Ambassador Ettore Sequi, interviewed by the journalist Rita Fatiguso, correspondent of the Sole 24 Ore (media partner of the Conference), five sessions will be held.
The first, devoted to finance, will feature James Z. Li, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of E.J. McKay & Co., Federico Bazzoni, Managing Director - Corporate Finance - Head of Origination for EMEA, CITIC Securities, and Eugenio Morpurgo, Chief Executive Officer of Fineurop Soditic Spa. The topics: the two streams into which Eurasian finance is being channeled – on the one hand the acquisition of European groups by Asian and Chinese investors, on the other the listing of European companies on the Asian markets. All with the aim of grasping the effects on markets from employment, cultural and competition standpoints.
Ken Ardali, Director of International Partnerships of Alibaba Group, Zhen Gao, Managing Partner of Mandarin Capital Partners, and Freda Xu, General Manager of the Media Department of P&G, will participate in the the session devoted to innovation and disruptive technologies, in which China plays an increasingly important role.
A comparison of different leadership styles in Europe and Asia, with an eye also on companies operating in various markets, will be the focus of the third session, with the participation of, among others, Marco Bizzarri, President and CEO of Gucci, and the Dean of Fudan University's School of Management, Xionweng Lu.
The afternoon will open with a speech by the Italian Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Benedetto Della Vedova. In addition, during the fourth session Francesco Giavazzi (Bocconi) and Francesco Sisci (China Renmin University) will analyze the contradictory signals coming today from the former Celestial Empire in a reflection on the political and economic situation that links the Europe to China.
The closing session will consist in a dialogue between Chen Dong Xiao, President of the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, and the President of Bocconi, Mario Monti.