On October 24, PHBS held its first homecoming on the Shenzhen campus. Hundreds of alumni nationwide converged on the campus to recall the good old days, share their stories and enhance their relationships.  The day's agenda, which included visits to regularly scheduled lectures, an academic panel discussion with professors, class events, and afternoon celebration in the Great Hall, was designed to showcase how PHBS has  developed.


                                      Academic panel discussion with PHBS professors Class reunions and the academic panel discussion were held in the morning, during which alumni shared their life stories, research achievements and hopes for the future. For instance, as the executive director of Spark Finance, Ji Juan, Class of 2005, shared her entrepreneurial story, which reflected the importance of taking concrete actions and willingness to try different things. She is working toward becoming a venture capitalist and expanding her company’s business.
 
Alumni engaged in academic fields discussed with PHBS professors their recent research achievements and interests. They also shared advice with students on how to write research papers for acceptance in academic journals, as well as advice on how to strike a balance between research and life. Several of these alumni have already published papers in key international journals, such as Journal of Econometrics, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization Economics, and Economics Letters.

                                   Dean Hai Wen talks with alumni about PHBS’s growth

Since its first admission of graduate students, PHBS has conferred nearly 2000 master’s degrees and Ph.Ds and has trained thousands of entrepreneurs and top managers. Many are now pursuing careers in the financial sector or devoting themselves to academic research. As the influence of PHBS is on the rise, large multinational companies, such as Goldman Sachs, HSBC, and Morgan Stanly, give high preference to PHBS graduates.
 
Further, the school has added a new degree program, Master of Financial Journalism, and established a high-tech financial lab in 2015.  Commenting on PHBS’s growth, Dean Hai Wen said,“PHBS is planning to expand its faculty and attract more excellent professors to work and conduct research here.”

The afternoon’s celebration in the Great Hall featured several speakers.  Wu Jiaxiang, PKU Class of 1977, spoke on “Make the World’s Heart Beat.”  A well-known economist, he praised reform and economic achievements under President Xi’s leadership, commenting, “One of the biggest achievements made by President Xi’s visit to the UK is the acceleration of RMB internationalization.  For instance, the UK has further supported China’s RMB inclusion in the SDR (Special Drawing Rights).” SDRs are supplementary foreign exchange reserve assets defined and maintained by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Wu also talked about recent social reforms and analyzed financial market trends.
 
Wang Jun, PKU Class of 1992, gave a speech on enterprise development. He has recently set up his own high-tech company, Carbon Clouds Intelligent Technology (translated from Chinese), offering health management services based on “big data.”  Previously, Wang served as CEO of Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), founded in 1999 with the vision of using genomics to benefit the human race.  Today it is the world’s largest genomics organization. After he joined BGI, Wang led his team to draw a comprehensive genetic map of human beings and turned the enterprise into a multibillion listed enterprise. When asked how to run an enterprise, he said “An enterprise has a set of unique genes, which will serve as its strategic tactics to help itself survive and thrive.” He believes that in the future private enterprises will formulate a kind of trial-and-error mechanism, helping them to perfect their inherited “genes “and make high achievements.
  To enhance alumni relationships, PHBS will hold an annual homecoming every October. This year, the alumni of Class 2005 donated 500,000 RMB to PHBS to fund a scholarship for excellent PHBS students. Remarked Dean Hai, “The growing alumni network will benefit our students on campus by sharing more resources and help newly-graduated students become more competitive.”
 
 By Jin
 Edited by Young