School Continues to Forge Ties with Asia

Hubbard is connecting with many of the more than 1,000 alumni who live in Asia, including several Board of Overseers members, as well as friends of the School across the region. He will also meet with representatives from Hong Kong University (HKU) and Korea’s Yonsei School of Business to discuss academic exchange initiatives. Starting this fall, MBA students from HKU will have the opportunity to spend a full semester at the School. In the future, Hubbard says, Hong Kong may become a key hub for an EMBA program that could enroll students throughout China. 

On Thursday, March 15, Hubbard and Tae-Hyun Kim, dean of Yonsei School of Business in Seoul, will announce plans to develop an academic exchange program — to begin in the spring of 2008 — featuring courses at Yonsei taught by Columbia faculty members, the development of case materials for use at both institutions and student exchange opportunities. Current students are already very active in the region. At an alumni reception in Shanghai this evening, Hubbard visited with more than 50 EMBA students who are participants in a weeklong international seminar. This week, there are also more than 100 MBA students in China, Japan and Korea on international study tours organized by the School’s Jerome A. Chazen Institute of International Business. 

During the visit to Korea — the first Chazen International Study Tour to that country — 30 students met President Roh Moo Hyun of South Korea at the Blue House. He answered questions posed by students on the war in Iraq, the potential for the reunification of North and South Korea and the future of the Asian economy. The study tour also included a visit to the headquarters of Samsung and a luncheon with MBA students from Seoul National University. The School will hold its first Pan-Asian Reunion in Hong Kong in October 2008. This inaugural reunion, modeled on the School’s Pan-European Reunion, will offer an opportunity for alumni, faculty, business leaders and Asian political leaders to gather under the auspices of Columbia Business School.