CKGSB has won three awards that highlight its outstanding contributions to philanthropy in China. Professors Yan Aimin and Juliet Zhu were named China CSR Person of the Year and China Philanthropist of the Year, respectively, while CKGSB was given the China Philanthropic Enterprise of the Year award. All honors were handed out at the annual award ceremony of the China Philanthropy Times, a well-respected philanthropic journal, published under China’s Ministry of Public Affairs.
Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) is proud to announce it has won three awards that highlight its outstanding contributions to philanthropy in China. Professors Yan Aimin and Juliet Zhu were named China CSR Person of the Year and China Philanthropist of the Year, respectively, while CKGSB was given the China Philanthropic Enterprise of the Year award. All honors were handed out at the annual award ceremony of the China Philanthropy Times, a well-respected philanthropic journal, published under China’s Ministry of Public Affairs.
The organizers recognized CKGSB—the only educational institution to win an award at the 2017 ceremony—as “a leading philanthropic enterprise due to its impact, social innovation and increasing contribution to society.” Meanwhile, Profs Yan and Zhu were referred to as “the epitome of proactivity, perseverance and charismatic motivation” who had not only made a difference in their respective sectors, but had also dedicated themselves to social innovations by organizing, or participating in, impactful philanthropic activities
CKGSB Professor Juliet Zhu makes a speech at the 2017 China Enterprise CSR Awards
Receiving the China Philanthropic Enterprise of the Year award on behalf of the school, CKGSB Founding Dean Xiang Bing noted that social innovation has been embedded into CKGSB’s DNA since its establishment 15 years ago and was itself set up by a charitable institution, the Li Ka Shing Foundation.
“As an educational institution,” Xiang said, “It is our responsibility to produce future business leaders who understand sustainable business models that create value for society. We strive to achieve this by inspiring executives to look at the complete wealth cycle—from the creation and accumulation of wealth to its application for the common good. This is why, in 2005, we pioneered the integration of the humanities into management education, and we regularly engage students in community service. For example, more than 260,000 people have benefited from the Red Scarf Children’s Library Project where students and staff donated 20,000 hours of service in building 745 libraries in impoverished schools in China.”
This should come as no surprise given that the school’s very mission statement aims to cultivate business leaders with a global vision, a humanistic spirit, a strong sense of social responsibility and an innovative mind-set. In fact, CKGSB is the first business school in China that requires its EMBA students to complete 48 hours of philanthropic service as a prerequisite of graduation. Since the program launched in 2009, over 2,500 Executive MBA (EMBA) students—of which 80% are at the Vice President level or above—have completed more than 127,000 hours of service, hosting over 900 events of social innovation in the fields of education, healthcare, environment protection, disaster relief and others. In the past year alone, students organized 69 charity events and completed 16,880 hours of service.
In his acceptance speech, Professor Yan Aimin referred to the Goji berry project, led by Professor of Marketing Juliet Zhu and several CKGSB alumni, which enabled locals in Yinhe village in Gansu province to sell their unique local fruit to a wider audience, citing it as an example of the wider impact that CKGSB’s social innovation courses are having in China. He also outlined some of the progress CKGSB has made in China’s philanthropy sector over the years.
CKGSB Professor Yan Aimin explains the Goji berry project
at the 2017 China Enterprise CSR Awards ceremony
“CKGSB has continually innovated in its philanthropic efforts over the past 15 years, from conducting ad hoc campaigns at the start, to embedding philanthropy into its programs, to finally offering a more systematic approach to social innovation across the entire CKGSB platform,” said Professor Yan at the award ceremony.
CKGSB is also the first business school in China to launch a public fund, the CKGSB Philanthropy Fund. By the end of 2016, the Foundation had raised nearly 60 million RMB, helping hundreds of philanthropic projects in education, poverty alleviation and disaster relief. Additionally, CKGSB’s EMBA program runs a scholarship program for leaders from philanthropy organizations and NGOs, including WildAid, Chinese Red Cross Foundation, Tencent Charitable Foundation, China Disabled Persons’ Federation and others.
This is the second time that CKGSB has won a philanthropy award in 2017, after being honored for a second straight year at the China CSR Awards—hosted by both the American and British Chambers of Commerce in China—for its “thought leadership” role within China’s charity landscape. Additionally, as further evidence of the wider effect that the school has on China’s entire philanthropy sector, 10 CKGSB alumni and 12 CKGSB alumni companies were also recognized by the China Philanthropy Times.
