New Professors will Bolster World-class Research and Teaching Capabilities of China’s Leading Global Business School

Beijing, August 16, 2012 – Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) has added four top professors who will bring their expertise to bolster the school’s research and teaching capacities. Dr. Xinlei (Jack) Chen and Dr. Rui (Juliet) Zhu will join the marketing department as full-time professors and co-directors of the new CKGSB Branding Center, a one-of-a-kind, China-focused research center for marketing and branding research. Dr. Zhang Jinfan will join as assistant professor of finance, while Dr. Chen Fangruo will serve as a visiting professor of operations management.

“I am pleased to welcome these four outstanding academics to the CKGSB faculty. I am confident that their experience and expertise will complement the strengths of our existing faculty and CKGSB’s mission to educate and foster the next generation of global business leaders,” said CKGSB Assistant Dean Zhou Li. “As CKGSB seeks to expand its scope of research in marketing and develop a more robust curriculum in finance and operations management, our new faculty members’ unique research insights and leadership will help to continue driving CKGSB’s top position in China-focused business research and education.”

The new faculty members bring rich academic, research and teaching experience to CKGSB:

Dr. Xinlie (Jack) Chen joins CKGSB as a professor of marketing and co-director of the CKGSB Branding Center. Previously he was a Finning Junior Professor in marketing during his tenure at the University of British Columbia. His research has appeared in top academic journals such as Journal of Marketing Research and Marketing Science. He received his Ph.D. in business administration (marketing) from the University of Minnesota and was awarded Marketing Science Institute’s Young Scholar award in 2009. He brings to CKGSB extensive experience in consulting and teaching MBA, EMBA and other executive-level courses.

Dr. Rui (Juliet) Zhu is a professor of marketing and co-director of the Branding Center at CKGSB. She currently is also an associate editor at the Journal of Consumer Psychology and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Consumer Research. She previously served as an associate professor of marketing and Canada research chair in consumer behavior at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Zhu’s expertise lies in consumer behavior, creativity, and advertising. She is routinely published in scholarly journals and referenced in top-tier international publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times. She received her Ph.D. in business administration (marketing) from the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Zhang Jinfan brings research experience in theoretical and empirical asset pricing, financial intermediation, financial crisis and central bank independence as an assistant professor of finance at CKGSB. A former J.P. Morgan fellow and researcher at the Intel China Research Center, Dr. Zhang holds a Ph.D. in financial economics from Yale University as well as a Ph.D. in telecommunications systems and technology from Tsinghua University. He also obtained an M.A. in statistics from Harvard University.

Dr. Chen Fangruo is a visiting professor of operations management at CKGSB and the MUTB professor and faculty director of international business at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business. He also serves as editor or associate editor at several professional journals including Manufacturing and Service Operations Management and Operations Research. Dr. Chen obtained his Ph.D. in operations management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Cutting-edge research by CKGSB faculty provides students and the broader academic community with unique Chinese insight that combines a deep knowledge of the country with a global perspective and a firm grasp of Western business theory and practices. CKGSB’s world-class faculty is rigorously selected based on research output, educational background, and past experience at leading business schools. As China’s most globalized business school, the majority of CKGSB’s first-rate professors are native Chinese who have earned their post-graduate degrees and have held tenured faculty positions abroad.

About Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business

Established in 2002, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) is China’s first non-profit, independent business school. CKGSB’s mission is to generate world-class insights on management theory and practice, and to develop business leaders for a new era of global business in China and beyond. Headquartered in Beijing, CKGSB has satellite campuses in Shanghai and Shenzhen, and a network of overseas offices in London, New York, and Hong Kong. CKGSB offers MBA, EMBA, finance MBA and executive education programs. For more information, please visit www.ckgsb.edu.cn.

For media enquiries, please contact:

Ira Zaka

CKGSB Beijing

Phone: 010 8518 8858 ext. 3315

Email: irazaka@ckgsb.edu.cn

Ryan Fenwick

Burson-Marsteller

Phone: 010 5816 2625

Email: ryan.fenwick@bm.com