On May.9, the opening ceremony of UW-USTC Institute for Global Business and Finance Innovation took place in Foster Business School, University of Washington, Seattle. More 30 faculties from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) and University of Washington (UW) people gathered in the ceremony to review previous successful cooperation and look forward to future collaboration via this co-founded center.

 

On the ceremony, Jeffrey Riedinger, Vice President of UW first made a speech to congratulate the successful cooperation between UW and USTC. He mentioned UW is a university that welcomes worldwide cooperation and UW ranked No.11 in 2017 US News. He warmly welcomed the UW-USTC Institute for Global Business and Finance Innovation which set successfully in UW and he promised to give strong support to the institute construction. When the rebuild of new Mackenzie Hall completes, all the offices and labs of the institute will move to the new building.

 

Then James Jiambalvo, Dean of Foster Business School gave a speech on behalf of Foster Business School. He introduced the background information of Foster and he said he was so pleased to become the primary partner of School of Management, USTC. Foster possesses huge passion for the Institute and he hoped the cooperation between two universities could achieve the expected outcome.

 

After that, YU Yugang, Executive Dean, introduced the background of USTC and the School of Management. He mentioned USTC belonged to the C9 League and ranked No.4 on the Chinese mainland in 2017 US News. The School of Management is a business school that emphasizes research, so during 2015 and 2016, it ranked No.3 on the Chinese mainland by the number of papers published in UTD journals in Management Science and in particular, its SCI paper reached 159 in 2016 ranking No.1 in C9 business schools. Currently, USTC is making great effort to build the International Institute of Finance under the support of Hefei City. The cooperation between UW and USTC will greatly improve the quality of the two schools’ education and research thus enhancing the international influence of both schools. Dean Yu hoped that under the joint effort, the institute could possess world-leading education and scientific program with international impact.

 

Next, Xiaoping Chen, Associate Dean of Foster reviewed the cooperation process of the institute and introduced the current structure of the institute.

 

At last, James Jiambalvo and YU Yugang unveiled the plaque for the institute together.

 

People attended this ceremony including Jeffrey Riedinger, Vice President of UW, James Jiambalvo, Dean of Foster Business School, Xiaoping Chen, Associate Dean of Foster Business School, YU Yugang, Executive Dean, School of Management, USTC, LU Wei, Assistant Dean, School of Management, USTC, GUO Xinshuai, Director of Finance Research Center, USTC and other leaders from UW International Cooperation Department and teaching fellows from Foster Business School also attended the ceremony.

The UW-USTC institute for Global Business and Finance Innovation is under the management of James Jiambalvo and YU Yugang as joint directors. Yong Tan, as assistant director (he is a famous international expert on Information and Statistical Analysis, he is also the first Chinese who won special member prize of INFORMS in Nov. 2016, besides Yong Tan is also a distinguished alumnus of USTC), is responsible for the construction and management of the Institute. Dr. WEI Yongfeng from School of Management, USTC is the project manager in Seattle, and she will also assist Yong Tan to promote the construction of the Institute. At present, there are 11 professors who join in the institute as researchers, and there are three sub research centers, namely Finance Research Center, Data Analysis Research Center and Innovation Management Research Center. All the offices and labs are now relocated in the new Mackenzie Hall on the campus of Washington University which has officially put into use in May 2017. Currently, Bachelor/Master 3+1+X Program, International Summer Business Plan Program, and Teaching Exchange Program have already started, later programs like Dual MBA, Dual Doctor, Talents Introduction, Team Building and Joint Research will also start soon.

(School of Management)