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Over 800 secondary school students, teachers, and professionals from 13 financial institutions participated in the nine-month programme aimed at empowering the next generation through knowledge and experience sharing  

HONG KONG, 17 May 2019 – The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School announced the successful completion of the Dialogue with Women CEOs and Mentorship Programme 2018-19. Launched in September last year, the initiative was introduced in partnership with an informal group established by women chief executives from the financial services industry in Hong Kong. 

At the closing ceremony held today, three women chief executives from the informal group, namely Ms. Amy Lo, Country Head and Chief Executive of UBS Hong Kong Branch; Ms. Angel Ng, Chief Executive Officer, Citi Hong Kong and Macau; and Ms. Winnie Wong, Chief Executive Officer, Asia Insurance Company Limited took part in a panel discussion titled, “Nurturing the Next Generation of Leaders”. 

The three panelists agreed that the importance of talent diversity will continue to grow in the financial services industry. Some of the top attributes and skills that employers look for in candidates nowadays include versatility, persistency, analytical thinking, and interpersonal skills. On how schools can better prepare students for the future, the panel suggested language and presentation skills training; providing students with opportunities to gain early exposure to the commercial world, and design projects with experiential learning activities. 

During the event attended by principals, career masters, and teachers from more than 90 of the invited local secondary schools, two groups of students from Caritas Fanling Chan Chun Ha Secondary School and Wa Ying College, alongside their mentors from Standard Chartered, shared with the audience their aspirations and experiences from the Programme. 

The Dialogue with Women CEOs series, consisting of five dialogue events, was launched with the aim of empowering the next generation through exchange of views on business and social issues. Hosted between September 2018 and May 2019, each event featured a panel of three female CEOs who discussed wide-ranging topics including leadership, soft skills, career development, diversity and inclusion. Since its inauguration, more than 600 secondary school students, teachers and principals, as well as female chief executives and professionals from 13 financial institutions have participated in the dialogue series. 

“We are pleased that both CUHK and the women chief executives involved share a strong commitment and enthusiasm in nurturing and influencing the next generation for the financial services industry. The Programme has established a platform for the financial services sector and secondary schools to interact with each other through which students, teachers and principals can keep abreast of the latest market trends,” said Prof. Kalok Chan, Dean of CUHK Business School and Wei Lun Professor of Finance. “My heartfelt gratitude goes to all the women chief executives and mentors from the participating firms for their hard work and tremendous effort in sharing up-to-date industry knowledge and career advice with students. We look forward to continuing the shared mission of grooming future business leaders through our partnership with the Women Chief Executives group.” 

Ivy Au Yeung, CEO Hong Kong, ANZ and the convener of the group of Women Chief Executives said, “The Women Chief Executives group aspires to increase female participation at all levels in financial services through awareness, education and enablement. We are pleased to partner with CUHK to engage hundreds of secondary school students through the Programme, providing them with access to the financial industry in Hong Kong and inspiring them with real-life experience from senior female leaders. It was great to get principals, career masters and teachers involved to help continue the dialogues with the younger generations. We look forward to supporting more initiatives to engage and inspire the current and next generations of future women leaders.” 

The Mentorship Programme paired executives from participating firms with secondary school students in groups of four to six. Around 40 CUHK Business School students acted as group leaders, complementing the conversations and exchange of ideas that took place in each Dialogue. More than 200 students from the invited schools and over 80 mentor volunteers of the participating firms leveraged the Programme as a platform to drive awareness of diversity and inclusion, as well as to inspire secondary school students as they start planning their academic goals and career choices. 

In the surveys conducted among the participating secondary students after the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th dialogue events, 90 percent said they would recommend their fellow schoolmates to join similar events in the future; and 65 percent indicated that they would like to know more about the female chief executives’ success stories. In addition, 48 percent of the students indicated that they would like to explore their suitability for business studies in the future. 

In 2016, a group of female leaders in financial services came together to volunteer their time to promote gender diversity and develop female talent in the industry. 

The Women Chief Executives group is supported by 15 leading local and international financial services institutions, including: ANZ, Asia Insurance, Bank of China, Bank of Montreal, BNP Paribas, BNY Mellon, Citi, HSBC, ICBC (Asia), Mastercard, Rabobank, Standard Chartered, UBS, UOB, and Visa. 

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About CUHK Business School

CUHK Business School comprises two schools – Accountancy and Hotel and Tourism Management – and four departments – Decision Sciences and Managerial Economics, Finance, Management and Marketing. Established in Hong Kong in 1963, it is the first business school to offer BBA, MBA and Executive MBA programmes in the region. Today, the School offers 8 undergraduate programmes and 20 graduate programmes including MBA, EMBA, Master, MSc, MPhil and Ph.D. 

In the Financial Times Global MBA Ranking 2019, CUHK MBA is ranked 57^th. In FT‘s 2018 EMBA ranking, CUHK EMBA is ranked 29^th in the world. CUHK Business School has the largest number of business alumni (35,000+) among universities/business schools in Hong Kong – many of whom are key business leaders. The School currently has about 4,400 undergraduate and postgraduate students and Professor Kalok Chan is the Dean of CUHK Business School. 

More information is available at www.bschool.cuhk.edu.hk or by connecting with CUHK Business School on Facebook: www.facebook.com/cuhkbschool and LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/school/3923680/.