NUS Business School joins forces with Chicago Booth to develop Asia’s human capital

SINGAPORE – In a landmark collaboration between two leading business schools from the East and West, the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business (Chicago Booth) will team up to develop human capital for Asia’s dynamic economies and corporations through a series of executive education programmes for business leaders. To be named the Asia Executive Series, it kicks off in November 2015 with the intensive one-week ‘Emerging Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) for Asia’ programme, which opens for applications today.

The Asia Executive Series: Emerging CFOs for Asia programme will uniquely combine the best minds from the East and West, featuring leading academics (including Randy Kroszner, Chicago Booth’s Norman R. Bobins Professor of Economics and Governor of the United States’ Federal Reserve from 2006 — 2009) and practitioners, allowing participants to gain deep insights into regional and global economic trends. The course will also examine the fragility of the finance sector and regulations, while developing leadership skills and strategic thinking on innovation, fund sourcing and risk management.

The curriculum will take into account Asia’s unique environment, where family-controlled firms dominate stock markets, in contrast to the diffused ownership structures in the West. As ownership structures in Asia create unique challenges to funding alternatives, investment decisions, and corporate governance, the Asia Executive Series: Emerging CFOs for Asia programme will also feature one of the world’s most influential and heavily-cited experts on family business ownership, Professor David Reeb, Co-director of the programme and Mr and Mrs Lin Jo Yan Professor of Banking and Finance at NUS Business School.

The alliance marks Chicago Booth’s first partnership with an Asian university to offer an open enrolment executive education programme, and reaffirms its commitment to the region, particularly Singapore.

“This partnership also reinforces NUS Business School’s leading position in Asia and our commitment to work with the best to contribute to Asia’s growth. It is our latest initiative to develop a pipeline of leaders for this region, following the launch of the Asia Leaders in Financial Institutions (ALFI) programme,” said Professor Bernard Yeung, Dean and Stephen Riady Distinguished Professor, NUS Business School.

Remarked Sunil Kumar, Chicago Booth Dean and George Pratt Shultz Professor of Operations Management: “The Asia Executive Series: Emerging CFOs for Asia programme will tackle leadership, strategy and finance issues focusing on the challenges in Asia. This collaboration signals our intent to continue to contribute to Singapore and this region.”

More information on the Asia Executive Series: Emerging CFOs for Asia programme can be found at http://executive-education.nus.edu/nus-chicagobooth-cfo. Other programmes in the series will be made known over the next year.