Pedro Nueno (left), president of China Europe International Business School, chats with Jeffrey S. Lehman, vice-chancellor of NYU Shanghai, at the award ceremony for Foreign Experts with Exceptional Contribution to China's Education in Beijing on Sunday. [WANG JING/CHINA DAILY]
Ten foreign workers were named on Sunday as Foreign Experts with Exceptional Contributions to China's Education.
One of those, Pedro Nueno, president of China Europe International Business School, said he was glad that China was so welcoming to people who come to implement their ideas and dreams.
"I feel a lot of gratitude to China for being so generous to me," he said. "It's fantastic to receive the award."
The 10 foreign experts were selected by International Talent Exchange magazine and the China Society for Research on International Professional Personnel Exchange and Development from among 60 foreign experts in culture and education.
The judging panel recognized Spanish expert Nueno for his exceptional contribution to management education in China, especially for his efforts to improve the international level and academic standards of CEIBS, a world-renowned Asian business school co-founded by Nueno in 1994.
When Nueno first came to China to organize an MBA program in Beijing in 1984, only a couple of years after China's reform and opening-up began in 1978, many people could not understand why.
"Many people said I was crazy, but I saw a lot of potential in China and thought that China would develop," he said.
Growing up in a Europe shattered by World War II, where people suffered from poverty but everyone wanted to work hard and was optimistic about the future, Nueno said he felt that China was the same when he arrived.
"There was poverty in China, but there was also a willingness to work and optimism about the future. So I thought it may make sense to bring management to facilitate these things. And it's obvious that it worked out."
Thirty years have passed since his first visit to China. CEIBS has been in business for 20 years and now has campuses in Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen.
Nueno said the most satisfying part of his past decades in China is that the ideas they had from the start have materialized and produced thousands of graduates.
"These graduates are doing a good job. They have created companies, made the companies grow, and created better jobs for people. In that sense, they have contributed to improving the lives of many people," Nueno said.
He said the fact that they are making business people more professional is satisfying.
Nueno said he remembered the first program the school did for people who were already managers, and one student said he was not sure he was doing things correctly.
"Some people had started their own business, but many of them don't completely understand the management process. To them, we have made tremendous progress, so that many Chinese companies are now managed like any European or US company or even better," he said. "I think contributing to this is a positive thing."
It's not the first time that Nueno has received awards in China. He got the Friendship Award, issued by the Chinese government, in 2009, and in 2007, he received the Shanghai Magnolia Award, an award named after Shanghai's city flower and presented by the Shanghai municipal government in honor of foreigners who care about and support the city's development.
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