Festivities during the Penn Wharton China Center launch in 2015. Courtesy photo
The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania has announced it will expand its exec ed offerings once again. This summer, executives in China will be able to learn from a lineup of star Wharton faculty by attending specialized conferences focused on venture capital, private equity, and pricing strategies. The conferences will offer executives in the region cutting-edge financial insight to enhance their global leadership capabilities and business acumen as they navigate a turbulent global market.
The week-long programming will take place at The Penn Wharton China Center, which opened in Beijing in 2015. In a news release the school says each conference will embrace interactive and experiential teaching methods, including execs sharing experiences as live case studies — “A learning approach some China-based executives may have never participated in before,” according to the press release.
The first conference, Venture Capital, will held June 19 through June 23, covering strategies of top venture capitalists. Participants will learn to uncover pitfalls and reduce risk through a rigorous process that teaches them to analyze investment opportunities. Private Equity (June 25-29) will focus on how to structure finance deals and create value for investors, and Pricing Strategies (July 30 through August 2) will examine the use of analytics and customer data to increase bottom-line results.
Wharton professor John Zhang is director of the Penn Wharton China Center and will be a presenter during the new specialized conferences in Beijing
A FIRST FOR WHARTON
Presenters in the program are some of Wharton’s best, including David Wessels, previously named a top B-school instructor by Bloomberg Businessweek; Vinay Nair, founder of investment strategy firm 55ip; and award-winning marketing professor Jagmohan Raju, who is an internationally recognized pricing expert. Each of the conferences will be presented in English with simultaneous Chinese translation.
This is the first time that Wharton has offered in China the executive conferences that are also available on the school’s main campus in Philadelphia.
In a statement, Wharton Dean Geoffrey Garrett explained the choice in location. “China and the U.S. are very different countries. But that creates great opportunities to take advantage of complementarities between the world’s two biggest and most tightly interdependent economies,” Garrett says. “Wharton is very well positioned to give executives in China the opportunity to not only discuss cutting-edge business skills but also gain insights into the trajectory of the American and global economies — helping propel the Chinese economy to even greater heights.”
WHARTON SHARES ITS ‘HIGHLY RELEVANT EXPERTISE’
John Zhang, director of the Penn Wharton China Center and a marketing professor who will teach in the Pricing Strategy module, elaborates: “The Penn Wharton China Center has enabled Penn and Wharton faculty and students to spend more time in China and to boost ties with leading Chinese partner institutions in this vibrant and growing powerhouse economy. With the addition of these new conferences, we are excited to share our highly relevant expertise with players in one of the world’s biggest economies.”
The business school says it regularly attracts nearly 10,000 executives per year at locations around the world from top companies, and adds that the target demographic for the latest conferences are China-based business people who are seeking a leg up in the business world. Cost to attend the three conferences ranges from ¥ 50,000 (US $8,000) to ¥ 62,000 (US $9,920).
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