Victor and William Fung Foundation

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How Real is the East and West Divide in Leadership? Asian Perspectives on Leadership Development

The 4th Fung Scholars Leadership Conference was held on 30 April 2011 in Cambridge, MA.

In the morning session, Mr. Kai-man Wong, Director of Victor and William Fung Foundation, delivered the opening remarks, followed by Prof. Anthony Mayo, Director of Leadership Initiative, Harvard Business School, who delivered a keynote speech on “Leadership Style and Impact”. Prof. Mayo discussed with the Fung Scholars on the kind of attributes making leaders effective or not effective. He brought to the Fung Scholars the insight that attributes effective for one could be ineffective for other. Hence, there was no one effective leadership style. The key message delivered by Prof. Mayo was that nowadays everyone could be a leader provided that he or she understands his or her own leadership style.

The afternoon session saw three Fung Scholars presented their views on “How Real is the East and West Divide in Leadership”, with reference to their cultural backgrounds. The three Fung Scholars were Mr. Jeremy Poh (FS10-11) from Singapore, Miss Jane Yee (FS09-10) from Hong Kong and Miss Chenyu Zheng (FS09-10) from United States.

The Conference was attended by 48 Fung Scholars and Fellows who travelled from Hong Kong, Mainland China, Singapore, Denmark, England, Canada and the United States. With Prof. Mayo’s inspiring and interactive lecturing, all participants engaged in the conference discussions. The Q&A Session after the presentations of the selected Fung Scholars saw the active interaction and ideas exchange among the Fung Scholars & Fellows. The Conference ended by the closing remarks given by Ms. Sabrina Fung, Director of Victor and William Fung Foundation, daughter of Dr. Victor Fung on the vision of setting up the Fung Scholars.

The Fung Scholars & Fellows found the theme of the Conference inspiring and helpful in their self-development and career planning. They appreciated very much the chance to meet and interact with other Fung Scholars coming from different parts of the world.

Two Fung Scholars, Mr. Norman Ho (FS06-07) and Mr. Daniel Meztel (FS10-11) both from Harvard University were the Masters of the Ceremony during the Conference.

There were other pre-conference and post-conference activities, including a tour of MIT and Harvard University, dinner with participants of Asia Vision 21 Annual Conference, career consultation with Harvard Alumni, and visits to historic sites in Concord and Lexington.