On April 22, 2018, with the warm sun in April, like alma mater’s caring gaze, the ACEM of SJTU welcomed more than 210 MBA alumni who were enrolled in 2005. They returned to school from all parts of the country together to attend the ten-year reunion.

The homecoming event was co-hosted by the MBA Center of ACEM and the Alumni & PR Office, and has lasted over a decade since its first edition in 2007. The event consisted of a welcome meeting, back to classroom, introduction of alumni and student organizations, alumni sharing and etc. The close-packed arrangements allowed alumni to talk about the past days and at the same time, learn the school’s development and progress, listen to the advice of prestigious teachers, “relive the days at school and feel today’s Antai” in a half day.

Welcome meeting——friendship forever

The welcome meeting took place in A301 of the college and was hosted by teacher Wang Xiaowei, director of the MBA Center of ACEM, SJTU. Professor Dong Ming and Professor Tian Xinmin, two of the associate deans of ACEM, addressed the meeting, and teacher representatives including Xuan Guoliang, Zhang Xingfu, Zhou Jieru and other professors were invited to attend the meeting.

In the welcome meeting, associate dean Dong Ming introduced the development of ACEM’s MBA program in recent years and the performance and advantages of the program from the perspective of the number and quality of student enrollment. He also analyzed the change of courses, such as adding optional courses, improving international level, focusing on entrepreneurship and innovation, etc. Dong encouraged alumni to go back to school, participate in forums and various activities after work, and share the growth and development with Antai.

In associate dean Tian Xinmin’s speech, he briefly reviewed the history of Antai, marveled at the fast development of today’s fully-fledged Antai, and introduced the Alumni New Year Concert and other alumni activities, hoping the alumni to follow the trends and development of the college. On behalf of the college, he invited the alumni to attend the 100^th Anniversary of ACEM held in June.

Mr. Chen Chunhua, alumni representative of class M0512094 and chairman of Wonder Health, and Mr. Wang Bichang, alumni representative of class Z0512022 and general manager of Shanghai Best Cool Information Technology Co., Ltd., delivered a speech respectively. They reviewed the experiences and gains studying at Antai, marveled at the rapid growth of the school and college, as well as immense social changes, recognized MBA studies’ profound impact on their careers, and said that they will continue to practice the school motto of ‘gratitude and responsibility’ and make their own contribution to the development of SJTU and ACEM.

Teacher representatives Xuan Guoliang, Zhou Jieru, Zhang Xingfu respectively recalled the experiences of teaching the alumni, shared the gains of the college and program and their personal experiences, and wished them a successful career and a happy life!

Back to classroom——sharing prestigious teachers’ views

In terms of the back-to-classroom part, Professor Hu Haiou shared his views on value & leadership improvement. During his speech, Hu dived deep into six aspects of leadership, including significance, meaning, acquisition, performance, composition, ways of improvement and etc. Through vivid and appropriate examples, Hu demonstrated that leadership is not only about influence, but also the ability to unite and mobilize others to achieve a certain goal. He encouraged all alumni to guide and centralize work with leadership improvement and support it with excellent performance. He gave truly inspiring advice to all the alumni present.

After the lecture, Jiang Yuewei, deputy office director of the Preparatory Committee of SJTU ACEM MBA Alumni Association, Xue Fengjie, president of MBA Student Union, and Wu Kui, head of MBA Loving Heart Club, introduced the status quo and planning of MBA Alumni Association (in preparation), MBA Student Union and MBA Loving Heart Club respectively. These organizations are created to help promote exchanges and cooperation between alumni and program, alumni and students, and among alumni.

Sharing——our ten years

In the later Alumni Ten-Year Sharing session, Mr. Su Kai, alumni representative of class Z0512021 and CEO of Golden Eagle Retail Group, shared his ten-year journey from 2007 to 2017, evolving from IT worker to salesman to CEO. Ms. Yan Meixing, alumni representative of class M0512093 and founder & director of Chang Xin Law Firm, shared her legendary 12-year experience from poverty to success, conveying a life perception that everything will be fine as long as there is hope. Ms. Cheng Ping, alumni representative of class M0512095 and general manager of Shanghai Timsee Marketing & Planning Co., Ltd, expressed her gratitude to the school, teachers, classmates and herself, and talked about her 10-year experience of starting a business. Mr. Gu Bing, alumni representative of class Z0512021 and general manager of Shanghai Light Transit Communication Technology Co., Ltd., looked back on his studying experience at Antai and introduced his career and learning process for the past ten years. Sailed from Antai 10 years ago, different experience happened in the same period, leading to Antai alumni being the top of different fields. Today, they came back to classroom and shared thoughts and accomplishments with old classmates. The tacit understanding of mutual encouragement and friendship of people engaged in the same pursuit lasted a decade are so precious!

After the sharing, alumni warmly exchanged studying experience at Antai in the old days, shared feelings and gains for the past ten years, and thanked the college for its cultivation and support during their career development. Through this reunion event, their bond with each other was strengthened while their sense of belonging, confidence and expectation for the school and college enhanced due to delightful and fast development of the school for the past decade. They wished a better future for the school and more similar events so as to follow the trends of the college in time and enhance the connection with it.

After several years of development, the annual MBA Alumni Ten-Year Reunion has become a signature event among alumni. Ten years passed by and old friends remained the same. Three-year schoolmates turned into life-time close friends. The friendship among fellow students will never change, so is the connection between the students and their alma mater.