Fosun meets WLSA in Beaufort Terrace

On the evening of July 10, with the drizzling rain and the enchanted guzheng (Chinese zither) music, the Beaufort Terrace in Yu Garden, a pavilion full of oriental charm, welcomed hundreds of exotic Western guests who were amazed by what they saw and heard when setting foot on each stone step. The excited guests took out their phones to take pictures of everything that impressed them, such as the Yu Garden, the girl playing the guzheng and the exquisite oriental utensils.

The World Leading Schools Association (WLSA) was invited to meet Fosun at this grand banquet held by Fosun. Two hosts were Jiang Changjian from The Brain and Yao Zixin, student at WLSA-FUDAN, winner of 2016 The Prudential Spirit of Community Award and “Charity Ambassador”. At the bilingual banquet where the Eastern culture meets the Western culture, the guests were brought together for one and the only thing – education, something that Fosun has focused on for many years.

Education is highly valued by Fosun founders and the entire organization

The top management of Fosun is highly committed to education. Wang Qunbin, Executive Director and CEO of Fosun Group, attended at the banquet. He welcomed distinguished guests in English first and then told the audience in Chinese the following touching story about the connection between Fosun and education.

 “Fosun was founded by several graduates of Fudan University with an initial capital of $4,000 in 1992. After 25 years of development, Fosun’s total assets have increased to around $70 billion and its market value over $13 billion.

Currently, Fosun provides products and services featuring health, happiness and wealth for global families. For instance, we have invested in many companies with influential brands and products such as Club Med, Cirque du Soleil, Thomas Cook and others in the short film (?). In the future, Fosun wants to innovate a C2M happiness ecosystem and expand its global presence. This is our ambition and objective.”

The road ahead of us is full of challenges, and Wang suggested three points that we should focus on:

First, entrepreneurship. “We should provide high quality products and services to customers and beat competitors by 0.01 second”;

Second, learning ability. “Learning is the core and key to Fosun’s competitiveness. Therefore,in our company, colleagues call each other classmates”, “Education is one of the key industries Fosun plans to develop in the future”;

Third, our cultural value “Contribution to Society”. “Since the founding of Fosun, our values have been reflected in “Self-improvement, Teamwork, Performance, Contribution to Society”. “Contribution to Society” highlights the contributions Fosun makes to society to make the world a better place. For this purpose, we have also engaged in many public welfare activities, and education is one of the top priorities. We have cooperated with Fudan University and many middle schools on charity education abroad. We welcome more excellent schools to establish positive partnerships with Fosun. This shows Fosun founders’ and the entire organization’s commitment to education.”

Education is a long-term public welfare program for Fosun

Today, the right to receive an education is almost as important as the basic human right of “equality” in the world. Fosun’s goal to “Contribute to Society” never changes, and the company has been focusing its efforts to support education on a regular basis for many years.

Zhu Wenkui, Co-General Manager of Public Affairs & Corporate Communication of Fosun Group, listed some of the efforts by Fosun Foundation and Fosun Group:

During the past 15 years, Fosun has offered financial assistance to Jiulong Model Middle School specifically for poor students in Shanghai while excellent students and committed teachers also receive awards every year. Fosun Group has offered financial assistance to poor middle school students in Hainan Province since 2007 and has helped 4,280 students altogether for 10 years. Fosun Foundation was founded in 2012 together with Prudential Financial in an effort to support middle school students’ participation in volunteer activities. In the past five years, the Foundation has received 3,000 applications, presented Gold Award to 10 volunteers and honored more than 200 excellent volunteers, significantly promoting volunteer activities among middle school students in places like Beijing and Shanghai. In 2015, Fosun launched a two-month business consulting practice program in partnership with Fudan-Lisbon MBA Program. In 2016, Fosun donated a scholarship to Goethe University to provide German students with opportunities to exchange and learn in top Chinese universities.

The WLSA shared the same vision with Fosun in education and the two parties wished to make concerted efforts to help drive the public welfare education.

Tony Little, Chairman of WLSA Executive Board and former Head Master of Eton College, was invited to attend the banquet. He appreciated Fosun’s strategy – innovate a C2M happiness ecosystem for global families, and also looked forward to the long-term and pleasant cooperation with Fosun.

The banquet ended with beautiful Tai Chi performance and elegant Chinese tea ceremony, but the cooperation between Fosun and WLSA is just beginning.

The World Leading Schools Association (WLSA)

The World Leading Schools Association is an international non-profit organization co-founded by European Union Education Foundation (CHEER), Eton College of the UK, Beijing No.4 High School, Harvard- Westlake School of the US, Geelong Grammar School of Australia, Groton School of the US and WLSA-FUDAN. Officially established on the Fifth World Leading Schools Forum in New York in 2011, WLSA is dedicated to building a premium platform for leading schools around the world to exchange and communicate with each other and creating a diversified, innovative and inclusive network. Currently, it has more than 50 member schools coming from Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.