On September 23rd, 2022, the 20th anniversary of the EMBA programme of the Antai College of Economics & Management of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) and the Antai Annual Conference under the theme “New Business Studies, New Science & Technology” was hosted by the SJTU Antai College of Economics & Management in Shanghai. The event was attended by Executive Deputy Secretary of the SJTU Party Committee Gu Feng, former President of SJTU Xie Shengwu, former Secretary of the SJTU Party Committee Jiang Sixian, former Executive Vice President of SJTU Ye Quyuan, Executive Vice President of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and the first project lead of the EMBA programme Xu Fei, Vice Chairman of Shanghai Women’s Federation Li Ming, Dean of the SJTU Antai College Chen Fangruo, former Dean of the Antai College Wang Fanghua, Secretary of the Party Committee of the Antai College Jiang Wenning, Vice Deans of the SJTU Antai College Tian Xinmin and Yin Haitao, the current project lead of the EMBA programme Zhou Ying, as well as over 40 EMBA programme alumni from all walks of life and strategic partners.

The executive leaders of SJTU and Antai College, such as Gu Feng, Xie Shengwu, and Chen Fangruo, delivered their speeches, where they looked back on the 20-year history of the Antai College EMBA programme and expressed their expectations for the programme to produce more excellent talents for national economic and social development who make more significant contributions to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Given the national strategy of serving global changes, Zhou Ying formally introduced the new positioning of the EMBA programme “New Business Studies and New Technology: Dual Cycle Driving New Patterns of Business Studies” to online and offline audiences. With the attendance of Gu Feng, Chen Fangruo, Jiang Wenning, Tian Xinmin, Zhou Ying, Ma Wenyu, President of the EMBA Alumni Association Xu Jiaping, and Chairman of the EMBA Student Association Xu Jie, the new positioning of the EMBA programme “New Business Studies, New Science & Technology” was released.

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the EMBA programme, the alumni initiated the Antai EMBA Excellence Fund (Twenty Years of Prosperity) and set up a special fund for an engineering museum to fund its construction. During the conference, a ceremony for the award of certificates for donating to the engineering museum fund was held, during which awards were presented to the leaders, professors, alumni, and strategic partners who had made generous contributions in the past 20 years.

At the subsequent discussions involving 40 participants, leading experts and well-known alumni exchanged ideas over industry research, new business studies, and new science and technology.

Chen Fangruo showed the alumni the blueprint of Antai from the perspective of the new industrial research pattern. Tian Xinmin discussed how to serve the alumni and achieve the development of both the alumni and the college. Yin Haitao introduced the new ideas and practices of the EMBA programme, especially the measures to serve alumni, such as creating a space for demonstrating the products of alumni. After that, the alumni discussed the EMBA education by sharing their own industry explorations and management practices in regards to building a “lifelong learning” system and promoting the dual cycle driving new patterns of business studies. Gu Feng summarized the discussions, saying that an important source of the rapid development of SJTU is to give full play to the power of alumni. He expected to see the continued role of the EMBA programme in the future and the joint development of the alumni, SJTU, and the country in the next 20 years.

In the online parallel session of presentations at the Antai Annual Conference 2022, three top academic experts, i.e. academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Dean of the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Fan Chunhai, Foreign Member of Academia Europaea and Founder of the Department of Data and Business Intelligence of the Antai College Lin Xuemin, and Chief Expert of the Institution for Global Industry of Tsinghua University and former Vice Dean of the Antai College He Zhiyi shared their views on the future of new science and technology and industry with a focus on industrial transformation, inter-disciplines and digital business transformation.

In his concluding remarks, Jiang Wenning thanked the partners from all walks of life who had accompanied and supported the EMBA programme over the past 20 years and said that Antai College would stand at a new level to shoulder the mission of the times with the alumni and business leaders and embrace a more magnificent new era.

In the past two decades, one has witnessed the development of not only China’s economy but also of EMBA education, which has provided a steady stream of drivers to China’s economic growth and industrial advancement by following in the steps of predecessors, partnering with others, and initiating new models. Standing at the new starting point of the 20th anniversary, Antai College and its alumni looked back on the past, looked into the future, and talked about collaboration and integration in a bid to open a new chapter for EMBA and create a new branch of business studies with Chinese characteristics.