The MIT Sloan School traditionally supports a number of student-led MBA international trips in the Spring break. The MBA Program’s goals in supporting these trips are:

• to provide MBA students with a foundation in the economic, political, and cultural context of business in various countries/regions outside the United States, and
• to offer participants the opportunity to visit public and private sector organizations in these countries/regions and to obtain first-hand exposure to international management issues.

Sloan China Trip has taken place every year since 1994. Three of the co-presidents of Asian Business Club (Henry Tan, Hans Tung, Long Wong) were on the organizing team to lead the Sloan Spring China Trip 2003, which was one of the only five teams selected by MIT Sloan through a very competitive bidding process.

From March 19 to March 30, 2003, 27 students from 17 different countries traveled with Professor Neal Hartman to Beijing and Shanghai. Fortunately/unfortunately, we also had a brief detour and spent a day in Tokyo, Japan, due to flight cancellation. During the 10-day trip, we visited leading corporations and government offices, participated in joint functions with MBA students from Tsinghua University, Fudan University, Beijing University, and Yale School of Management, and explored both the old and the new China through various cultural activities.

We are very grateful to have the opportunities to meet with so many business leaders and MIT/MIT Sloan alumni while we were in China. The time and effort of our company hosts and their executives are greatly appreciated.

• Deputy Secretary General of Shanghai Municipal People’s Government – Dr. Shang-zhou Jiang
• Deputy CEO of Shanghai Stock Exchange – Dr. Xinghai Fang
• CEO of Nortel Networks China – Mr. Robert Mao
• Division Chief of NOC Relations at Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad – Mr. Shilin Wang
• Executive VP of Samsung Electronics & Head of Greater China Operations – Mr. Thomas Kim
• Director of Dell World Wide Procurement Asia Peripherals – Mr. Jens Gruenkemeier
• Head of Beijing Operations of Hon Hai Precision/Foxconn – Ms. Joanna Wang
• Vice President of Flextronics Greater China – Mr. Greg Collins
• Assistant Vice President & Head of Corporate Marketing of Legend Group – Ms. Alice Li
• Factory Manager of Intel Shanghai – Mr. Yik Choong Lee
• Executive Director of General Motor Shanghai – Dr. David Chen
• Assistant General Manager of Nokia Beijing – Mr. Kari Kiiskinen
• Head of Greater China Research at Morgan Stanley – Mr. Andy Xie
• Founder & Managing Director of BDA China – Mr. Duncan Clark
• Managing Director & Partner of Acer Technology Ventures Asia Pacific – Mr. York Chen
• Vice President of MIT Club of Beijing – Mr. Aleyn Smith-Gillespie
• President of MIT Club of Shanghai & General Manager of Eastern Air Products (Shanghai) – Mr. David Fung

Despite the shadow casted by the war in Iraq and the outbreak of SARS, the students, many of them traveling to China for the first time, thoroughly enjoyed the trip and have learned a lot from this unique experience.

Student Organizers:
Alex Chan, Joe Heitzeberg, Yu Huang, Rachel Sheinbein, Henry Tan, Hans Tung, Long Wong

Student Participants:
Michael Amati, Giselle Bonet, Dexter Borbe, Giovanni Carriere, Marcelo Catala, Mavis Chong, Samuel Epee-Bounya, Patricia Ferruz, Tony Gambell, Rob Garber, Isabel Garcia Leiva, Enrique Perez, Piedad Rodriguez, Caroline Seaman, Fred Shen, Maria Valdivieso, Andreas (Dalein) Van Zyl, Bernd Wagner, Roy Wildeman, Vivian Zhang,