Media

As the guest speaker of the Edward K Y Chen Distinguished Lecture Series 2008 held by the School of Economic and Finance of HKU, Mr. Ma delivered his lecture entitled "Economic Winter: Now What?" before a full house of over 600 HKU staff, students and alumni, as well as members of the community.

Earlier this year, Mr. Ma predicted the arrival of an "economic winter" and advised people to prepare for it in order to survive and thrive when the metaphorical snows melted. Today, just as Mr. Ma expected, many nations are experiencing severe economic challenges.

In his lecture, Mr. Ma explained that now is the best time to take advantage of the opportunities resulting from the economic winter. According to him, those who are well-prepared and do not give up will be able to survive this crisis - or "growing pain of globalization" - as he called it, and quite possibly become the next generation of the newly-rich.

Mr. Ma also shared his leading view that the strength of nations and companies is shown by how they react to harsh conditions, and pointed out that the best time for reform was when a company was in its best situation.

Mr. Ma is the lead founder of Alibaba Group and has been the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Alibaba Group since its inception in 1999. A pioneer in the Chinese Internet industry, Mr. Ma founded China Pages in 1995, widely believed to be the first Internet -based company in China. As a respected business leader, Mr. Ma has been recognized by various international media as one of most influential business leaders of our time, both within Asia and internationally.

The "Edward K Y Chen Distinguished Lecture Series" was initiated by a group of former HKU students of Professor Chen in the early 1970s as an accolade to the fine scholar and loving teacher. A fund was set up last year to establish the Lecture Series at HKU in his honour. Not only does this Lecture Series represent a tribute to an honoured teacher, it also aspires to demonstrate the fine tradition of great respect and appreciation for Teachers and Mentors to our younger generation.

For media enquiries, please contact Ms Polo Leung, HKU Development & Alumni Affairs Office (Tel: 2241 5677 / Email: pololeung@hku.hk); or Ms Denise Wong, HKU External Relations Office (Tel: 2859 2600 / E-mail: denise.wong@hku.hk).