President Tony Chan of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has been invited to share his insights with top global leaders at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting – which will be held between 21 and 24 January 2015 in Davos, Switzerland. In addition, four HKUST professors will hold an IdeasLab at Winter Davos – HKUST is the only university in Asia to hold an IdeasLab at Davos this year. Only six other universities are holding IdeasLab at Davos--including Oxford, Harvard, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, etc.
Professor Tony Chan is attending as a member of the Global University Leaders Forum (GULF) – a community under WEF which consists of presidents of the top 25 universities in the world, including Yale, Oxford, Chicago, MIT, etc, to discuss how university-industry partnerships can help boost high-tech economic growth, create jobs, nurture innovation and drive entrepreneurship. At HKUST’s first IdeasLab at Winter Davos, Prof Khaled Ben Letaief, New Bright Professor of Engineering Yang Qiang, Prof Pascale Fung and Prof Pedro Sander, will interact with renowned scholars and experts on technologies that could lead to a seamless merging of our physical world and the virtual realities.
Global leaders who will be at Davos include China's Premier Li Keqiang, French President François Hollande, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, US Secretary of State John Kerry and many other state leaders. This annual meeting is an invitation-only event reserved exclusively for WEF members – which comprise 1,000 of the world’s top corporations, global enterprises usually with over US$5 billion in turnover, and other invited guests. Apart from key financial policy shapers such as Governor of the People’s Bank of China Zhou Xiaochuan, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, major corporate leaders including Microsoft's Bill Gates, Alibaba's Jack Ma Yun, Founder of Huawei Ren Zhengfei, Chairman of Soros Fund Management George Soros, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, Group Chief Executive of HSBC Holdings Stuart T Gulliver, and James Dimon the CEO of JP Morgan Chase will also attend the meeting
This annual meeting remains the foremost venue for global leaders to develop the necessary insights, ideas and partnerships. Founded in 1971 by Klaus Schwab, WEF is a Geneva-based independent international organization with an observer status within the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. Over 2,500 global leaders from across business, government, international organizations and academia gathered to discuss the most critical issues facing the world and put forward possible solutions. Participation of key political and economic decision-makers such as the G20 ministers ensures the highest possible impact of the meeting. The meeting this year - themed “The New Global Context”, will advance over 50 forum-led initiatives aimed at transforming industry, businesses, education, and regional and global agendas.
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