Wednesday 13 February 2013
Business schools in St. Louis and Singapore launch Global Master of Finance
To meet the needs of today’s global economy, professionals in the field of finance require specialized skills and expertise that go beyond the boundaries of traditional graduate education.
Howard Thomas, PhD, (right) dean of Singapore Management University Lee Kong Chian School of Business, and Mahendra Gupta, PhD, (left) dean of Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis, at the MOU signing ceremony held at SMU.
The new Global Master of Finance dual degree program offered by Washington University in St. Louis’ Olin Business School and Lee Kong Chian School of Business at Singapore Management University (SMU) is designed to prepare students for success in a wide variety of finance-related careers worldwide.
Graduates of the program, scheduled to launch in July 2013, earn a Master of Science in Finance degree from Olin and a Master of Science in Applied Finance degree from SMU. The 14-month curriculum is divided into four terms with half of the courses held on Olin Business School’s St. Louis campus and the other half taught in Singapore on the SMU campus.
“Olin Business School has joined forces with Singapore Management University to educate a new generation of risk managers, research analysts and investment decision makers,” says Mahendra Gupta, PhD, Olin’s dean and Geraldine J. and Robert L. Virgil Professor of Accounting and Management.
“Individually, each of our schools offers superior preparation for careers in finance,” he says. “Together, we are greater than the sum of our parts. Students will gain a big-picture understanding of the worldwide financial industry, along with innovative theories and practices.”
The curriculum includes immersion courses in New York and Washington, D.C., that explore U.S. financial markets, policymaking, legislative processes, enforcement agencies and the Federal Reserve. These courses are offered in collaboration with Brookings Executive Education, part of the Brookings Institution and managed by Olin Business School.
“We are honored and delighted to partner with Washington University in St. Louis and Olin Business School,” says Howard Thomas, PhD, dean of SMU’s Lee Kong Chian School of Business. “This is the first dual degree program offered by SMU with a leading university in the United States. The program promises students the distinctive opportunity to learn about financial systems and practices in the U.S. as well as in Asian markets – giving them a competitive advantage that will stand them in good stead in their future careers.
“Students will be able to attend classes on two different continents, be exposed to the different business environments, and build valuable networks in the U.S. and Asia. They will benefit immensely from their experience studying in Singapore and the United States,” he says
Thomas and Gupta signed a Memorandum of Understanding at a ceremony in Singapore on Feb. 13, 2013 to officially announce their new partnership.
The Financial Times has ranked Olin’s Master of Science in Finance program number two in the United States. Founded in 2000, SMU is one of the youngest universities in the world to have earned a double AACSB accreditation for its business and accounting programs and the prestigious EQUIS accreditation. Like Olin, its mission is to create and disseminate knowledge, advance scholarly research, enhance leadership, and promote global corporate citizenship.
For more information about the Global Master of Finance Dual Degree visit the Olin and SMU websites.
Business schools in St. Louis and Singapore launch Global Master of Finance
WATM: Airbus ProSky, Singapore on efficiency drive
World ATM Congress, Madrid: The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and Airbus ProSky have strengthened their collaborative partnership with the signing of a new research collaboration agreement.
Yap Ong Heng, Director-General of CAAS, and Eric Stefanello, President of Airbus ProSky, signed the deak which will see both businesses jointly develop a Concept of Operations for Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) based on Collaborative Decision Making (CDM).
The RCA follows the foundational Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) on Air Traffic Management (ATM) research and development collaboration that was signed in November 2012. The MoC is part of CAAS’ larger effort to advance ATM research and development in Singapore under its Centre of Excellence for ATM initiative.
The Asia Pacific, being the world’s fastest growing region for air travel, will face increasing complexity in the operating environment due to rapid growth in air traffic.
Under this RCA, CAAS and Airbus ProSky will embark on a joint research project to address the challenges of air traffic flow in the context of the specific operational dynamics of the region.
A technology testbed that runs on the Harmony ATFM solution platform will be built in Singapore for the development, experimentation, demonstration and refinement of the ATFM Concept of Operations.
The Harmony solution suite has been successfully deployed for similar ATFM research and development projects that were conducted in the United States, South Africa and Australia. This joint research project will be the first to be undertaken under the MoC collaboration framework as well as the Centre of Excellence for ATM initiative.
“CAAS is pleased to partner Airbus ProSky in ATM research and development, and specifically this important first research endeavour to develop a novel Air Traffic Flow Management Concept of Operations that is unique to Singapore and the Asia Pacific region.
“It will pave the way for the eventual application of advanced air traffic flow management solutions that will benefit the aviation community. Customised for the region based on coordination and cooperation, these solutions will provide for better management of the rising air traffic volumes in the Asia Pacific,” said Yap Ong Heng.
Dr. Kiran Rao, Executive Vice President of Strategy and Future Programmes, Airbus said: “Airbus recognizes the strategic importance of optimized and efficient Air Traffic Management”. He added: “The partnership between CAAS and Airbus ProSky will enable long term research and development of ground breaking ATM solutions that will safeguard the continued growth of this vibrant region.”
Eric Stefanello, CEO, Airbus ProSky said: “This project is an exciting opportunity to start deploying seamless airspace concept that our industry has talked about for quite some time.”
WATM: Airbus ProSky, Singapore on efficiency drive
Singapore"s Lee Kuan Yew Talks America"s Strangths And Weaknesses
Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
By Graham Allison, Robert Blackwill, and Ali Wyne
Both in the United States and abroad, many influential observers argue that the U.S. is in systemic decline. Not so, says Lee Kuan Yew, the sage of Singapore. Lee is not only a student of the rise and fall of nations. He is also the founder of modern Singapore. As prime minister from 1959 to 1990, he led its rise from a poor, small, corrupt port to a first-world city-state in just one generation.
Today, Singapore’s six million citizens have incomes higher than those of Americans. He has served as a mentor to every leader of China since Deng Xiaoping initiated China’s march to the market, and every American president since Richard Nixon has sought his counsel about the U.S. role in Asia. In the pages of Forbes and elsewhere, he has consistently emphasized America’s resilience. Here is how he summarized that judgment to us when we interviewed him in May 2011:
America will not be reduced to second-rate status. Historically, the U.S. has demonstrated a great capacity for renewal and revival. America’s strengths include an ability to range widely, imaginatively, and pragmatically; a diversity of centers of excellence that compete in inventing and embracing new ideas and new technologies; a society that attracts talent from around the world and assimilates them comfortably as Americans; and a language that the lingua franca of those who rise to the top of their own societies around the world.
Lee cites America’s “can-do approach,” “entrepreneurial culture,” and “great urge to start new enterprises and create wealth.” He notes the primacy that Americans accord to the “individual’s interest,” which makes them “more aggressively competitive.” Uniquely among analysts of national competitive advantages, perhaps because he speaks both English and Mandarin, he gives great weight to the comparative ease of learning English rather than Chinese. Indeed, he boldly suggested to one of China’s leaders that China adopt English, rather than Chinese, as its first language—as Singapore has done.
In Lee’s assessment, demographics are also an increasingly important factor. Noting that America’s total fertility rate of 2.0 exceeds that of most western European countries as well as that of its chief challenger, China, he recently observed that “the U.S. could become the slowly aging leader of a rapidly aging world” this century. Thus, he believes that “America will remain the sole superpower” for at least two to three more decades.
Nonetheless, Lee is frank in describing what he considers to be fundamental problems with U.S. government and culture. It has been unable to tackle its exploding debt, he asserts, because presidents do not get “reelected if they give a hard dose of medicine to their people.” In a social-media-fueled era of 24/7 news, furthermore, those who prevail in elections are not necessarily those who are most capable in governing, but those who can present themselves and their ideas “in a polished way.” He doubts that such contests “in packaging and advertising” can produce leaders in the mold of “a Churchill, a Roosevelt, or a de Gaulle.” Instead, he laments conditions in which “to win votes you have to give more and more. And to beat your opponent in the next election, you have to promise to give more away.”
Lee warns about the growing risk of America’s losing its “self-help culture” and going “the ideological direction of Europe.” If it continues that slide, he says bluntly, “the U.S. will be done for.” He also gives U.S. immigration practices a failing grade, declaring that “multiculturalism will destroy America.” The key question is: “do you make the Hispanics Anglo-Saxons in culture or do they make you more Latin American in culture?”
Lee sees the 21st century as a “contest for supremacy in the Pacific” between the U.S. and China. In his view, “America’s core interest requires that it remains the superior power” there. But he worries about America’s ability to sustain its strategic focus. About the Obama administration’s much-touted, recent “pivot” toward Asia, this observation of his comes to mind: Americans think of international relations like a movie, imagining that we can hit the “pause” button when we focus elsewhere and push “play” when we return to Asia. But “it does not work like that. If the United States wants to substantially affect the strategic evolution of Asia, it cannot come and go.”
Weighing all of the pros and cons, Lee is still not selling America short. He is betting that despite seemingly overwhelming current economic challenges, “America’s creativity, resilience, and innovative spirit will allow it to confront its core problems, overcome them, and regain competitiveness.”
Graham Allison is director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Robert D. Blackwill is Henry A. Kissinger senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Ali Wyne is an associate of the Belfer Center and a contributing analyst at Wikistrat. They are coauthors of Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master’s Insights on China, the United States, and the World, published Feb. 1 by MIT Press.
Singapore"s Lee Kuan Yew Talks America"s Strangths And Weaknesses
Escapes: Singapore"s Raffles Hotel is life at its best
SINGAPORE — The last tiger in Singapore was shot and killed under the billiards table at the Raffles Hotel in 1902.
This story is legend, and there are many when it comes to the venerable Raffles. British novelist Somerset Maugham said the hotel “stands for all the fables of the exotic East,” and it’s easy to believe just about anything connected with it.
Concerning the tiger, I will tell you the truth of the matter in a moment, but first allow me to acquaint you with the hotel, whose history is the story of modern Singapore, and then you, too, may be inclined to find the legend reasonable.
The hotel was built in 1887 by two Armenian brothers from Persia. Rudyard Kipling wasn’t impressed when he visited Singapore in 1889, and later wrote, “Raffles Hotel, where the food is as excellent as the rooms are bad.”
But the hotel evolved from a modest 10-room bungalow into a luxurious Victorian Italianate Revival-style, world-renowned resort. James A. Michener, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who first visited the hotel in 1949, wrote “to have been young and had a room at Raffles was life at its best.”
On my second visit to Raffles, I arrived in early evening and the three tiers of colonnaded terraces and balconies, framed by towering livingstonia palms, glowed in soft lights. English novelist Joseph Conrad described the hotel “as airy as a birdcage.”
Raffles attracted royals, American and European actors, and the most elite writers of the day such as Ernest Hemingway and Noel Coward, who frequented the hotel’s Long Bar in the lobby.
The famous Singapore Sling, a fruity punch that packs a subtle but powerful punch, was created sometime before 1910 in the Long Bar for a certain lady who didn’t like the taste of alcohol. The lady remains a mystery, but the drink has become obligatory for anyone passing through the hotel.
The bartenders will give patrons a card listing the ingredients: Gin, Heering cherry liqueur, pineapple juice, lime juice, Cointreau orange liqueur, Bénédictine liqueur, grenadine and a dash of Angostura bitters. For around $36, you can order the sweet red drink and keep the glass.
But I would advise against it. For one thing, the original Long Bar no longer exists; the new Long Bar is in a shopping complex next to the hotel. And the drink is now made from a mix.
So, for an experience that is somewhat similar to that of Hemingway’s, I would suggest relaxing in the leather bar chairs or dark wicker plantation chairs in the Writers Bar in the hotel lobby, and ordering something that doesn’t come in a souvenir glass.
But the rest of the hotel is still the beating heart of Singapore, the meeting place for Singapore’s millionaires and luminaries — one out of every six households has at least $1 million in disposable wealth not including property and businesses, and the country has the third highest per capita income in the world behind Luxembourg and Qatar.
Heads of state and royals still come here. Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge stayed in the hotel’s Presidential Suite in September during an eight-day royal tour of southeast Asia to continue Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee celebration. Coincidentally, the hotel was celebrating its 125th anniversary.
The hotel was named for British statesman Sir Stamford Raffles, the British East Indian administrator who founded the city of Singapore. It remains a testament to British colonialism and is a romantic, intoxicating refuge surrounded by a sterile jungle of high-rise offices and modern condominiums.
In most of Singapore you could just as well be in Atlanta, except for the steamy heat. Singapore is 85 miles north of the equator, and was once covered by rain forest. But now you pretty much have to go to the Singapore Botanic Gardens, also founded by Raffles, to experience nature. That’s what Prince William and Kate did.
But I prefer to relax in the lush palm and fern gardens of the hotel. Maugham worked in the mornings under a frangipani tree in the hotel’s Palm Court, often incorporating local gossip into his stories.
Raffles has somehow kept the best from the past, notwithstanding the Long Bar, and incorporated what sophisticated guests want in the present. The liveried Sikh doormen still wear white turbans, gold braids and sashes, and guide guests through the ornate wrought-iron portico into the three-story lobby. The hotel now has 15 restaurants and bars, but if guests would rather dine on their private terraces, butlers will make all the arrangements including roses and champagne.
Now, back to the tiger legend.
There were indeed many Malayan tigers roaming Singapore in the late 1800s, so many in fact that workers were killed as the rubber plantations encroached on tiger habitats. Bounties on tigers were $100 a head.
And, yes, there was a tiger killed in 1902 at the Raffles Hotel. But the tiger had escaped from a circus, and it was trapped under the billiards room outside in a crawl space.
And it’s true there are no more tigers in Singapore except for a couple of white tigers imported from Indonesia in the Singapore Zoo.
Escapes: Singapore"s Raffles Hotel is life at its best