Personal Statement
Program: International Finance and Accounting

On Nov. 11, 2001, China, together with the rest of the world, celebrated its ultimate attainment of WTO membership. As a student majoring in finance, I, while praying for a bright future for my country, feel quite excited at the encouraging career opportunities made possible by the opening of China‘s financial sector.

I settled in Hong Kong with my parents in 1994. My middle school life was thus spent in this financial center of the world. My parents now operate several enterprises in HK and my growth accompanied that of those enterprises. I witnessed the entire process how my parents became established in their business. Meanwhile I developed my own strong interest in commerce, especially in finance, and cultivated my business intuition. In 1998, I took the university entrance examination (administered by China Education Commission) specially orientated towards overseas Chinese students and was subsequently enrolled in Tsinghua University as the 2nd top student among them. In this most prestigious university, I chose to specialize in international finance.

With its competitive environment and academic elitism, Tsinghua University helped me develop a mature character and lay a solid career foundation. Nevertheless, as Mainland China and HK differ fundamentally in educational system and textbooks, my initial disorientation resulted in my relatively unsatisfactory scholastic performance. Yet I had implicit confidence in my intelligence and my potential and with due efforts (doing coursework for an average of 10 hours a day was not uncommon) I managed to rank top 10% for the last year in a class of 30 students and was awarded HK PeiHua Educational Scholarship. This reaffirmed my philosophy of life: success comes more from diligence than from natural talents.

Finance is a subject posing high demands on the comprehensive qualities of a person. For a practitioner in this field, mere professional knowledge is not enough. Innovativeness, interpersonal communication, and business intuition are equally important. Therefore I participated actively in rich extracurricular activities. As Minister of Academic Exchange of the Finance Association of Tsinghua University, I organized a number of academic seminars and I was awarded Best Conceptualization for Tsinghua University‘s annual Business Plan Competition. I won second prize in the Academic Paper Contest launched by The School of Management in 2000 for my thesis entitled Insurance Securitization. I have been able to accumulate important practical experience over the past two years by undertaking estate project evaluation and analysis of securities investment for my parents‘ company, applying the theoretical knowledge I had acquired from my studies. By visiting the US, Thailand and other countries, I have developed an international perspective.

In terms of my career objective, I desire to develop myself into a successful financial. Currently, China is relatively weak in its financial sector, e.g. in the creation of financial derivatives and financial management. The Asian Financial Crisis in 1997 fully exposed the flaws inherent in the existing Asian financial market. Being a HK citizen, I particularly understood its disaster impact. On account of the historical and cultural affinities between HK and UK, I choose to pursue advanced studies in UK to major in and finance.

I plan to apply for a Master‘s Program at the reputed London Institute of Finance and Economics where I will receive the most updated professional training and enrich my professional expertise. After completing my Program, I plan to work for approximately 2 years in a multinational financial enterprise in HK and then embark on an MBA Program at a first-rate American university. Ultimately, I plan to take over my parents‘ business and transform their company into a major financial establishment.