Barcelona/Madrid, 29 April 2014. Pedro Nueno, IESE professor and president of China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), has been awarded with the Outstanding Contribution Award from the Chinese government for his contributions to the country´s education system over an intense 30-year period.
The Chinese government has been presenting awards to foreign nationals for various contributions towards the countrybut recently launched this new prize aimed exclusively at professors who have made outstanding contributions towards Chinese education in the last 60 years.
Nueno was among eleven outstanding international academics, including German Nobel Prize winner Thomas Südhof, who specializes in medicine, psychology and brain studies. The awards ceremony was held at the Beijing Normal University, one of the oldest Chinese universities, and some 1,000 members of academia attended.
Also receiving the award alongside Nueno and Südhof were the Professor of Business Management, William Brown, who is recognized for helping the city of Xiamen to be granted an ´international garden;’ Jean Dorey, from France, in recognition of his contribution towards the founding of the Franco Chinese Institute of Engineering and Management; the American Andrew Yao, a Chinese native who was an expert in Computer Services at Princeton University before leaving to become a professor at Tsinghua University in China; Gabriel Salvendy, an American from Purdue University, who is responsible for elevating Tsinghua University´s School of Engineering to the highest level in China and who was also the first non-Chinese chairperson at the same school; Jeffrey Lehman, who formed the University of New York´s campus (of which he is also president) in Shanghai; David Evans, professor of Chemistry at the University of Chemistry in Beijing, where he made key advances in the research process; Willem Horevink, from the Netherlands, whose meetings with Den Xiaoping introduced the latter to international economic models; Isabel Crook, the Canadian who pioneered English teaching in China in the 1940s; and the American Eugene O’Neil, who is also a very highly regarded English teacher.
30 Years in China
Professor Nueno’s work in China began with the launch of an MBA program in Beijing in 1984 – the fruit of an alliance between IESE and four other European schools. In 1994, he created CEIBS in Shanghai; a school which works closely with IESE and of which he is currently president. IESE and CEIBS continue to enjoy a close relationship, which has led them to launch international programs such as the Global CEO Program for China.
The Award also recognizes Pedro Nueno´s efforts in gaining IESE and CEIBS the status of ‘high excellence’, which in turn has enabled Spain to play a fundamental role in Chinese education.
This is not the first award that Nueno has received in China. He has also been presented with the Magnolia Silver Award and the Magnolia Gold Award by the government of Shanghai, the Friendship Award (the most prestigious award in the country) by the central government and now the Medal of Merit in Education. In addition, he was the first foreign national to speak to the new president of China, Xi Jinping.