College of Business > News & Events > DePaul Hosts First Business Alumni Reunion in China

DePaul Hosts First Business Alumni Reunion in China

DePaul group reunites alumni and meets prospective students in Shanghai

By Robin Florzak / May 18, 2017 / Posted in: Alumni, Students, College and Schools / Twitter / Facebook

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For DePaul alumna Quen Wang, attending DePaul Unive­rsity’s first-ever business alumni reunion in China felt like “coming home.”

“I saw so many friends and professors,” says Wang (MSA ’16), an audit associate in Deloitte’s Suzhou office. “This is also a good stage for us to network with new friends to exchange ideas with each other. Everyone was excited and enjoyed it.”

Held at the Fairmont Peace Hotel on The Bund in Shanghai, the reunion and networking event attracted more than 60 alumni who live and work in China. Most of the attendees were finance alumni, followed by marketing and accountancy graduates.

Hui Lin, DePaul’s associate director of regional initiatives for China, organized the spring gathering through a new WeChat social media group that she created with Li Jin, director of Chinese studies program for DePaul alumni in China. The online group has attracted 266 followers so far.

"We haven’t had a formal event like this before, and everybody was really excited to be re-connecting with other alumni,” says Lin, who teaches accounting at DePaul’s Driehaus College of Business. “Given the recent increase in our student population from China, this made sense.”

"We’ve received very positive feedback, including interest in our having another event in the future,” she adds.   The success of the Shanghai event has already inspired alumni in Shenzhen to organize their own reunion in May through a new Shenzhen-area alumni WeChat group with 76 members.

Lin hosted the event with Associate Professor of Marketing Zafar Iqbal, who directs the Driehaus Center for International Business, and Elaina Mack, assistant director of recruitment at the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business.

While in China, the trio also connected with Chinese students interested in attending DePaul’s graduate business program. They answered questions about international admission, coursework, internships and career support at DePaul, and life in Chicago.

The growing number of DePaul alumni in China is a great career networking asset for students should they decide to attend DePaul, Lin says.

Those alumni include Phoebe Shijun Li (BUS ’14), who travelled 300 miles to attend the reunion. “I really appreciate Professor Lin and Zafar for creating this awesome reunion opportunity for Chinese alumni and inviting us to attend,” says Li, vice president of marketing and sales at Honghai Glass Inc. “The reception brought us together from different industries after graduation. With this precious opportunity, we had a chance to know more people, learn from each other and reunite with our university professors and old friends."

Another alumna, Gengyan Xu (MBA ’16), a management trainee at Haitong Securities in Shanghai, also called the event “a great opportunity to network with alumni and make new friends.”

“I appreciated DePaul staff’s hard work and look forward to next year’s reception,” Xu says.

To join the WeChat DePaul alumni group, contact Hui Lin at hlin14@depaul.edu.

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