image: This is a view of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. view more
Credit: Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
They may hunt in a pack when penetrating new markets, but a group of 31 Singapore entrepreneurs are banding together to provide financial aid to needy students of the Nanyang Business School (NBS) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Their collective gift of $100,000, which the government will match with $150,000, will provide for an endowment to fund up to two $5,000 bursaries a year, starting from the next Academic Year.
The donors, who include Mr Charles Wong of Charles & Keith, Mr Goh Kai Kui of New Moon (Goh Joo Hin), and Ms Lynn Tan of Fusion Cosmetics, are members of the Entrepreneurs' Organisation (EO). EO is a global network of 7,300 entrepreneurs that seeks to bring business self-starters together to learn from each other's expertise and experience. This is the first time that the EO is giving to a university in Singapore. Nanyang Business School was a natural choice, given its standing as a top business school in Asia and the world, and its strong reputation as a training ground for global business and industry leaders.
"The Entrepreneurs' Organisation has been excellent in organising learning, experiential events from which we ourselves have benefited. We thought it would be wonderful if we can come together and look outwards to help the less privileged," said Mr Henry Tan, who is the president of EO's Singapore chapter with 78 members, and who, in 1988, graduated from the School of Accountancy and Business, the predecessor of today's Nanyang Business School.
"We strongly believe that teaching a person how to fish is more important than giving him fish. As entrepreneurs running businesses, we appreciate the importance of education in management and strategy. We thus believe that this bursary is the best way for us to help less well-off students get a university degree that will aid them in their career and business aspirations," Mr Tan added.
NBS Associate Dean (Undergraduate Academic) Patricia Tan said, "The EO Bursary Fund is a clear show of strength in unity. It is most heartening that entrepreneurs in their prime of their business careers are looking even now to share their successes with the less privileged."
EO hopes its latest philanthropic effort will inspire others to greater charity. "We hope that through the setting up of the Entrepreneurs' Organisation Bursary Fund, more entrepreneurs will do their part in the future and have a thought for others as they continue to do well in their businesses," Mr Tan said.
Media contacts:
Bryan Lee
Director, Corporate Relations
Nanyang Business School
Nanyang Technological University
Tel: 6790 6904
Email: bryanlee@ntu.edu.sg
Feisal Abdul Rahman
Senior Assistant Director, Media Relations
Corporate Communications Office
Nanyang Technological University
Tel: 6790 6687
Email: feisalar@ntu.edu.sg
About the Entrepreneurs' Organisation
The Entrepreneurs' Organisation (EO) is a global community that enriches members' lives through dynamic peer-to-peer learning, once-in-a-lifetime experiences, and connections to experts. Founded 23 years ago by young, energetic entrepreneurs, EO currently has 7,300 members in over 120 Chapters in 42 countries around the globe. EO members come from all walks of life and run companies of every type and size imaginable. All share a common desire to grow their businesses, learn from others and, share their experiences. EO Singapore was founded in 1999, and is made up of successful Singaporean entrepreneurs from across a spectrum of industries.
For more information, visit www.eoasia.org.
About Nanyang Business School
The Nanyang Business School (NBS) is a leading business school committed to nurturing leaders for a sustainable world through academically rigorous curricula that are relevant to business practice. NBS is one of Asia's largest business schools, offering a comprehensive array of undergraduate and graduate programmes in accountancy and business. The Nanyang MBA is its flagship programme and has been consistently ranked among the best in the Asia-Pacific by both The Financial Times and The Economist. Drawing on a 50-year heritage of educating the region's business leaders, NBS provides an outstanding learning environment with state-of-the-art facilities and world-class research centres.
NBS is the first business school in Singapore, and the third in Asia, to attain both the European Quality Improvement System and Association of Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditations. It is also one of only five business schools outside of the United States to be accredited with the AACSB in Accounting. These are the most widely recognised European and American quality assurance standards relating to the provision of accounting and business education.
To leverage the strengths of world-class institutions, NBS has established strategic partnerships with the business schools of many internationally renowned universities. These include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Carnegie Mellon University; Cornell University; University of California, Berkeley; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Essec Business School; University of St Gallen; Waseda University; and the Shanghai Jiaotong University.
For more information, please visit www.nbs.ntu.edu.sg
About Nanyang Technological University
A research-intensive public university, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has 33,500 undergraduate and postgraduate students in the colleges of Engineering, Business, Science, and Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences. In 2013, NTU will enrol the first batch of students at its new medical school, the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, which is set up jointly with Imperial College London.
NTU is also home to four world-class autonomous institutes – the National Institute of Education, S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Earth Observatory of Singapore, and Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering – and various leading research centres such as the Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute (NEWRI) and Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N).
A fast-growing university with an international outlook, NTU is putting its global stamp on Five Peaks of Excellence: Sustainable Earth, Future Healthcare, New Media, New Silk Road, and Innovation Asia.
NTU has a satellite campus in Singapore's science and tech hub, one-north, and is setting up a campus in Novena, Singapore's medical district. It will also have its first campus in China, the NTU Tianjin College, in 2013.
For more information, please visit www.ntu.edu.sg