Driven by Gratitude
Baolong Automotive is honouring its NUS roots with its first gift to help aspiring business leaders pursue their education and access global opportunities.
NUS Business alumnus Mr Charles Zhang established the Baolong Automotive Bursary at his alma mater.
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For the founders of Shanghai Baolong Automotive Corporation, entrepreneurship and education go hand in hand. This belief has inspired the company to establish the Baolong Automotive Bursary at the NUS Business School (NUS Business).
The seeds for this gift were sown over 20 years ago—it was through the EMBA-C programme at NUS Business that Chairman and President Mr Charles Zhang (EMBA-C ’07) and his co-founder Mr Holley Chen (EMBA-C ’07) built core memories and grew into the businessmen that they are today.
“Our entrepreneurial journey is inseparable from our university experience,” Mr Zhang shared. “During our school years at NUS, our study of business management courses played a very important role in developing our enterprise.”
In recent years, over a dozen executives from Baolong Automotive have gone on to attend the same programme, all reporting major benefits to their personal and professional growth.
Built on these success stories, the Baolong Automotive Bursary is a natural expression of gratitude and of paying forward the opportunities that have shaped its people. The Bursary will support financially needy undergraduates at NUS Business School, enabling them to fully focus on their education and excel in their entrepreneurial ambitions.
“Although the beneficiaries are not members of our company, extending the benefits we have received from a transformative NUS education to more people is also a very meaningful thing,” Mr Zhang said. “We hope that the Bursary will help talented young people better complete their studies and lay a good foundation for their future career development.”
A Classroom of Global Opportunities
Mr Zhang credits NUS not just for his business education, but also for widening his worldview. With teachers and classmates from different countries, the classroom became a meeting point of cultures and ideas. “We had many opportunities to be exposed to Western and Eastern management theories,” he recalled. “Therefore, NUS has always been a platform for the integration of the East and the West.”
These experiences later helped him in his professional life, as his company grew into a global enterprise that connects with markets around the world.
Mr Zhang’s wish is for the Bursary’s recipients to experience this global experience as well. “Young people should go out into the world and broaden their horizons,” he said. “Education is a very important pillar in this regard.”
Other than having a global mindset, Mr Zhang hopes that recipients will embody Baolong’s corporate values of being responsible, enterprising and sharing. “We hope they can understand these values, and also be able to practise them,” he said. “And in the future, they can also contribute to society and help more people.”
You too can support the next generation of business leaders by contributing to the NUS Business Student Support Fund, where your gift will empower students to achieve their full potential.
