Tsinghua -- Cradle of Engineers, Entrepreneurs and Statesmen
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E-mail TEEC, April 25, 2012
When Aart de Geus, the Chairman and CEO of Synopsys, Inc., stepped onto the podium of the Synopsys CEO Executive Forum at the landmark Shangri-la Hotel in West Beijing, he certainly did not expect to be invited back to the stage to join an aerobic dance with a dozen members of the Tsinghua Entrepreneur and Executive Club (TEEC) at the start of a joint dinner at the TEEC annual conference that evening. Apparently, TEEC (www.teec.org.cn) was not about to let a good opportunity go unused.
The two events on the same day blended seamlessly. As an immigrant entrepreneur himself, de Geus, who spoke on how one should "never let a good crisis go unused" in light of the current economic downturn, resonated very well with TEEC members, most of whom are returnee entrepreneurs. His extraordinary success in taking a company from inception to an industry-dominant leader within a short time span inspired TEEC members, many of whom are running young and promising businesses.
TEEC began in a "Silicon Valley garage" some eight years ago, when a group of Tsinghua University alumni in California decided to get together every now and then to exchange ideas and experiences running high-tech startups. Only recently though, in 2005, did its membership experience a dramatic expansion, when some of the original Silicon Valley founders returned to Beijing and brought the organization and its activities with them. The group has flourished ever since, with branches spanning Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and North America, growing numbers of TEEC alumni becoming entrepreneurs, and a considerable number of member companies maturing and going public.
Today, the 123 members of TEEC command public companies with collective market capitalization amounting to hundreds of billions of RMB, and private companies worth yet additional tens of billions of RMB. Member companies are concentrated heavily in the high-tech arena, ranging from semiconductor, internet, communication, media and software.
Netscreen Technologies, for instance, a manufacturer of hardware-based VPN and firewall products acquired by Juniper Networks for US$4 billion in 2004, was founded and managed by an early TEEC member, Feng Deng. Feng served as co-Chairman of TEEC in 2005 and is still very active in the group. Ping Wu and Datong Chen, TEEC members, co-founded Spreadtrum Communications, Inc., a China IC design flagship company headquartered in Shanghai and took it public on NASDAQ in 2007.
When asked how TEEC helps its members, the newly elected 2009 TEEC Chairman, Datong Chen, had a good example handy: "Early in April, when we at Spreadtrum needed to be introduced to the management of China Mobile, we established four different connections within 24 hours through the TEEC network." What is the most important thing doing business in China? Connections. You got it.
Many TEEC members, who also attribute their success to the training they received at Tsinghua University, volunteer to help in return by mentoring senior class students, taking apprentices one at a time. From several days to a few months, each student spends almost all his or her waking time observing the mentor's working life, from office activities to technical reviews, employee meetings, and perhaps even business negotiations.
Jeromy Xue, the General Secretary of TEEC, said, "These students are eager and quick to learn. Providing this mentoring opportunity, we hope to help in their process of growing into more talented and more mature people. Who knows, one of them might someday become another Hu Jintao." [He was referring to another famous alumnus, Chinese President Hu Jintao, the current Chinese paramount leader, who graduated with a degree in Hydraulic Engineering in 1965.] Early exposure to the "executive life" is apparently well received and much appreciated by the students and the University. One of the alumni of the program said that the condensed real life training was so unique that it had changed his career plans.
As a group, Tsinghua graduates fared surprisingly well during China's transition of leadership from old and established communists to young and more pragmatic technocrats. Three out of the nine members of the current Politburo Standing Committee, China's de facto top power organ, are Tsinghua alumni.
Located in the northwestern suburbs of Beijing, Tsinghua University was established in 1911 on the site of "Qing Hua Yuan" - a former royal garden of the Qing Dynasty. Funded with part of the "Boxer Indemnity," it was at first a preparatory school called "Tsinghua Xuetang" for students who were sent by the government to study in the United States after graduation. By the end of 2000, Tsinghua University had eight colleges and 43 departments, 44 research institutes, nine engineering research centers, and 163 laboratories, including 15 national key laboratories. The university offers 37 bachelor's degree programs, 107 master's degree programs and 64 Ph.D. programs.
With "Self-discipline and Social Commitment" as its motto, Tsinghua has been proud to be viewed as a "Cradle of Engineers." With some of these engineers choosing to be entrepreneurs and some deciding to make careers in the government, it will be interesting to see how Tsinghua will continue to shape China's future.
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