On Monday 21 October, Darden was privileged to host Cynthia Wu, Executive Vice President of Shinkong Life Insurance Co., Ltd, Executive Director of Shinkong Life Foundation, and Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum. Shirley Lin, Compton Visiting Professor in World Politics at the Miller Center of Public Affairs, moderated a dialogue with Cynthia following Cynthia’s presentation focused on “The Role of the Private Sector in Development: Perspectives from Asian Family Business.”  Darden’s Asia Initiative and the Asia Business Club at Darden (ABCD) sponsored the session. RJ Ramirez, VP of Communications and Media for the ABCD, shared, ““The Asia Business Club at Darden focuses on promoting Asian culture and awareness to the entire Darden community and happily co-hosted and promoted the event as it is a great opportunity for everyone to learn from one of the most prominent Asian leaders in business and philanthropy.”

Carolyn Li, ABCD’s  VP of events described her key takeaways from the discussion, “ABCD is really honored to co-host Cynthia’s dialogue session with us today. One thing she said that really resonated with me is that what you know in your 20’s is most important, but, in your 30’s, who you know becomes more important. I felt that building relationships was a theme that recurred during the session – Cynthia also mentioned something about her father saying they never leave their business partners with the “bare bones” of a deal so that they could continue to work together in the future. This is something I intuitively felt is right, but hearing it come from someone so successful makes it all the more valid.”