On the afternoon of September 28, the 5th Academic Salon for Ph.D. Students in Theoretical Economics in 2018 (the 41st in history) was staged by the China Center for Special Economic Zone Research (CCSEZR), Shenzhen University (SZU) at the International Conference Hall A. The salon was organized in the form of a seminar and was attended by faculties and Chinese and foreign PhD students and graduate students of the CCSEZR. The keynote speaker at this salon was financier Ercole Manzi from Italy, who was graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Over the past 20 years, he has acted as a head of large multinational financial institutions such as UBS and Merrill Lynch and has garnered extensive experience in cross-border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, investment and restructuring. At the seminar, he shared his working experience and understanding of the current economic situation and industry, and his willingness do his part in promoting Chinese companies to go global. This salon was presided over by Dr. Ma Limei of the CCSEZR.
"Have you ever thought that you will become a CFO in the near future? What are the required skillset for a CFO in the new millennium? What kind of CFOs can lead Chinese companies to succeed in international markets? Mr. Manzi started off by asking questions and elaborated on the following five parts including “market environment analysis”, “risk perception”, “ability to handle complex crises”, “company capital structure analysis” and “importance of professional brokers in financial markets”. He explained that since the 2008 financial crisis, how the Fed's ultra-quantitative easing monetary policy enables other countries around the world to share the risks of inflation and dollar depreciation for the United States; that in corporate finance, how accounting standards under different standards affect earnings of a company; that today's economic environment poses huge challenges for the merger of multinational banks in the eurozone; and that whether profits of a company will be affected by its financing structure. By sharing cases, comparing the industries between the U.S. and Europe, conducting a questionnaire survey and interacting with doctoral students, Mr. Manzi analyzed that as the global economy becomes more complex and volatile over time, in the context of globalization, corporate CFOs will face tougher challenges in the future.
Finally, Mr. Manzi concluded: “Becoming a CFO in the new era is like starting a new journey that will never end, which is certainly the beauty of it.” The CFOs in the new millennium will be comprehensive financial talent who are multi-skilled, internationally-informed and well-trained. They should not only have strategic, managerial and risk control thinking, but also sharp market insight and extensive industry experience. By comparing China with the West, sharing ideas and combining the theory with practice, this salon was successfully concluded amid a relaxed and warm atmosphere. (Correspondent: Lian Hanyu)
