Background
Ning Xiangdong was born in 1965, China.
向东 宁
Ning Xiangdong was born in 1965, China.
He obtained his BA in National Economic Management from SEM of Tsinghua University in 1988; and his MA in engineering economics from SEM of Tsinghua University in 1990. He graduated from Tsinghua Unversity, with a Ph.D. in econometrics in 2002. Now he teaches EMBA, MBA, master and doctoral courses at Tsinghua SEM, including Corporate Organization and Management, Strategic Management, Management Economics, etc.
Ning considers the Chinese economy to be unique, and that it is important to study its historical development. It would be incorrect to adopt Western theories and practices on a wholesale basis. His master’s thesis involved a study of the history of the Chinese rural economy. With the economic reform and development in the late 1980s, Ning’s doctoral research focused on current economic developments involving corporate governance and state-owned property management. He has since carried out in-depth research on corporate governance and enterprise management in state-owned and private enterprises, economics of transition in state-planned versus market economies, economic policies, conditions and development, property and industrial management. Ning’s other areas of research include dividends and shares in listed companies, unbalanced regional economic development and the ethical responsibilities of multinational companies.
Ning has travelled widely as a visiting scholar, observing and learning from foreign institutions. He was at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1995, 1996 and 1999 where he first conceived the proposal of having an masters of public administration program and a school of public policy and management at Tsinghua; the University of Sydney in 1999 where he was involved with international programs and worked with the well-known Australian economist Peter Swan; Harvard Business School in 2001; the University of New South Wales in 2002–03; and the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2003.
Besides teaching at the SEM, Ning has been involved in numerous academic programs outside Tsinghua. In May 2004, he participated in a joint program on ‘China’s Policy Reforms: Progress and Challenges’ with the Stanford Center for International Development and NCER; and in August 2005 in the conference on ‘China at the Crossroads: FX and Capital Markets Policies for the Coming Decade’ with Columbia University and NCER; he was program director of the ‘Tsinghua SEM-McKinsey & Company Joint Program: Study on Key Factors for the Success of China’s Leading High-Tech Firms’ in 2006–07; he participated in the Philanthropy Forum at SEM held by the Hurun Report to debate ‘Individual and Corporate Philanthropy’ in April 2006; dialoged in the Tsinghua SEM-EMBA Graduation Forum with other SEM professors and graduate students in July 2007; was a member of the teaching faculty on corporate governance and values at the Harvard Business School’s Senior Executive Program for China in 2007–08; and worked with an international intern from Harvard’s Weissman International Internship Program to conduct research on the corporate governance of Chinese state-owned enterprises in 2008.
In addition, Ning has held many non-academic appointments. He was a project consultant for the World Bank in 2000, research project consultant for McKinsey & Company in 2004, is a current board member of many large state-owned enterprises, a board member of the Beijing Economics Association, an independent trustee of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, a special inspector of the State Council, a member of Beijing’s One Hundred Talents Programs, and a contributor to the early part of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2006–10).
Ning is a well-known media voice in newspapers, magazines, and on the web, as author or critic on current economic development trends and issues. Among these, he has appeared in CEOCIO China, China Business Feature, China Daily, China Human Resources Development Network, China View, china.com.cn, finance.sina.com.cn, The Standard (Hong Kong) and the Taipei Times. He also has a blog on my.opera.com. As an outspoken economist, Ning believes that the Chinese government needs a complete overhaul in order to continue to make economic progress; fundamental reforms are necessary to deal with structural problems in the Chinese economy; and structural adjustment and effective cooling measures are essential for the overheating economy.