The young professionals from the ICBC 2018 team stopped by the Alice Campbell Alumni Center on Thursday, August 16th, before taking off for the last leg of their specialized training program in Chicago. They have spent the last 6 months on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus diligently applying what they have learned preparing a final group project on innovation. More on this program below:

ICBC:

• Multinational commercial bank, state-owned
• Largest bank in China, largest bank in the world by total assets ($4 trillion)

• Over 400,000 employees

Delegation:

• 21 mid-level executives, ages all in their 30’s, have been ICBC employees for 5-11 years, most have Master’s degrees already
• Come from Head Office as well as many different regional branches
• Working as managers: client managers (both personal and corporate banking), product managers, e-banking, marketing, etc.
• A goal for many of them is to be promoted to an overseas branch of ICBC

Program Format:

• Nine-month program in 3 Phases: customized academics (3.5 months), summer course audits (2 months), and internships in Chicago (3 months).
• Customized courses’ focus was on corporate finance. Also took classes in risk management, accountancy, behavioral economics, cross-cultural management etc.
• Business/Academic English class two days per week for duration of Phase I and II.
• Every Friday they have a visit – to meet with a bank or business, visit a new city. Most recently, they have had lots of interviews with companies in Chicago for upcoming internships.
• Community collaboration: Spent time with conversation partners. Also collaborated with American undergrads who were learning about China in preparation for a study-tour, Chinese undergrads looking to work in China, and Master’s students in Accountancy looking to learn more about networking in the US and China.
• They move to Chicago (August 17).

Feel free to reach out to us if you would like to invite the ICBC Team to Illini events in Chicago.