Cebuano student among 5 eyed to be panelist in global event

A CEBUANO student is competing with four other top students from around the world to be the student panelist in the upcoming World Business Dialogue.

The World Business Dialogue is the world’s largest student-run business convention organized by the University of Cologne. Every year, 60 top businessmen dialog with 300 students chosen from universities all over the world.

Past speakers have included Josef Ackermann, chief executive officer of Deutsche Bank, Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, and Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York.

This year will be its 16th year and will be held on March 12 to 15 with the theme
“Next Generation Business Strategies.”

Earl Christianson Ng was nominated as one of the top five students who might participate in the opening panel of the business convention.

The opening panel will discuss how the needs of businesses and individuals can be matched. This is the first time a student will join speakers on stage to represent the needs of the young generation, the World Business Dialogue in its website said.

Ng will be a panelist if he wins through online voting. Ng is competing with Michael Creegan, Parul Arora, Caner Akturk, and Milana Bessarab.

In his 30-second elevator pitch, Ng said “he grew up in a business family which both had the best of the east and the west” and “that he is interested in how different cultures can blend together as well as different economics and business perspective from people of different borders can come together.”

Ng is a graduate of Center for International Education. He is currently taking up Bachelor of Arts Major in Chinese Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is the eldest son of Wilson and Melanie Ng.

Wilson is the president and chief executive officer of Ng Khai Development Corp. and a columnist of Sun.Star Cebu. Melanie is the chairman of Philippine Retailers Association (PRA) Cebu chapter.

As of 5:20 p.m. yesterday, Ng is competing closely with Arora at 39 percent or 5,723 votes. Arora is leading the online voting at 42 percent or 6,119 votes. The online voting already garnered 14,660 votes in seven days.