OREANDA-NEWS. December 22, 2011. The graduation ceremony of ABC-Canada EMBA Training Program was held in Beijing a few days ago. Mr. Zhang Yun, President of Agricultural Bank of China Limited (ABC) and Mr. Pan Gongsheng, Vice President of ABC, attended the ceremony and delivered speeches. Also present at the ceremony were David Mulroney, Canadian Ambassador to China, Carol Stephenson, Dean of Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, and Gilles Ouellette, President and CEO of Bank of Montreal (BOM) Private Bank Group and Chairman of Bank of Montreal (China) Co., Ltd., who also delivered speeches respectively.

The ceremony was chaired by David Loree, Director of the ABC-Canada EMBA Training Program from Richard Ivey School of Business.

In his speech, Mr. Zhang Yun extended warm congratulations on the success of the training program and to all the students for obtaining their EMBA degrees, and then explicitly put forward the so-called "Four Expectations". Specifically, he expects that firstly, the friendship between ABC, Ivey Business School and Bank of Montreal will be further extended and deepened; secondly, Bank of Montreal and Ivey Business School will further deepen their understanding of ABC, and ABC will further strengthen its knowledge of Canada and the whole world; thirdly, ABC's cooperation with more prestigious foreign universities, banks and other institutions can be boosted on the premise of friendship, equality, mutual benefit and win-win to cultivate high-end talents; and fourthly, all the students can bear in mind the earnest expectation of the Head Office, continue to devote their dedication and progressive efforts to the development of ABC and apply what they have learned to practice while contributing their own wisdom and strength to the cause of making ABC an outstanding large listed bank.

At the ensuing celebration dinner, Mr. Pan Gongsheng gave a warm speech in English to extend heartfelt thanks for the great efforts that Richard Ivey School of Business and Bank of Montreal have devoted to the EMBA Training Program and expressed his warm congratulations to all the new EMBA degree holders.

The ABC-Canada EMBA Training Program, a high-end training program designed to develop senior financial management talents with modern skills and global visions, is jointly organized by ABC, Bank of Montreal and Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario based on relevant provisions of the Memorandum of Cooperation between Agricultural Bank of China Limited and Bank of Montreal. The one-year training program was divided into two stages – EMBA course in Ivey School of Business and practice in Bank of Montreal. Through their diligence and hard work, all the 25 participants of the training program passed the rigorous examination and evaluation, and were ultimately granted with EMBA degrees.

Over 60 people attended the graduation ceremony, including students of the EMBA Training Program, persons in charge of relevant departments of ABC Head Office, together with guests from the Canadian Embassy in Beijing, Richard Ivey School of Business and Bank of Montreal etc.