Alumnus on entrepreneurial story at High Table
On the evening of 14 October, Jia Fan, a 2014 Accounting graduate at UIC, who is also the founder and CEO of Beeplus attended the High Table Dinner as the guest speaker, and shared his entrepreneurial story with the staff and students with the theme of 'Just Try It'.
High Table Dinner
High table guests
President of UIC Prof Tang Tao delivered a welcome speech at the dinner, explaining that the High Table Dinner is a unique tradition of UIC, and this was the first High Table Dinner since the pandemic. He was proud of the achievements made by Jia Fan and his team, for whom is not only doing what they want to do but also making significant contributions to society.
Prof Tang addressed that UIC pays attention to the all-round development of students, and the college will also provide support and help for students who are expecting to start their own businesses.
Prof Tang Tao is delivering a welcome speech
In 2015, Jia Fan and his team established Beeplus. The members of the team are alumni from different majors of UIC. Recently, Beeplus made the list of '2020 China Unicorn & Prospective Unicorn Top 200 List' released by iiMedia Research and was also rated as a prospective unicorn business.
Jia Fan was selected as one of the 2016 Top Ten Entrepreneurial Leaders in Zhuhai and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Plus Jia Fan was also nominated for 2019 Excellent Youth in Zhuhai and entered the 30 Under 30 Forbes List and the Hurun China Under 30s To Watch, and was also an "Innovative Visiting Scholar" of Yale University, all of which has made him a model for youth entrepreneurs in this Greater Bay Area. (Read more: UIC alumni company Beeplus on way to next Unicorn)
Jia Fan giving a speech
In his speech, Jia Fan talked about the importance of trying and practising in college in accordance with his own experiences of establishing a student interest club in UIC and of social and entrepreneurial practices. He mentioned that college life is the time when we have the lowest cost of failure.
Jia Fan explained that failure provides people with valuable experience, and also the beginning of their future success. He believes that not being afraid of failure, ignoring short-term fluctuations and boldly setting long-term goals are the keys to success. He also elaborated the importance of teamwork and encouraged students to unite and even influence people around them and find friends who share the same interests and dare to daydream.
Students asking questions
After the sharing, the students exchanged ideas with Jia Fan about college students' entrepreneurship. Jia Fan suggested that students who are expecting to start a business should not create a company until they have accumulated specific social experience.
Jia Fan firmly believes that every generation has its own opportunities, and every generation has its own problems to be solved; thus, people should feel that now is the best time.
President Tang (right) presents souvenirs to Jia Fan
During the afternoon, Beeplus's 5th Anniversary Movie 'Always Day One' was presented in the Performance Theatre on UIC's campus. The film tells of the story of ten UIC students who founded Beeplus, beginning with the students setting up a student community and devoting themselves to community services. It shows how they raised a million yuan to build a Hope Primary School for children in the rural Guizhou, and how they finally founds an enterprise under the trend of business star-ups, which started in Zhuhai but is now heading for the national market. The movie reveals Beeplus's persistence in creating their own values.
The entrepreneurial story about Beeplus appears on the CCTV news channel
Jia Fan said that UIC had a profound influence on him and his founding team members. The support from teachers enables them to try and realise their ideals more bravely.
The Division of Business and Management (DBM) and the Four-Point Education Coordination Office (FPECO) jointly organised this High Table Dinner. The other honourable guests at the High Table Dinner included UIC Provost, Prof Chen Zhi; Associate Vice President (Student Development), Prof Stella Cho; Associate Vice President (Internationalization), Dean of Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, Prof Adrian Bailey; Academic Registrar, Prof Li Jianhui; Managing Director for Finance and Administration, Mr Nelson Chan; Dean of Division of Culture and Creativity, Prof Holger Briel; and Associate Dean of Division of Business and Management, Dr Donna Chan.
From MPRO
Photographers: Zhang Fan, Wang Xi, Wu Kunchi, Chen Qianyue
Editors: Samuel Burgess, Deen He, Ma Yiran
