GW’s third Global Forum, which will be held March 16-17 in Seoul, Korea, will focus on global growth and innovation.
The GW global community – alumni, students, faculty, parents and friends – is invited to attend the two-day forum held at the Grand Hyatt Seoul where expert faculty and alumni will address relevant global issues.
Asia is a significant region for GW. China, Korea and India send the most students to GW after the United States. Korea is home to the university’s largest and oldest international alumni chapter, with nearly 1,000 alumni. Approximately 4,000 GW alumni live in Asia.
In addition, GW partners with Seoul National University, Ewha Womans University and Yonsei University, all located in Seoul, to provide exchange programs. South Korean President Lee Myung Bak was a visiting scholar at the GW School of Business in 1999 and received an honorary Doctor of Public Service in 2009. Prominent Korean alumni include Philip Jaisohn, M.D. 1892, a Korean nationalist and the first Korean to receive a medical degree in the U.S.; Syngman Rhee, B.A. 1907, the first president of South Korea; Simon Lee, M.S. ’05, president and chief executive officer of STG, Inc., a government-contracting firm; and Lee Kun-hee, chairman of Samsung.
More than 250 people are expected to attend the upcoming Global Forum including executives from multinational corporations, non-governmental organizations, academia and government. While most attendees are GW alumni, faculty as well as some parents and students attend.
The inaugural Global Forum, which examined U.S.-Asia relations, the global economy and international security, was held in Hong Kong. Last year’s forum focused on the global financial crisis and women’s issues and was held in New York City. Keynote speakers included Carlos Slim, chairman of Grupo Carso and of Instituto Carlos Slim de la Salud; John W. Snow, J.D. ’67, former U.S. secretary of the treasury; and Elisabeth Preval, M.B.A. ’88, former first lady of Haiti.
GW is an increasingly global institution. International students make up 7 percent of the incoming undergraduate freshman class, and more than 1,500 graduate students are from outside the U.S. GW’s faculty boasts more than 55 Fulbright Scholars, and GW alumni currently reside in 150 countries around the world. Of the 225,000 GW alumni, nearly 10,000 live outside the U.S.