St. John’s University has a large number of very distinguished alumni, many of them CEO’s of well-known Taiwan companies, and many of them very active in the SJU Alumni Association ~ and always willing to help support their alma mater!

And so it was that this past week, one of our distinguished alumni, Mr. Gary Chen, arranged for one of his clients, Mr. Drew Schramm to address St. John’s University as part of our Distinguished Lecturer Program, on the subject of ‘Sourcing in Asia’.  Here we all are ~ with Mr. Gary Chen far right next to Mr. Drew Schramm, and then Mr. Eddy Torng – another distinguished alumni next to me….

Mr. Drew Schramm is President of World Resource Partners, which helps US companies find suitable companies overseas to work with, particularly in Asia.  It is part of G&T Industries, which also makes foam products like office and hotel furniture and medical equipment, and is based in Michigan, USA. Drew is also in charge of Global Sourcing there, with more than 30 years of business experience….

The visit to St. John’s University took part on Wednesday afternoon, and I was asked to act as MC for the occasion. Bit of a shock since I know nothing about the business world and even less about ‘global sourcing’, but hey, well, thanks to Google and, well, that the lecture was all in English, and of course that Drew was a great speaker ~ y’know I learned a whole lot!

After a visit to Advent Church, and then to visit SJU President, Chen Jean-Lien, the lecture started at 3:00pm.  The students who attended were 3rd year students in the Dept. of Applied English, then there were at least 10 faculty from various departments in the Business School ~ and the official welcome was given by Dr. Hsu, Dean of Academic Affairs….

And we had time for questions, on the importance of environmental issues in business, and about Drew being referred to in his previous job at Herman Miller as ‘Champion of Green’.  He was also asked what quality is most important for success in business. His answer was ‘wisdom’ ~ which is gained from experience.  So get a job, start at the bottom, learn everything you can, and work up from there!

And finally a group photo of us all, smiling away ~ y’know,  it was quite an inspiring afternoon!