Wharton hosts global conference

Over the weekend, students and members of the community had the opportunity to network and learn more about issues ranging from privatization in Latin America to wireless telecommunications in Asia.

The student-run Wharton Global Business Forum, held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center and Huntsman Hall, consisted of conferences focusing on Asia, Africa, Europe, India and Latin America.

Each regional conference featured business, academic and political speakers, as well as panels on global business topics.

Participants said it was a rewarding experience.

"I'm German, and I found it an interesting opportunity to look from the outside at what's going on in Europe and how America thinks about it, other than what you learn in the mass media," said Jasper Hanebuth, a second-year MBA student at Emory University.

"There's a real diversity of observations and opinions," said Lisa Compton, a local business representative. "I'm really impressed."

"The transatlantic panel was great," second-year Wharton MBA student Rostan Schwab said.

"For students, it's impressive to put together such a high-quality conference," Schwab added.

The global keynote speaker for the forum was Anshu Jain, head of global markets for Deutsche Bank.

In his speech, Jain outlined how the bank has established a stronger international presence.

"For the last 120 years, Deutsche Bank has been moving in one direction," he said. "In the last three years, we have totally changed directions."

According to Jain, not all the changes Deutsche Bank underwent were initially well-received. For instance, the bank dared to step onto American "turf" by hiring individuals from major American banks like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.

"No bank aroused the negative passion [among its competitors] that we did," he said.

Denis Kalenja, a second-year Wharton MBA student and co-chairman of the forum's European conference, said that the speakers constituted the most successful part of the forum.

"They came from all different areas of life, which is good, since it's important to get some exposure to what's happening in the world of politics, philosophy and economics," he said.

Kalenja estimated that at least 600 people attended the forum overall.

"The turnout of the people could have been a little better, had it not coincided with several other things that were going on at Wharton," he said.

"It's the only conference at Wharton that brings together people from so many different fields of life and countries," he added.

Kalenja also said that the forum provides good networking opportunities, especially "for someone who's not looking to do the traditional Wharton career."

Niraj Shah, second-year MBA student and co-chairman of the India conference, said the forum was "outstanding."

"For the first time this year, we had a health care panel," he added. "It was one of our best-attended panels."

Shah said he would have liked to improve attendance.

"We had good attendance, but we could have done a little bit more in the marketing outreach," he said.

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