In 1996 Charles Wang proposed to the Chinese government that they send 100 of their up and coming management professionals to SBU for an intense semester of grad courses and visits to American businesses. He picked up the tab. China had made its decision to join the global economy and chose some of her best and brightest to come. AIMP - Advanced Information Management Program - was born.

They were people like ZHAO Rifeng, now CEO of Jinling Petrochemical, largest division of Sinopec, one of two of China's oil and gas companies. Oil and gas prices are regulated but even so, Jinling managed to make a profit of a few billion. Its goal however, is to be the next Exxon.

And Jack Song, not only CIO of the Agricultural Bank of China, Shandong, but a Shandong provincial legislator. After he came back from SB he purchased what was then the fifth largest supercomputer in China. He cannot wait for an SBU program in China!

And Dr. KOU Fuping, gave up his career in medicine research to become an entrepreneur. He developed an environmentally friendly glue for plywood that is now used extensively - and not just for China. It turns out that about 75% of the plywood in the world is manufactured in Shandong.

The last group of AIMP, known as China V, had such a good time here they have continued to stay in touch. When they learned that the Provost had visited China twice but had not known any alumni to meet with, they decided to make sure the same thing never happened again. In August GU Yong, WANG Shanshan, and Ja Young put together a weekend reunion in Shanghai of China V with alumni coming from Beijing to Guangzhou. It took one of them, Carlos Yang, 18 hours by train and plane from the western province of Jiuquan.

With Dean Chen they are forming an official chapter group within the SBU Alumni Association. They plan to meet with the Dean when he visits in October and the Provost whenever he comes! Their goals are an all-AIMP reunion at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, a reunion at Stony Brook in 2009, and most of all, a reunion when SUNY / SBU opens a campus in China.

China has an intense pecking order of who is a 'leader' and who is higher on the totem pole - and since it is too complex to figure out - this photos and descriptions are in alphabetical order with more to come. Over the course of this semester we are going to be doing stories on all of the China V alumni, similar to the one in this issue on Jack Song.