A FORMER Cradock High School learner recently had the opportunity to share his ideas on finance and trade on a global platform when he was invited to attend a symposium in Switzerland earlier this month.
Jason Lord (22) attended Cradock High School as a boarder from Hofmeyr. He is currently completing his Master’s degree in economics at Stellenbosch University.
He attended the 49th St Gallen Symposium in Switzerland, hosted by the University of St Gallen from May 4 – 12. He obtained an invitation to attend as a postgraduate student through submitting a paper in the essay competition on how he defines “Capital for Purpose” in the future.
Over 850 young, aspiring leaders entered the essay competition.
Only 100 students (from 54 countries) were selected, which officially qualified him for the Wings of Excellence Award 2019 and he now formally forms part of the group of “Leaders of Tomorrow”(LoTs). Jason mentions that nine African students attended the event, of which only two (including himself) currently study on the African continent. He was one of the youngest participants at the event.
The main topic was a discussion on “Capital for Purpose” and how it relates to the business world and trade between countries, globally.
Within this topic, panel discussions, lectures, debates and Q&A sessions took place on three main themes including finding the link between capital and purpose in the corporate and state areas, the current outlook of democracy and capitalism and finally, patterns seen in the international trade markets (specifically for the trade war between the US and China).
The chair of the symposium was Lord Griffiths of Fforestfach – the former special advisor to the British prime minister and former deputy-chairperson at Goldman Sachs.
Other notable speakers were the deputy prime minister of Singapore, the minister of investment, trade and industry from Botswana, Martin Wolf – chief economics commentator for the Financial Times and Arancha Gonzalez – executive director at the International Trade Centre.
University professors from Harvard, Princeton and Oxford also attended the symposium, along with several entrepreneurs and young start-up businesspeople.
