Weijian Shan

Chairman and CEO
PAG

Dr Shan’s autobiography, Out of the Gobi: My Story of China and America, is a memoir of his life as a young student in Beijing witnessing the upheaval of the cultural revolution. At the age of 15 he volunteered to serve as a farm labourer and was sent to a camp in the Gobi Desert. Throughout years of harsh physical labour toiling up to 15 hours a day in the fields, the teenage Shan read voraciously, including teaching himself English. Finally, he resumed his education first in China and then becoming one of the first PRC students to study abroad. Dr Shan earned an MBA from the University of San Francisco and a doctorate in business from Berkeley.

Dr Shan’s new book, MONEY GAMES: The Inside Story of How American Dealmakers Saved Korea’s Most Iconic Bank.

From this author

Inclusive and workplace acceptance of refugees
Partnering for refugee employment

When considering their talent pipelines, few companies think outside-of-the-box. Most refugees flourish in the workplace, and so do the businesses that hire them.

SDG 16
Institutional investors demand a more sustainable capitalism

Honey gathering is a solitary job in Indigenous communities. The collector then shares the honey with their community but refrains from joining in the honey feast themself. The idea is that the gathering is not about their gratification, it’s about their contribution to the collective.  

SDG15 Bushfires
Optimisation model as a guide to burning forests to save forests

Setting fire to parts of a forest to save it might seem counterintuitive to urban communities. There is no equivalent of torching a few streets to protect a suburb. However, amongst First Nations people in Australia, hazard reduction burning is a well-established practice.

SDG13 - coal mining
Net zero now – it’s the economy AND the planet

In Australia, as elsewhere, the climate wars have focused on the climate versus jobs dichotomy. Yet while Australia remains highly dependent on fossil fuel extraction for its national economic prosperity it has also become increasingly unequal in its distribution of that wealth.