W.P. Carey helps Chinese business leaders take stock for entry into the world markets.

Wm. Polk Carey, Chairman of W. P. Carey & Co. LLC and the W. P. Carey Foundation, rang The Opening Bell(SM) at the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, October 8, with top executives of some of China's leading State Owned Enterprises who are currently enrolled in ASU's W. P. Carey MBA Shanghai program. Many of these executives serve as chief executive officers, or in related roles, of some of China's most important companies.

Most of these companies are believed to be eminently eligible for listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Following The Opening Bell(SM), met with senior executives of some of the most important global in vestment banks. The W. P. Carey MBA Shanghai represents the first partnership between a U.S. business school and the government of the People's Republic of China.

The two-year executive education program assumes a key role in China's continuing effort to prepare its business and government leaders for the world markets, i.e., the transition from being 100% state owned to becoming publicly owned.

The program, developed in cooperation with the Chinese Ministry of Finance and its Shanghai National Accounting Institute (SNAI), is taught by internationally renowned W. P. Carey faculty, as well as professors from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, NYU, Stanford, Yale and Harvard. More than 45 students were New York to meet with various business leaders after visiting the campus of the W. P. Carey School of Business in Arizona.

"It is an honor to be joined by such a distinguished group of executives in the ringing of The Opening Bell(SM)," said Win. Polk Carey, Chair man of W. P. Carey & Co. LLC.

"The W. P. Carey MBA Shanghai program is unique in that most of its students are largely chief executive officers of some of China's most important companies. Having participants of such high rank is one reason it is oft described as the world's most senior EMBA program. I am pleased to host this elite group as they visit our great city and witness the success of American capitalism."

Ker-Wei "Buck" Pei, associate dean for Asian Pacific programs at the W. P. Carey School of Business, said, "These students are among those who are leading China's entry into the world market, and they are honored and excited to participate in the ceremonial opening of the trading day."