Where Talent Meets Opportunity: CanCham’s Future Talent Forum

On the afternoon of June 22nd, the ground-floor conference hall of Fudan University Fudan University’s Yifu Building filled with more than 100 students, young professionals, entrepreneurs, educators, and business leaders — all drawn by one question: what does it take to build a career, and a future, in a world being rewritten faster than ever?

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai Future Talent Forum was built to connect academic learning with the real world — the future of work, AI, entrepreneurship, and career development. For an afternoon, a university campus became exactly what campuses are meant to be: a place where ideas, people, and future possibilities meet.

CanCham Chair, Dr. Mark Ceolin opened the Forum alongside Tracy Diehl , Consul General of Canada in Shanghai. Plenary keynotes followed from Dr. Jun Qian, Executive Dean of the Fudan International School of Finance (FISF), and Yvonne He, Senior Vice President of IMAX China — leaders from finance and entertainment setting the tone for the day.

A Milestone: The CanCham x FISF Scholarship

The afternoon’s centerpiece was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between CanCham Shanghai and the Fudan International School of Finance, signed by Dr. Mark Ceolin on behalf of CanCham’s Board of Directors and Dr. Jun Qian for FISF.

Under the Memorandum of Understanding, the two parties will take the “Fudan International School of Finance–The Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai International Excellence Scholarship” as the starting point for collaboration and establish a scholarship cooperation mechanism covering three FISF degree programs: the Part-time Finance MBA, the Full-time Finance MBA, and the FISF EMBA. Eligible candidates nominated by the Board of Directors of The Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai will have the opportunity to receive corresponding scholarship support after completing the formal admissions review and scholarship evaluation process of the relevant FISF program. Building on this cooperation, both parties will further promote long-term collaboration in student recruitment, talent development, corporate engagement, and brand co-building.

Following the signing, real business began:

Two Panels, Two Playbooks for the Future

Panel 1 — Work Rewritten by AI.

Moderated by Dr. Daniel Araya, PhD (Professor, East China Normal University), the first discussion tackled the question on every emerging professional’s mind: how is AI reshaping work, and how do you prepare for it? Panelists Murray King (VP, Shanghai Disney Resort), Yuan Yao (Chief Data Officer, KPMG China ), Liu Chen (Professor, Beijing Foreign Studies University ), Fei Tan (Professor, East China Normal University ), and Howard Du (Executive Director, Shanghai Giant Shoulder Financial Information Service) explored the skills that grow more valuable as tools get more powerful — judgment, communication, adaptability — and where human value matters most as entry-level roles evolve.

Panel 2 — The Entrepreneur’s Playbook.

Moderated by Dr. Mark Ceolin, entrepreneurial know-how came out as founders and operators got practical: how ideas become real businesses, how to validate them and find early customers, and what it takes to build something credible and sustainable within China’s evolving innovation ecosystem. Panelists David Li (Founder, Shenzhen Open Innovation Lab), Jeffery Pi (Entrepreneur / Partner, Studio Stare), Marcia Chen (Founder & CEO, Women Alliance Group), Aaron Choi (Owner, Parlay Restaurant), Oliver Qiu (Founder, Orange Diary), and Mary Xu (Entrepreneur, e-Joy I&T; FISF MBA PT+ alumna) spoke candidly on founder mindset, resilience, and how investors weigh risk, scale, cash flow, and long-term potential.

Thank you to our Sponsors and Partners!

The future of talent isn’t something that happens to us — it’s built in rooms like this one. CanCham Shanghai looks forward to what comes next.

CPKC Manulife Air Canada CN BMO Fudan International School of Finance Tim Hortons FL Renewables University of Toronto GatherGro The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

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