Eva Serrano, Spanish, is a participant of the initial class of Tsinghua SEM Global Executive Program in China (GEPC). She has been the President of Inditex Greater China since 2019. As one of the largest fashion retailers around the world, Inditex reported revenue of €27.72 billion in fiscal 2021 (1 February 2021 to 31 January 2022), up 35.8% year on year. In 2006, she came to China with Inditex and fulfilled its business development plan in the Asian-Pacific region. Shanghai is a special city for Eva Serrano because she settled down here in 2006 and gave birth to her daughter. She takes this city as her first love and home. In addition, she was nominated as the "2019-2020 Shanghai Outstanding Entrepreneur," won the 2020 Shanghai Magnolia and was elected to the 2021 China Carbon Neutrality Forum launched by the Institute of Global Development, Tsinghua University.
Concerted Efforts to Safeguard Shanghai
On April 14, 50 needy families in Siming Community of Jing'an District in Shanghai received a special caring gift: a box of fresh vegetables (about 5kg) and 30 eggs. This is kindness from Eva Serrano. On March 31, she had purchased 100 vegetable packages for community residents. "The social group that is elderly and physically disabled is vulnerable to the pandemic. They might get stuck. I need to help them get through the hard times."
Eva Serrano is concerned about the daily life of community residents and is ready to do something that is within her scope all the time. When she learned that the grass-roots work was short of hands, she applied to be a volunteer. In March, this blonde foreign executive took the lead in serving the community and assisted residents in NAT tests. She said that epidemic prevention and control are the responsibility of the whole society. She wanted to render her small service to remove some of the workload from community staff. When she learned that community volunteers were badly in need of protective supplies, especially coveralls and disposable gloves, she immediately sought and bought goods in the hope of safeguarding the daily work of community volunteers.
Social initiatives in Motion
Eva Serrano and Inditex commit to the epidemic prevention and control in China through real deeds. Inditex has donated 1 million yuan to Hubei to purchase medical supplies on January 25 when COVID-19 broke out in early 2020. 160,000 medical masks bought abroad were delivered to the affected areas to alleviate the shortage of gauze masks. On February 5, Inditex purchased 2.7 million medical masks and protective garments (worth 1 million euros) in the world, which were distributed to the frontliners across the country via the Tsinghua University Education Foundation. As Henan was hit by extreme rainstorms in July 2021, Inditex and CEPF (China Environmental Protection Foundation) immediately donated relief materials worth 10.58 million yuan to Xinxiang city of Henan province, and 1 million yuan to the disaster area via the China Women Development Foundation.
Eva Serrano takes the GEPC courses
Effusive Friendship with Tsinghua University
Inditex has forged a close partnership with Tsinghua University over the past few years. They have developed pragmatic cooperation in strategic innovation, teachers' development, students' practice and Spanish training in sustainable development, green supply chains and a recycling economy, and have delivered fruitful results. Yang Bin, vice-principal of Tsinghua University, and Pablo Isla, then executive chairman of Inditex, had online exchanges in January 2022, anticipating a closer partnership with Inditex, a concerted contribution to climate change, public health, artificial intelligence governance, online education and other major concerns. Eva Serrano also attended the meeting.
In 2019 the Tsinghua University-Inditex Sustainable Development Foundation was established, which seeks to cultivate awareness and a culture of sustainable development and lay down a global sustainable development strategy via innovation research, cooperative teaching, social practice and Tsinghua University's creative campus management. Pablo Isla acts as a foreign member of the advisory board of Tsinghua SEM and offers advice and suggestions for educational business and the sustainable development of China.
During the 2021 CIIE (China International Import Expo), Isla, and Bai Chongen (Dean of Tsinghua SEM) had a dialogue via video link, discussing ways to deepen cooperation and create value in the economy, society, and environmental protection across the country. Inditex also cooperates with Tsinghua University to support MBA students' overseas study tours to Spain, which has accepted 160 students.
In April 2022, Eva Serrano participated in Tsinghua SEM's Global Executive program in China—Opportunity in Diversity: Decoding the Dynamic Chinese Economy. She stands a chance of having online study and opportunity-sharing with senior enterprise managers from ten countries, including China, USA, France, Spain, South Africa, Singapore, Malaysia and so on. This program is to offer a panoramic perspective for senior managers and business leaders to observe effective leadership and management in a fast-changing Chinese market in accordance with the business practice and regulatory framework of China and Chinese customer expectations. Eva Serrano shared an old Chinese saying that goes “Never stop learning!” She gives much thanks for the recent online courses from Tsinghua professors,” which provide me great opportunities to learn and know a lot about China’s current economy and politics, achieving further self-improvement of the commercial knowledge system!”
From School of Economics and Management
Editors：John Olbrich, Li Han
