By Wang Yuan

Special to the Tsinghua News Center

The 2008 Friendship Award was recently announced at the Great Hall of the People. Tsinghua School of Economics and Management (SEM) Professor and American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellow John L. Thornton was awarded the honor. A total of 50 foreigners were selected as the winners of this year.

John L. Thornton was Retired President and Member of the Board of Directors of the Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. He has been a member of Tsinghua SEM's Advisory Board since 2000. He served as a Tsinghua Guest Professor and Director of the Global Leadership Program at Tsinghua SEM since 2003.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang met with the foreign experts who were presented with this year's Friendship Award at the Great Hall of the People.

The Friendship Award is a state-level award set up to thank and commend outstanding foreign experts annually for their contributions to China's social development and economic, scientific, technological, educational and cultural construction. The Award was set up in 1991; it is the highest honor presented by the Chinese government to foreign experts working in China. So far, 999 foreigners from 58 countries were awarded the honor, with 6 experts working for Tsinghua.