Feedback from mentors:

My mentoring with my mentee has been an opportunity for shared learning across cultures and across the automotive and aerospace industries. We come out from it enriched with new perspectives on how to lead in a dynamic and changing environment! 

Michel Tran Van, Chief Operating Officer (COO), Airbus China 

It is like a journey, taking the time to truly ‘see’ your mentee, understanding, and accepting, both their authentic real selves and their ideal selves and imagined career destinations. This takes time and patience. A mentor must earn trust, be accessible, and listen generously. It is every time a joy to honour the mentee’s ideal self and career dream, and not to dwell on the present career point she is invested in, let alone the one that mirrors my own career. It is all about the art of patient listening, questioning, unconditional acceptance, and generous affirmation to help draw forth the dream, name it out loud, and then set about championing mentees’ efforts to get there. It’s an exciting journey. 

Jörg Wuttke, Vice President (VP) and Chief Representative, BASF China 

When my mentee told me she managed to work out a solution with our aligned idea from our previous session and it worked so well, I could feel her joy across the screen. It’s a pity that I could only give her an emoji smile through the computer instead of a warm hug at that moment. I am so happy that something we worked on together helped me. It is funny that both of us felt time was not sufficient when we had to call an end to our sessions and wish each other staying healthy and all the best every time. 

Holly Lei, President, Covestro China 

It has been an outstanding experience and pleasure to go through this programme with my mentee. We had interesting and often very challenging discussions and I could observe how my mentee was changing perspectives, developing new ideas and setting new targets for her future career. I am happy and grateful to be part of this programme, a learning journey for both, mentee and mentor.  

Unfortunately, we had to conduct all our sessions virtually. Now, a final target for both of us is to meet in person, hopefully it will happen soon. 

Bettina Schoen, Regional Representative Asia, Freudenberg 

I think the CIMI is a valuable programme. The cross-industry experiences of mentor and mentee bring diversity to the mentoring relationship, enrich the conversations and inspire the exchange and mutual learning. I would encourage the Chamber to continue this programme. 

Christine Zhou, Senior VP, President of China Region, Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals 

I’m very grateful to be part of this mentoring programme. I see the programme really as a two-way learning journey where mentor and mentee are continuously changing roles. Being able to do that across industries is incredible, as it opens up new spaces of experience and learning, and we can appreciate the differences in the progress of diversity and gender balance. 

Pius S. Hornstein, Country Chair, Sanofi China 

From Mentees:

It is truly a rewarding experience to get inspiration from high-level executives on how they make their career path a beautiful journey. Thanks to the CIMI programme for the unique initiative! 

Maggie Wang, Airbus China 

It’s an exceptional learning journey in a time of extraordinary changes. I am privileged to enjoy the wisdom of a most experienced business leader to get problems spotted fast and tailor-made inspirations on career development, cross-cultural communication and leading changes. It’s not only one-on-one mentoring but also a platform to get insight from a group of senior leaders.

Fan Zong, Covestro China

The CIMI programme gave me lot of opportunities to experience deeper reflection on myself and get valuable advice from C-level mentors, based on which some ‘Aha moments’ popped up automatically, which made me feel really happy and encouraged. Also, it’s truly a fantastic platform for network-building and learning from other excellent talents.

Judy Gao, Volkswagen China

I’m honoured to join this fantastic programmes with so many amazing ladies from famous European companies and Christine is a wonderful mentor as well. By her mentoring, I get to know the basic leadership characteristics, understand different concerns and accept different point of views. I find my career path much clearer and think in a more positive and responsible way. I’m fearless of changes, and all these changes happened during the programme and will continuously affect my future thoughts and acting modes. Thanks to the organisers, mentors and all mentees who devote themselves to making the programme glorious and colourful!

Yikong Zhang, Nokia China

The CIMI is such a great platform to provide cross-industry, cross-hierarchy, cross-culture communication. Great journey with great mentors that can benefit not only career but also life.

Chang Liu, Volkswagen China

Appreciate European Chamber initiated the CIMI program, It is quite precious opportunity for me to learn from the elite from across industries.  Big thanks to my mentor, who is an outstanding leader and advise lots of insights on my career development . 

Linda Zhang, Storaenso China