Meeting with Mr. Liu
May 2003
- Guest Speaker: Mr. Richard Shang Chien Liu
- Date: Cancelled
- Admission: Free
- Recorder: Alfred Chang
Welcome party held by UTSA Principal.
Mr. Liu and Prof. Lien
Mr. Liu and UTSA Principal
Mr. Liu and Mr. & Mrs. Tsiang
Mr. Richard Shang Chien Liu
Founder and Donor of the
Liu¡¦s Family Foundation Fund
U.S. - China Business Education Initiative
At the time of his donation of $1 million to UTSA's College of Business in December of 1998, Mr. Richard Liu became the largest single donor in the University's 30-year history. With this donation the Liu's Family Foundation Fund U.S. ¡V China Business Education Initiative was created. This program has had a tremendous effect on UTSA's International Business Programs and all 5 of the partner universities in China, and their students. The impact of Mr. Liu's generosity has been felt worldwide. Mr. Liu's story is one of diversity, with a long history of giving.
Born Liu Shang Chien, Mr. Liu's family originated in the Lu prefecture of Henan Province in Mainland China, and he was born in Taiwan. Mr. Liu graduated with his Bachelor's degree from the Department of Business Administration of National Taiwan University. Unable at that time to afford the costs of graduate study abroad, he launched immediately into his business career. With much of his early success beginning in Texas, particularly with Tandy Brands, a leather products company, he has developed strong ties to Texas and its people. "From the first, I found Texans to be friendly and welcoming", Liu said. "The Tandy people treated me as a professional businessman, an attitude I didn't see in Chicago or New York." From his initial endeavors in Texas in 1974 to the present, Richard Liu has created a thriving business empire. He set up his own plant in Guangzhou and has established his own successful company in Hong Kong. He is the Chairman of Superior Holdings Limited, an international conglomerate with business endeavors all over the world.
In 1998, 25 years after his first venture to Texas, Richard Liu says he thought to himself, "It's payback time". Of his gift to UTSA, Liu says, "I want my gift to help a new generation of business students in the United States and China realize their dreams."
UTSA is not the only organization that has benefited from Mr. Liu's foresight and generosity. As with many successful businessmen he is also a patron of the arts and literature. In fact, Mr. Liu was a promising poet during his college days in Taiwan. His love of literature has led him to support the First and Second Global Youth Chinese Literary Award for the New Century, sponsored by the Faculty of Arts of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has high hopes for its ability to promote Chinese culture and Chinese language literature, while embracing new elements introduced from foreign cultures and confronting the challenges Chinese literature must face in the multi-media future.
He has also supported numerous other cultural and educational activities. He has set up the Liu Ranyuan Foundation, named after his late father, and the Liu's Sino-European Foundation for Culture and Education in Belgium. He has established scholarships in the Foreign Languages Department of Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan and has made donations to the University of California at Berkeley for Chinese exchange in Public Administration, Law, Political Science, Economics and International Trade.
Through his numerous foundations Mr. Liu has also worked with the Chinese government to promote Chinese arts and culture. One of his most recent endeavors was the Tianjin Cultural Festival in Belgium, which brought many rare Chinese antiquities to Europe. Items on display included jade carvings, inkstones, calligraphy and paintings.
Mr. Liu also sits on many boards promoting education and culture. He is a member of UTSA's College of Business Advisory Council, the Board of Trustees of New Asia College, the Board of the University of California at Berkeley Foundation, serves as Cultural Advisor to the Municipal Government of Tianjin, and was most recently named an Honorary Fellow at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Faculty, staff and students in the College of Business at the University of Texas at San Antonio consider themselves lucky to have benefited from Richard Liu's support and mentoring. The sampling of distinguished accomplishments noted merely touch on the long list of Mr. Richard Liu's business and philanthropic efforts. Mr. Liu has touched the lives of innumerable students, faculty, administrators and officials throughout the world - and he's not finished yet.