Professor John DeGioia, president of Georgetown University, a Jesuit school founded in 1789 and located in Washington DC, will be the keynote speaker at a gathering of Filipino and foreign university leaders to be hosted by the Ateneo de Manila University starting today, Jan. 22 up to Jan. 24, at the Ateneo’s Loyola Heights Campus in Quezon City.
The event opens Ateneo’s sesquicentennial (150th) year. It will see the participation of 120 leaders and academics from Filipino and foreign universities at a forum of university presidents, a Presidents’ Forum, on the theme, “Universities at the frontiers of change.”
DeGioia is the first lay president of a Jesuit university. He will talk about how universities today face the challenge of building communities in both local and global environments.
Other major speakers are: Ateneo president Fr. Bienvenido Nebres, S.J.; Prof. Ng Ching Fai, president, Hong Kong Baptist University, and member, National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China; Prof. Shin-Ichi Ago, vice president, Kyushi University, Japan; Prof. Jean-Philippe Ammeux, director, Institute of Scientific Economy and Management, Lille Catholic University, France.