Family and friends of the late Mr Sunil Sreenivasan raised S$133,000 to help establish the Sunil Sreenivasan Scholarship at SMU

The Singapore Management University (SMU) has established a new Sunil Sreenivasan Scholarship to honour the late Mr Sunil Sreenivasan, a prominent former senior banker with Citigroup and former member of the SMU Board of Trustees from 2000 to 2003. The scholarship is made possible by a generous endowed contribution of S$133,000 by the family and friends of the late Mr Sreenivasan. The donation will receive a 1:1 matching from the Singapore Government, bringing the total amount to S$266,000. This is the first time that a scholarship has been set up named after the late Mr Sreenivasan who headed Citibank Singapore as Citigroup Country Officer for Singapore from 1998 to 2003.

The Sunil Sreenivasan Scholarship will be awarded annually to a deserving full-time SMU undergraduate of any nationality in any degree programme. The scholar is required to have achieved a strong academic track record. During his or her studies in SMU, the scholar is also required to have demonstrated high standards of ethical behaviour in his or her academic, co-curricular and community service pursuits, and displayed cordial relationships with fellow students and faculty. The scholar will receive S$8,000 under the bond-free scholarship which is valid for one year.

Third year SMU undergraduate Mr Tong Junjie (唐君杰) is the first recipient of the Sunil Sreenivasan Scholarship. The double degree student in accountancy and economics has consistently achieved a perfect grade point average of 4.0 and was placed on Dean's List for 2005 and 2006. He also has received the OCBC Outstanding Student Award and the Deloitte Meritorious Award. Junjie is President of both the SMU Windsurfing Club and SMU's string ensemble, Obligato where he plays the violin and the viola. The 22-year-old is an active student leader and has organized the freshmen retreat for the School of Accountancy as well as played the role of facilitator for the university-wide Freshmen Team Building Camp. In 2006, he spent three weeks in Yunnan teaching English to teenage students as part of the SMU overseas community service outreach programme. Junjie will be heading to the University of Bath in the UK for the International Exchange Programme from August 2007 to January 2008.

“We are pleased to launch this scholarship as a continued commitment to Sunil's belief in the people and future of Singapore . We are extremely happy to present the inaugural award to Mr Tong Junjie who has demonstrated excellence in both his academic as well as co-curricular and community service pursuits. We wish him all the best,” said Mr Raoul Sreenivasan.

“We thank the family and friends of the late Mr Sunil Sreenivasan for their generosity in funding this new scholarship. Mr Sreenivasan was a close friend to many of us in the SMU community. We remember him for his many contributions as a former member of the SMU Board of Trustees. A people-oriented leader and a highly respected personality in financial circles, Mr Sreenivasan helped shape the vision of SMU to groom a new generation of leaders for Singapore and the region. His support and guidance in building this university was greatly valued by the SMU leadership. The donation by his family will provide a lasting and living memorial which will assist promising undergraduates with the financing of their education,” said Professor Howard Hunter, President, SMU.