Li's degree mystery
Staff reporter, Hong Kong iMail
PCCW chairman Richard Li Tzar-kai repeatedly refused to comment last night on reports that he had not graduated from Stanford University with a degree in computer engineering, as suggested in his company's publicity material.
Mr Li, 34, was challenged on the controversy as the Paris-based International Herald Tribune newspaper prepared to publish a report quoting university staff in California that the younger son of the property-to-telecoms tycoon Li Ka-shing had not graduated.
Asked in Japan whether he completed his degree, Richard Li told our sister newspaper Sing Tao Daily, he would not comment ``until he had figured out the whole issue''.
In Pacific Century CyberWorks' management profiles, the company once said Mr Li ``was educated in the US and graduated from Stanford University with a degree in computer engineering''.
Last night, however, there was no reference to Mr Li's education in his profile.
The International Herald Tribune report, by Hong Kong-based reporter Thomas Crampton, said ``three different employees of Stanford said separately that Richard Li ... had attended Stanford in the 1980s but did not receive a degree''.
The report quoted an employee in the registrar's office saying: ``He is not a Stanford graduate; there was no degree conferred.''
The official later said Mr Li's records were being kept private at his request, the report said.
It added there was no evidence that Mr Li had claimed to hold a degree and no such assertion had been made in documents filed with securities regulators.
News of Crampton's investigation leaked out when the reporter sought a comment from PCCW.
An item raising the issue appeared yesterday in the Hong Kong Economic Journal.
A Sing Tao Daily reporter asked Mr Li last night to comment on the Economic Journal article but he refused, saying he had not read it.
When asked again whether he was a graduate from Stanford, the crucible of Silicon Valley, Mr Li repeated that he had not read the paper and was not clear about the issue. Asked for a third time, Mr Li responded: ``I know that there is a news article, I must read it clearly before I comment on it ... I need to fully understand the news before I can tell you more.''
Mr Li was also asked about a reference in publicity material that said he was educated at Stanford, rather than he gradated from the university.
Mr Li answered: ``I don't know. I haven't fully understood the whole thing.''
He was asked if he wrote the biography, to which he replied: ``I don't think I had to write the brochure.''
Mr Li was asked whether he had checked the biography.
He said: ``It was many years ago, the curriculum vitae. Anyway, I will figure it out before I give you an answer.''
The International Herald Tribune reported on its website last night that the general counsel for PCCW had issued a statement condemning the release of Mr Li's academic record as ``a breach of the United States Family Education Rights and Privacy Act''.
If Mr Li, lionised for his ability to take over Hong Kong Telecom last year but subsequently punished by the markets as the dotcom bubble burst, had not made the grade at Stanford it puts him in good company.
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates dropped out of his studies from Harvard University before graduation.
22 March 2001 / 01:52 AM
hk-imail.singtao.com
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