Richard Li degree claim a `mistake'
The Independent - United Kingdom, Mar 23, 2001
BY KATHERINE GRIFFITHS
CLAIMS THAT Richard Li, the Hong Kong tycoon who bought the territory's telecoms business from Cable & Wireless last year, graduated from Stanford University have been erased from his company's website after the Ivy League university confirmed no degree had been awarded.
Until earlier this week, the website of Mr Li's company, Pacific Century CyberWorks, stated that its founder "graduated from Stanford University with a degree in computer engineering". However, the assertion disappeared from the site on Tuesday, and Mr Li is quoted in today's International Herald Tribune as blaming his staff for mis-describing his education.
A staff member at the American university told the newspaper: "He is not a Stanford graduate; there was no degree conferred."
Mr Li said PCCW's legal documents described him as being educated at Stanford, although press releases and the former website entry said he was a graduate. "The mistake is our staff. Absolutely under no circumstances did I change it from educated to graduated," he said.
The confusion over Mr Li's education comes after another famous businessman, Jimmy Gulliver, falsely claimed in the mid-1980s that he had gained an MBA from Harvard. The former chairman of Argyll Group in fact did not have the qualification. The episode was so embarrassing that it contributed to Argyll's failure to take over Distillers, the drinks business.
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