ITHACA, N.Y. -- A workshop on U.S.-China business relations, featuring a Cornell University benefactor who is one of China's most-successful entrepreneurs, will take place on Cornell's campus Friday, April 12. It is free and open to the puqblic.

"China-U.S. Business Relations: Lessons that Stand the Test of Time" will be from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at the Johnson Graduate School of Management, B-08 Sage Hall. The event, the Moses and Loulu Seltzer Forum, is sponsored by Cornell's East Asia Program and Entrepreneurship and Personal Enterprise program (EPE).

L.T. Lam, a major toy manufacturer in China and other parts of East Asia, is the guest speaker. His talk is "Fundamentals of Good Business Relations Between China and the U.S.: Lessons that Stand the Test of Time."

Lam is managing director of Forward Winsome Industries and chairman and chief executive officer of Eltee Enterprise, Ltd., which makes toys for companies throughout the world, among them Hasbro and Hallmark. Lam, who has factories in Hong Kong, Thailand, South China and elsewhere, is highly regarded in East Asian business circles as a benefactor of the communities where his plants are located. Through the International Institute of Education, he encouraged talented young people from Hong Kong to study abroad, then return to assist in the region's development. He also established his own foundation to help promising young workers in China continue their education. At Cornell, Lam endowed the Lam Family Awards for South China Research. The competitive awards support students and faculty at Cornell who are conducting field work in South China.

Lam began his business endeavors in 1947 as a minor partner with Winsome Plastic Works, a manufacturer of injection molding plastics used mainly for automotive accessories. Winsome's primary partner was Cornell alumnus Samuel M. Seltzer '49. Later, Lam established his own plastics business, Forward Products Co., with a focus on toys. The two companies merged in 1960, becoming Forward Winsome. Seltzer also will give a talk, "Now More Than Ever: Promoting Positive China-U.S. Business Relations." One of the founders of Cornell's EPE program, Seltzer established the forum, which is named in honor of his parents. A third presenter will be John McCoy, Ph.D. '66, former director of Cornell's Chinese FALCON (full-year Asian language concentration) program and former executive with Squibb Pharmaceutical's Shanghai, China, division. His talk is "From Academe to the Trenches: Lessons from a Decade with Business and Industry in Shanghai." Discussions will be moderated by Sherman Cochran, professor of modern Chinese history and former director of Cornell's East Asia Program. The forum will be followed by a reception in the Statler Hotel's Taylor Room that is free and open to the public. For more information, contact: Laurie Damiani, (607) 255-6222 or lad2@cornell.edu .

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