Stephen A. Schwarzman, chairman and co-founder of the Blackstone Group, has initiated a scholarship program in China's Tsingua University. The scholarship program has a goal of identifying potential leaders, who, according to Schwarzman, are "Your best guess as future leaders of the world."

The Blackstone Group is a multinational private equity, investment banking, alternative asset management and financial services corporation based in New York City.

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Several establishments have been named after Schwarzma, including the Stephen A. Schwarzman public library building in New York City and the Stephen A. Schwarzman cultural center at Yale.

In August, a college building with a pagoda-inspired roof at Tsinghua University in Beijing was named after him. The building will serve as the quarters for Schwarzman scholars.

Some recipients of the scholarship are already doing well on their own field. Lt. Daniel Glenn, 28, is a graduate of the US Naval Academy. He supervises a Navy special operations platoon that defuses bombs and underwater explosives. During his scholarship interview through Skype, he said that he has intentions to run for the US Senate.

Other recipientare Wang Zhe, 26, an economics major at Tsinghua University, who was a secretary of the Communist Youth League. Jacob Gaba, a computer science major from Dartmouth College, and Rugsit Kanan from Thailand, who is a Harvard student.

Schwarzman has said that his master's program is based on the Rhodes scholarship. He added that his program is "global with a bit of a US twist." Schwarzman's relationship with China's leaders started when the government bought $3 billion worth of stake in Blackstone in 2007.

Founder and chairman of Alibaba Group Jack Ma has agreed to allow some Schwarzman scholars to intern in his company.

The visiting professors are Niall Ferguson and Lawrence H. Summers. Stephen A. Schwarzman said that his scholars will gain access to a number of the most influential Chinese people. He explained that Tsinghua University is a place where "you meet a lot of very well-connected, important people."

Tagsschwarzman, academic, Stephen A. Schwarzman