Upon his arrival to the Institute of Business Management Symposium in Karuchi, Pakistan, students and faculty presented Dean Davis with flowers.
Audiences in Pakistan clamored to hear from Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business Dean Miles Davis, Ph.D., almost as soon as he began a 10-day trip to Pakistan, which began March 18.
Dr. Davis traveled to the country to give a keynote speech at the Entrepreneurship Educators Symposium, hosted by the prestigious business school, The Institute of Business Administration (IBA), in Karachi, Pakistan.
Davis always planned to speak at the symposium and the Lahore University of Management (LUMS) in the northeast of the country as part of his trip. However, as other institutions in Karachi and Lahore soon found out he was in the country, additional requests for him to speak came pouring in.
Dean Davis accepts a plaque honoring his participation as symposium keynote speaker.
Eventually, he gave more than a dozen speeches to capacity crowds at a variety of universities and institutions, including a world-famous Islamic seminary, where he addressed a group of Muslim scholars.
Davis said curiosity about business prompted the speaking engagements. “There is a great interest in the United States and its entrepreneurial environment. They want to know how they can develop entrepreneurship within the context of Pakistani culture.”
Two attendees at the Entrepreneurship Educators Symposium flank Dean Davis. These young women, both students, consulted Davis about traveling to U.S. to study at the Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business.
While he shared his insights on American entrepreneurship with many audiences, he also took away a gift from the visit: fond memories of the people of Pakistan. “The people there are some of the warmest, most giving people I have ever met. I was treated very well and everyone was curious about my life in the United States.” Although the people he met were interested in his U.S. life, they also were informed about his home country. “A question I got asked everywhere I went was, ‘Did I think Donald Trump would win the election?’”
Sadly, terror also marked his trip. Davis was in Lahore on Easter Sunday, and drove past a family amusement park just before a suicide bombing targeting Christians rocked the site, killing more than 70 people, primarily women and children. “No one anywhere should have to live with the threat of violence,” Davis said, when asked for his thoughts on the bombing. “Whether it is violence from so-called terrorists in Lahore or street gangs in Philadelphia, we must work to end the taking of innocent lives.”
