Bernard Yeung, the new dean at the National University of Singapore's Business School, says when colleagues in the US discovered he was moving to Singapore, most were happy for him.
“My US friends congratulated me for leading a top business school in Asia; friends who are top academics told me that they wanted to come and visit themselves because of the exciting research and teaching challenges here,” adds Prof Yeung, who was at New York University's Stern School of Business.
Asia's growing influence, coupled with the possibility of conducting highly innovative research, seem to be the main reasons that talented academics such as Prof Yeung are leaving the US and moving to the region.