As a child, Associate Professor of Practice and Associate Dean of Business Raymond Ro was an aspiring skateboarder, long before the sport went mainstream. But after developing arthritis in his knees at age 12, he had to give up on his goal of going pro.
In high school, he became a top 25 tennis player in Canada with dreams of winning a Grand Slam like his childhood idol Michael Chang. But when a wrist injury took him off the court at age 17, he had to learn yet again how to pivot– a skill he’s become highly adept at throughout his life.
Over the years, Raymond pursued several disparate academic paths, from science to engineering, which led him to entrepreneurship, business, and then law.
He acquired degrees in physics and biology, graduated with a PhD in biomedical engineering, and a Juris Doctorate in law. But it was a fortuitous pivot— a move to China— that led him to a career in academia and an early role as one of NYU Shanghai’s first faculty members.
Your career has taken twists and turns over the years. How did you go from wanting to study medicine, to biomedical engineering, and then eventually to law?
I tell my students that life is more often nonlinear, rather than a straight path.
In college, I wanted to go to medical school because I was inspired by a doctor who successfully performed surgery on my wrist when I was a competitive tennis player. So, I went all-in and majored in physics and biology, and minored in chemistry and math, and scored in the 90th percentile on the MCAT. Eventually, I couldn’t attend medical school due to financial issues as an international student in the US.=
From the advice of a mentor/professor, I combined my background in physics and biology and pursued a PhD in biomedical engineering instead, financially supported by federal grants and university scholarships. In my second year of doctoral studies, I took an entrepreneurship class, which culminated in putting together a business plan with my colleagues. We based our plan on research work we were actually conducting in the lab. Our professor encouraged us to submit our idea to a business plan competition, and, to our surprise, we ended up winning the whole thing!
With hope and excitement, my colleagues and I attempted to start the new venture with many investors onboard. But, long story short, we encountered significant legal issues, which prevented us from getting the startup off the ground. This was my impetus to want to study law. I felt that the very system that was supposed to promote entrepreneurship and innovation was actually stifling us.
I graduated with a PhD in six years and then began my law school journey. I was so fortunate again to have my law school tuition supported by research grants and university scholarships. I started my professional legal career with the top patent law firm, Fish & Richardson, where I litigated and prosecuted patents and counseled young entrepreneurs with their startup strategies. I had finally achieved what I set out to do.
How did you fall in love with teaching?
I first taught a course titled Law, Business, and Society, which students called “B-Law.” The students and I had a lot of fun in the class discussing many different business and legal cases and drawing up hypotheticals. This eventually laid the pedagogical foundation of my teaching philosophy: the Socratic approach to learning and instruction by the case study method.
The experience with this course made me feel that I had found my calling in life as a teacher. To share knowledge and pass on wisdom I had gleaned over the years, and to facilitate understanding of concepts that were previously unknown to students, gave me a tremendous feeling of fulfillment and satisfaction. At the same time, I am always learning from my amazing students, and the business and legal fields are dynamic and constantly changing, which requires me to continually keep up with the latest business trends and developments. This gives true meaning to the term lifelong learning.
Now, more than a decade later, you teach business courses at NYU Shanghai. What do you enjoy about teaching business?
I love that Business is both traditional and contemporary. Traditional in the sense that business is all about people. How to manage people: what motivates them, what inspires action, what drives them to reach organizational goals. Moreover, business deals will always be done by and through people. Professionals must possess “soft skills” in their acumen to manage business relations. Thus, in conducting business with people, many managerial and leadership concepts are timeless.
Contemporary, in that the business environment is constantly changing: politically, socially, technologically, legally, economically, and otherwise. Benjamin Franklin said “the only constant in life is change.” This can be applied in the context of business as well. To be sure, generative AI has disrupted virtually all industries, and we don’t even know the extent of its paradigm-shifting capabilities and its potential impact on business and society. Freshmen today will be graduating into a totally different landscape. Students need to adapt and learn on the fly. I am continually learning what is happening in the business landscape in light of ever changing circumstances, and bringing these insights to the classroom.
When I taught Marketing ten years ago, much of the frameworks and strategies were adopted from the West. Today, it is the US trying to play catch up with China’s advanced marketing strategies such as livestreaming and predictive analytics. As a former athlete, I also love the fact that business is like a battlefield where executives need to gain knowledge and develop strategies to outcompete their adversaries. In this sense, I feel like I am a coach teaching my pupils how to win at the game of business and of life.
You’ve been at NYU Shanghai since the early days as a study away site of NYU. Having seen the University develop over the years, what do you think sets it apart?
NYU Shanghai is unique in that we are an American liberal arts college located within Shanghai, China. There aren’t too many institutions which possess this exact identity. Although young, our university has firmly established an international reputation of prestige and quality. Most importantly, it is our people that really sets us apart: prolific research faculty producing groundbreaking scholarship; passionate teaching faculty that provide guidance and mentorship to pupils; and world-class students from China and internationally who have options to attend some of the most prestigious institutions but choose us for our value proposition.
It has been an absolute privilege to have observed, firsthand, the growth and development of NYU Shanghai. So much of the credit of our success is due to the vision, steadfastness, and plain hard work of our leaders and their outstanding stewardship of the university.
In your years with NYU Shanghai, what are you most proud of?
I am most proud of the impact I have on students. If I have positively influenced a student, even with just a modicum of inspiration, to open her mind to something new, to change her major for a better fit, or to see her graduate and pursue further studies at a top grad program or land a coveted position in industry, these are things that bring me tremendous pride and joy. Having been a professor for more than 15 years, it is so rewarding to catch up with former students who are living up to their potential and fulfilling their aspirations in life. There aren’t too many professions in the world where you are in a direct position to inspire young people on a daily basis. Fortunately for me, I have stumbled upon one of them.
What’s your advice for students?
There is no substitute for hard work. No pain, no gain. Develop empathy and soft skills–hard skills can be replaced. Be adaptable and keep learning. Oftentimes life takes many twists, turns, and detours–be open to this.. There is not just a single path up a single mountain, but rather many paths and many mountains. Carve out your own path and leave a trail. Finally, identify for yourselves what your own definition of success is, take steps towards achieving it, and embrace change and setbacks. Pivoting may be necessary.