UC Berkeley graduate student Arthur Qi, remembered for his gentle nature, died over the weekend. He was 30.
Qi, who was a student in the Haas School of Business’ Master of Financial Engineering Program, was found dead in his home after classmates alerted authorities when he missed a group lunch and had not been seen all weekend, according to Ute Frey, associate director of marketing and communications at the business school.
“He was a gentle soul, kind and extremely polite, and always smiling,” said Linda Kreitzman, executive director of the master’s program, in a media release from Haas.
Qi was a Chinese national who was attending Haas on an international student visa, according to the release. He was set to graduate from his program March 16, according to the release.
“It’s a terrible time for me personally, and I can only imagine what it’s like for his family,” Kreitzman said in an interview.
Vincent Jin, a student at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business — which Qi attended from 2007 to 2009 — mourned Qi on his blog, Radiman.org. In a post dated Feb. 28, Jin said that alumni have expressed their grief regarding Qi’s death via email and Weibo, which is a Chinese microblogging website. According to Jin, comments left included “one of my good MBA friends passed away on his way to his dream” and “there will be no cases, no models, no papers and you can be released.”
According to Jin’s blog, Qi published his last Weibo post about a week before his death, saying that his health had not been well throughout the fall and spring. In his Weibo, Qi said that “staying up late” and the “endless overtime work” were exhausting his classmates and making him lose his hair, said Jin.
Qi received his bachelor’s degree from East China University of Science and Technology and his MBA in Finance and Accounting from Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business. Starting his career as an account manager with Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, Qi later worked at AEGON — Industrial Mutual Fund as an equity research associate.
According to the release, Qi also served as an academic manager to Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in 2009, heading two departments and several projects. Additionally, he authored “BAIDU: Searching for Truth?,” a case study widely used by business schools in China and in the U.S., according to the release.
Officials at the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office Coroner’s Bureau said that their determination on the cause of death was still pending as of Wednesday.
“It is hard for us to believe this news,” Jin’s post reported Cheung Kong’s MBA office as saying. “He will always be remembered as a hardworking, ambitious, smart and gentle alumni and colleague of CKGSB.”
UCPD reported that a male graduate student was found dead Sunday in his home at the campus-owned Manville Apartments on Southside. UCPD has since confirmed that the student found in the apartments was Qi.
Soumya Karlamangla contributed to this report.
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CoD?
The cause of death is still pending. The UC Berkeley community awaits the coroner’s report and will keep Arthur Qi in our prayers.