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The University of Hong Kong will confer Honorary University Fellowships on four distinguished individuals, namely, Mr George Joseph HO, Mr LO Sheung Yan, Dr Norman SZE Nung Chi, and Mr Henry WAI Wing Kun, in recognition of their contributions to the University and society. (Please click here for the photos of four Honorary University Fellows)

In light of the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, the University initially decided to postpone the Honorary University Fellowships Presentation Ceremony originally scheduled for September of that year to late February 2021. Given the ongoing developments in the COVID-19 situation, the ceremony was not held in February as planned. Accordingly, the four distinguished individuals mentioned above will be honoured at a ceremony to be held at HKU in the Fall Semester of this year to receive the award together with the Honorary University Fellows of 2021, for which nominations are now being invited.

The Fellowships are a means for the University community to thank and salute those who have made important contributions in their own unique ways to the University, to academia, and to Hong Kong. The Honorary University Fellowships was established in 1995 to reaffirm the University's link between town and gown. To date, the University has honoured 161 Fellows.

Biographies:

Mr George Joseph HO
Mr George Joseph Ho is Chairman of Hong Kong Commercial Broadcasting Company, Limited (Commercial Radio), President of the Hong Kong Red Cross and Chairman of the Jessie and George Ho Charitable Foundation.

Mr Ho holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honour society; a Master’s degree in Law from New York University, and a Doctorate degree in Jurisprudence from Harvard University.

Following his graduation from Harvard, Mr Ho was admitted to the State Bar of California and appointed as Law Clerk to Justice Winslow Christian of the California Court of Appeal. He then engaged in the private practice of law in San Francisco for close to two decades, while serving as Chairman of the Board of Trans National Bank in California (the predecessor of Chinatrust Bank (USA)).

Mr Ho returned to Hong Kong in the early nineties to join businesses founded by his father, the late George Ho OBE, GBS, JP. In 1998, he was elected Chairman of Commercial Radio, whose Channels One and Two are widely regarded as the most popular radio channels in Hong Kong. That same year, he was also appointed as a director of Dairy Farm International. In 2006, the Hong Kong Red Cross awarded him a Medal of Honour and in 2019, elected him President. Mr Ho is also an Honorary Voting Member of the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

At the University of Hong Kong, the Jessie and George Ho Charitable Foundation has established three Endowed Professorships in the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine in Neuroscience, Spine Surgery and Visual Science respectively, as well as the Jessie Ho Memorial Postgraduate Fellowships and the M W Lo Memorial Scholarships.

Mr LO Sheung Yan
Mr Lo Sheung Yan is an HKU alumnus, the Chief Creative Officer of Wunderman Thompson Asia Pacific and also Chairman of its Creative Council.

Mr Lo holds a BA from HKU, and after graduation became a middle school teacher and also a Tutor in Ricci Hall. His advertising career began in 1988 at Ogilvy, and thereafter Lintas and Euro. He then headed north, joining China’s advertising industry in 1996 at J Walter Thompson (JWT), and becoming Chief Creative Officer of Wunderman Thompson Asia Pacific in 2019.

Responsible for providing creative leadership to the agency, Mr Lo helped JWT Asia Pacific and JWT Shanghai garner many prestigious regional and global advertising awards, including many firsts in China’s advertising industry, from winning China’s first gold Clio, to helping lead China to its first Grand Prix at Cannes in 2011. At ADFEST 2016, Ma Yan was presented with the prestigious “Lotus Legend” award.

He made history once again when he became the first Chinese jury head of the 2012 Cannes’ Outdoor Advertising Awards. Mr Lo continues to support the industry by serving as a juror at regional awards like the Longxi Chinese Advertising Awards, Spikes Asia and ADFEST, and international shows like Clio, Cannes and ADC. He served as President of the Integrated and Direct jury at Spikes Asia 2019 and is often invited to universities to help educate the next generation of advertisers.

Mr Lo also has an ongoing interest in theatre and song writing. He wrote, directed, and acted in stage plays for over fifteen years while in Hong Kong. He also wrote lyrics for Asian pop songs and musicals and is a member of the Composers & Authors Society of Hong Kong. In 2009, the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce honoured him as one of the “Outstanding Hong Kong People in Shanghai”.

Dr Norman SZE Nung Chi
Dr Norman Sze Nung Chi is an HKU alumnus and the Vice Chair of Deloitte China.

Dr Sze holds a BSocSc from HKU, an MBA from Heriot-Watt University in the UK and a Doctorate in Business Administration from the ICD International Business School in France.

He began his career in 1985 when he joined Arthur Andersen in Hong Kong. He later moved to Shanghai as General Manager of Arthur Andersen's consulting business, one of the first firms of its kind in the country. He contributed to China's development by advising state-owned enterprises on management upgrading, and helped multinationals navigate the local regulatory landscape, including through joint ventures with Chinese companies. In 2002, Dr Sze joined KPMG Consulting, where he was involved in pioneering projects to advance internationalisation and standards at state-owned banks after China's ascension to the World Trade Organization. Two years later, he became head of Deloitte Consulting in China, a role he held for ten years.

In his current roles as Vice Chair of Deloitte China and Managing Partner of Deloitte China Government and Public Services, Dr Sze advises government on the business environment improvement and economic development policy, and continues to be a leading advocate for the development of the consulting profession.

During his studies at HKU in 1984, Dr Sze initiated and organised a study tour with students at Shenzhen University, a novel collaboration at the time. In 2017, he initiated the establishment of the HKU Beijing Alumni Network, and as its elected President, used his extensive experience and influence to forge connections, promote the University's work and foster greater understanding of China's latest developments in government, industry and commerce. 

Dr Sze has published many acclaimed articles and books on the reform and development of Chinese state-owned enterprises. In 2019, he received a postdoctoral fellowship from the University of Oxford for his research on the Belt and Road Initiative.

Mr Henry WAI Wing Kun
Mr Henry Wai is a former Registrar of the University of Hong Kong and an alumnus who has dedicated his life to serving the University, retiring in the summer of 2020 after forty-seven years of loyal and distinguished service.

Mr Wai holds a BA and an MA from HKU. Mr Wai began his employment at the University as an Executive Officer II in 1973. He has served as Secretary of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Secretary of the Faculty of Medicine, Examinations Secretary, Deputy Registrar for academic matters and many other positions in the University. Through diligent and outstanding work, he rose steadily to the position of Acting Registrar in 2000 and then Registrar in 2002.

Over the past fifty years, the University has gone through many changes and reforms, to which Mr Wai has provided invaluable counsel and contributions. He was one of the original designers of the Joint University Programmes Admission System (JUPAS) in Hong Kong. His involvement in setting up relations with the major Mainland universities in the 1990s helped lay the path for the academic and research collaborations with Mainland universities that HKU enjoys today. Through his active engagement on HKU’s behalf with the Hong Kong and Mainland governments, the University was able to admit its first Mainland undergraduate students in 1998. Understanding the importance of technological developments to University administration, Mr Wai spearheaded the comprehensive upgrade of the computer student records system in the 1990s, and later, he was deeply involved in the implementation of the Enterprise Resource Planning student information system project. He has helped the University prepare its development plans in every academic planning exercise in the past two decades.

Some of the University’s greatest changes, challenges and crises occurred while Mr Wai was Registrar, during which time he was also Secretary of the University Court, Council, and Senate. Members of the University’s senior management and governance have all consistently turned to Mr Wai for the benefit of his knowledge and experience with the University’s system and structure, rules and regulations, and its staff, students and stakeholders. HKU has faced many crises during the last twenty years, including a few very serious ones. In almost all of these, Mr Wai’s extensive experience, wisdom and loyal counsel helped the University manage, mitigate and weather these storms. Indeed, Mr Wai has been described as HKU’s “walking encyclopaedia” and is trusted to always have the best interests of the University at heart.

HKU Honorary University Fellowships website: http://www4.hku.hk/honfellows/

For media enquiries, please contact Ms Melanie Wan, Senior Manager (Media) of the HKU Communications and Public Affairs Office at tel: 2859 2600 or email: melwkwan@hku.hk.