Lingnan University welcomes appointment of new Council Chairman

27 Dec 2019

Lingnan University (LU) welcomes the HKSAR Government’s appointment of Mr Andrew Yao Cho-fai as Chairman of the Council, serving from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2022.

 

In response to the appointment, Mr Yao said, “It’s my honour and privilege to serve Lingnan University. The Lingnan spirit, which is marked by passion, loyalty, perseverance, openness to different ideas and readiness to serve, has deeply impressed me, I will do my utmost to work with all colleagues and students to scale new heights of achievement.”

 

Welcoming the appointment, Professor Leonard K Cheng, President of LU, said, “The University is delighted to have Mr Andrew Yao as the new Council Chairman. He is highly experienced in university matters and no stranger to the LU community as he served as a member of the LU Council for three years and as Deputy Chairman of the Council of Hong Kong Baptist University for three years. We look forward to Mr Yao’s able leadership and wise counsel in guiding LU towards achieving the targets as set out in our Strategic Plan 2019-2025 and realising its vision as a leading Asian liberal arts university with strong international recognition.”

 

Mr Yao is Chairman of Hong Kong Shanghai Alliance Holdings Limited. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and the Harvard Graduate School of Business in the US. Over the years, he has actively promoted the US-China relationship, Hong Kong’s economic development, as well as provided opportunities for young people to solve their problems in “3E” -- Education, Employment, and Entrepreneurship.

 

Committed to public service, Mr Yao currently serves as the Hong Kong Deputy to the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Hong Kong Baptist University, a member of the Hong Kong Scholarship for Excellence Scheme committee, and a Board Member of Fudan University. He was also a member of the Central Policy Unit of the HKSAR and Chairman of the Hong Kong United Youth Association.

 

As Council Member of LU from 2013 to 2016, Mr Yao raised HK$10 million in support of the establishment of the Pan Sutong Shanghai-Hong Kong Economic Policy Research Centre, set up to strengthen research into economic and financial development issues of Mainland China and Hong Kong. He also launched the Shanghai-Hong Kong Future Leaders Internship Programme, under which LU students go to Shanghai for internships of six to eight weeks.

 

Mr Yao was honoured with the “Young Industrialist Award of Hong Kong” in 2004 and was appointed Justice of the Peace by the HKSAR Government in 2008. In 2016, the HKSAR Government awarded him the Bronze Bauhinia Star for his contribution to the promotion of youth development in Hong Kong.