Judges

Ms Margaret Cheng is a seasoned HR professional with extensive experience across geographies and industries. She is currently the HR Director of MTR Corporation Limited. Before MTR, Margaret worked for the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited as Group Head of HR and had held senior positions at major financial institutions such as HSBC, J.P. Morgan and Citi.

Margaret is an active supporter for the development of HR professionalism in Hong Kong. She is a Fellow Member and the Chairperson of HKMA’s People Management Committee.

Margaret serves on career advisory boards and mentoring programmes of various tertiary institutions in Hong Kong. She also chairs the Drafting Sub-committee and sits on the Cross-industry Training Advisory Committee for HRM under Qualifications Framework as Vice Chairperson, and is a Member of the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research of the Education Bureau. In addition, Margaret is a Council Member of the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications (HKCAAVQ).

Margaret received her BA in Business Management from California State University in the US and holds an MBA from Kellogg Business School, Northwestern University in the US and HKUST.

Victor Cheng Pat-leung is the Executive Director of Hong Kong Education City (HKEdCity). He manages the largest education portal in Hong Kong, with primary role in promoting and supporting eLearning for all secondary and primary schools in Hong Kong. HKEdCity pioneered a number of eLearning initiatives including e-book infrastructure, e-Assessment platform, Single Sign-On for education and WiFi service model for schools (WaaSchool). HKEdCity presents the Learning and Teaching Expo every year, which is the largest education expo in this region and attracted more than 13,000 teachers and professionals to attend last year.

Mr Cheng is a seasoned executive and IT professional in Hong Kong. Prior to joining HKEdCity, he has been the Director of Corporate Services of the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessments Authority and the Director of IT Services of The Hong Kong Institute of Education (now The Education University of Hong Kong). He also served in many advisory committees of Government and universities. Mr Cheng holds a Master of Science Degree in Electronic Engineering and a Master of Business Administration Degree with Distinction.

H. Chin Chou is the Chief Executive Officer of Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia and a Managing Director of Morgan Stanley, based in Hong Kong. Mr. Chou also serves on the Firm's Asia Pacific Executive Committee, which is comprised of the Firm's senior business leaders within the Asia Pacific region.

Mr. Chou joined Morgan Stanley in 1987 in New York and has spent 31 years at Morgan Stanley, with the past 27 years in Asia. Mr. Chou has lead MSPE Asia's five private equity funds to date: the $330mm MSGEM Fund (1999), the $525mm Asia Fund II (2005), the $1.5bn Asia Fund III (2007), the $1.7bn Asia Fund IV (2013), and Asia Fund V, currently fund raising. Mr. Chou also oversees the Firm's China RMB Fund private equity business as well as the Firm’s Thailand Fund private equity business. Mr. Chou was also part of Morgan Stanley’s Private Equity Group in New York in the late 1980s.

He was previously a Director of CTCI, eAccess, ECVision, HTL, Hyundai Rotem, ITest, Landmark, Ssangyong Corporation and YesAsia, and is currently the Chairman of the Hong Kong Venture Capital and Private Equity Association. Mr. Chou holds a B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. with Distinction from Harvard Business School.

Cindy Chow has been the Executive Director of the Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund since 2015. Before assuming her current role, Cindy joined Alibaba Group in 2007 as the Senior Director of International Finance, focusing on financial control and planning capacity. Before joining Alibaba Group, Cindy worked at a number of Hong Kong-listed companies, specialising in financing, management reporting and planning. Cindy holds a Master of Business Administration and is a certified public accountant. She is a non-official member of the Hong Kong SAR Government’s Committee on Innovation, Technology and Re-industrialisation, and volunteers for various organisations dedicated to youth development. Through different initiatives launched by the Fund and in her own capacity, Cindy aspires to help Hong Kong’s entrepreneurs and young realise their dreams in a vibrant world city.

Richard Culatta brings vast experience in education policy, teacher preparation, educational technology and innovation to his role with ISTE.

Culatta began his career in the classroom as a high school teacher and, across his career, has coached educators and national leaders around the world on using technology as a tool to reimagine learning.
Prior to joining ISTE, Culatta served as the chief innovation officer for the state of Rhode Island. In this role, he focused on developing partnerships to improve opportunities for students, including launching a program to make Rhode Island the first state to offer computer science in every K-12 school and creating a state vision for personalised learning.

As the director of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology, Culatta was at the helm of numerous efforts to expand connectivity to schools across the country, promote personalised learning and develop the National Education Technology Plan. He also pioneered new ways for the department to engage with educators and tech developers.
Culatta holds a bachelor’s degree in Spanish teaching and a master’s in educational psychology and technology, both from Brigham Young University.

Kamran is Founder and Chairman, Global Innovation Catalyst, LLC and advises various governments on the needed transition from fossil-based economies to sustainable innovation economies. In the past, as a global high-tech entrepreneur, he co- founded ten companies, had 6 exits, 3 of them were Unicorn IPOs with a total market cap of over $8B. For 15 yrs., he was Chairman of Global Catalyst Partners, a global VC firm ($350M under management) with investments in the U.S., Japan, China, India, Israel and Singapore. Underlying his vision for global philanthropy is the conviction that modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can be instrumental in dissolving barriers between nations and bridging the social and political differences among people. This vision was reflected in Schools-Online, a nonprofit he co-founded in 1996 to connect the world, one school at a time (6400 schools in 36 countries were provided with computers and access to the Internet) and merged with Relief International in 2003; Global Catalyst Foundation, co-founded in 2000 to improve lives through effective education and empowerment of the youth (with special emphasis on young women) using the leverage of ICT, and UN-GAID, a United Nations global forum that promotes ICT in developing countries where he served as Co-Chairman (2009-2011).

Matt Greenfield is Managing Partner of Rethink Education, a venture capital firm focused on education technology. He currently serves on the boards of AllHere, Allovue, BrightBytes, Care Academy, Kenzie Academy, and NoRedInk. He previously helped start three technology businesses: Rethink Autism (acquired by a PE firm), DB Software (acquired by Cadre Software), and Synernetics (acquired by 3Com), and worked as an associate at ABS Ventures. His non-profit affiliations include the board of Southern New Hampshire University.

Dr. Hu Zhanghong currently serves as CEO of Greater Bay Area Homeland Investments Limited. Dr. Hu is also a member of the board of directors of the Financial Services Development Council of Hong Kong, permanent honorary chairman of the Chinese Financial Association of Hong Kong, Chairman of the China Mergers & Acquisitions Association of Hong Kong, and co-chairman of the Committee of the China VC & PE Association.Dr. Hu has more than 20 years of experience in the management of financial institutions in mainland China, Hong Kong, Europe and other countries and regions.

Dr. Hu has been recognized as “China’s Best Investor Leader (Top 3)” by the Financial Times and a “Top-30 Chinese Banker” by Finance Asia. Dr. Hu was a multiple recipient of “Top-10 Chinese PE Investor” award from China Venture and Zero2IPO’s “Top-10 PE Capitalist of the Year” award amongst other awards and accolades.

Kuok Meng Xiong, or better known as “MX”, is the director of K3 Ventures and currently serves as a senior advisor to TPG Capital.

MX started his journey in venture capital as an active angel investor with a global footprint, having invested in multiple verticals including real estate, travel, fintech and healthcare. This portfolio consists of companies such as Grab, Bytedance, Airbnb and iflix. Today, he manages Orion Fund, a VC unit of the Kuok Group which seeks to realize the potential of best-in-class technologies and innovative solutions, as a partner in championing growth through mutual collaboration and by building upon the collective experience and synergies of the Group.

MX was extensively involved in property development across the world, spending 10 years as Executive Director of Development for Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts and developing new hotel projects across 16 cities in China, UK, Turkey, Japan, Mongolia, Tibet and Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka, MX developed two large mixed-use properties and chaired the investment entity whose investment represented the largest foreign direct investment in the country for 2016 and 2017. During his tenure, MX was responsible for a total development value of over $2 billion and chaired the asset management committee for 39 Shangri-La hotels. During this time, MX also served as a director for the Beijing World Trade Centre.

MX graduated from Cornell University and participated in Tsinghua University’s EMBA program.

Born in Penang, Malaysia but raised and educated in the UK, Dr. Joe Lam joined Pearson in 2014, after holding various managerial roles, he currently serves as the Managing Director of Pearson Greater China and India Hub.

He has extensive experience in healthcare and education across Asia Pacific region, he is also an active advocate for the healthcare big data and digital transformation of education. Prior to joining Pearson, Joe was Cardiac Surgeon in NHS Milton Keynes Hospital, then he shifted from clinical practice to clinical research and joined Lancet as Scientific Consultant, he was promoted to Managing Director of Elsevier South East Asia in 2008. In 2012, Joe completed his MBA at Harvard Business School, he moved into healthcare investment as General Manager of Founder Corporate, Medtime Healthcare Data Analytic, his business insight, outstanding leadership, and technological change and industry development made him an outstanding new manager.

Bill Boyu Ning started his education investment career in 2014 at the strategic investment department of TAL. So far he has participated in more than 100 education investments. Bill has 17+ years of experience in the operation and management of education companies. He founded Mobby and Xueersi English at TAL. He was also the first batch of teacher trainers at New Oriental. In addition to his experience in product innovation, branding, distribution channel and strategy, Bill is also expert in the localization of international education resources.
 
Bill is an alumnus of Stanford Graduate School of Business and has a bachelor degree of Peking University. He is now a board member of the Peking University Youth CEO Club.

Gordon arrived in Hong Kong from the United Kingdom over 40 years ago as a newly qualified lawyer and joined a local Hong Kong firm of solicitors in their litigation department. He was subsequently made partner and head of the litigation department two years later.

Gordon's litigation practice continued until 1987 at which time he found himself involved more and more in commercial work and to cater to such and expand his professional experience, he formed his own firm Oldham, Li & Nie – OLN.

Gordon has been involved in businesses both locally and internationally and both as a legal adviser but more often than not, as a businessman. Gordon's direct involvement in business activities has given him a unique insight into the requirements of those who own or run businesses.

Gordon’s philosophy in legal work is to give practical legal solutions to clients, to work hand-in-hand with them in their business development and offer a more rounded approach to business situations. Gordon's work also involves corporate finance, joint ventures, real estate structuring as well as commercial litigation. He also deals extensively with high net worth clients and finance aspects of Matrimonial Disputes. In his involvement as a principal, he has extensive experience in hospitality, real estate development, publishing and brand creation and development. A large amount of his time is involved in the running of several charitable organizations he created both in Hong Kong and Asia.

Dr. Jason Si is Vice President of Tencent and Dean of Tencent Research Institute. He was a visiting scholar of Stanford Law School and was officially invited to be a postgraduate supervisor of Peking University Law School since 2017. He is currently President of the Shenzhen Copyright Association, Council Member of China Law Society and Deputy Director of China Industrial Internet Development Alliance. He has served as an advisory member of Stanford Club of South China (SSC) since 2018. Before joining Tencent, he held key positions in Netease and Xunlei.

Dr. Jason Si received his SJD from Zhongnan University of Economics and Law. His scholarship addresses legal and economy public issues associated with the Chinese internet industry, and provides a unique combination of both academic and practical experiences. He is known for his deep understanding of fast-changing structures and practices of the Chinese internet industry. He has developed his reputation as an influential advisor in relevant fields.

Yat Siu is a technology entrepreneur/investor based in Hong Kong. He is co-founder and chairman of Animoca Brands, an ASX-listed company focusing on leveraging popular brands, gamification, AI, blockchain, and mobile technology to make engaging apps ranging from games to fitness solutions.

Yat began his career at Atari Germany in 1990. In 1995 he moved to Hong Kong to establish Hong Kong Cybercity/Freenation, the first Asian free web page and email provider. In 1998, Yat set up Outblaze, an award-winning pioneer of multilingual white label web services. He sold Outblaze’s services business to IBM in 2009, and pivoted Outblaze to become a conglomerate specializing on cloud, AI, blockchain, and mobile software.

Yat is a director for TurnOut Ventures, a partnership between Outblaze and Turner Entertainment that brought to prominence the hugely popular emoticon character Tuzki. In 2017 he set up the Dalton Learning Lab, an afterschool lab environment that supplements Hong Kong students with skills not emphasized by the local education system, including divergent thinking and design thinking. He is the founder of ThinkBlaze, the research arm of Outblaze investigating socially meaningful issues in technology.Yat has earned numerous accolades including Global Leader of Tomorrow at the World Economic Forum, and Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the DHL/SCMP Awards.

A classically trained musician, Yat is a member of the advisory board of BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) and a director of the Asian Youth Orchestra.

Jessica Tan is currently the Group Co-CEO and Executive Board Director of Ping An Group, overseeing the Group’s portfolio of 10 technology and healthcare businesses. In Ms. Tan’s 7 years at Ping An, the Group has grown from 30th to the 8th largest global financial conglomerate serving 516 million customers online and over 200 million financial customers. More noticeably, Ping An has made significant strides in technology and innovation, establishing 8 research institutes and 57 research labs globally. Ping An technology businesses has a combined annual revenues of US$11 billion, of which 3 are publicly listed companies in New York and Hong Kong and 2 are unicorns across 5 ecosystems of financial services, healthcare, auto services, real estate and smart city. Within smart city eocystem, Jessica manages Ping An Smart City and iTutorGroup which is China’s top 3 online education platform serving over 200,000 students, 20,000 teachers globally, and providing nearly 17 million personalized online learning sessions per year.

Ms.Tan serves as a key member of various international advisory panels and represented Ping An as one of Co-Chairs for the World Economic Forum (WEF) Davos event in China in 2019. Before joining Ping An, Ms. Tan was a global partner at McKinsey. She is Singaporean, graduated from MIT with a 5.0/5.0 GPA in Masters in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and two Bachelor of Sciences in Electrical Engineering and Economics respectively.

TSANG CHUN WAH JOHN Born and raised in Hong Kong, John emigrated to the United States when he was a Form II student at La Salle College. He continued his education at Stuyvesant High School in New York City, and studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He went on to complete master degrees in Bilingual Education at Boston State College and in Public Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He worked in the Boston Public Schools as a teacher and in curriculum development.

John returned to work as an Administrative Officer in the Hong Kong Government in 1982. He took up a number of posts relating to commerce and finance. After reunification, he was appointed as Commissioner of Customs and Excise, Secretary for Planning and Lands, Secretary for Commerce, Innovation and Technology, Director of the Chief Executive’s Office and in 2007, Financial Secretary where he served until 2017. He ran for the post of Chief Executive and lost.

Dr. Allan Wong, GBS, MBE, JP, co-founded VTech in 1976 with the vision of designing innovative electronics products for consumers around the world. A technology enthusiast, Allan is an electrical and computer engineer by training with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Hong Kong. He also holds a Master of Science degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Wisconsin and an Honorary Doctorate of Technology from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Dr. Wong is the deputy chairman and an independent non-executive director of the Bank of East Asia, Limited, and an independent non-executive director of China-Hongkong Photo Products Holdings Limited, Li & Fung Limited and MTR Corporation Limited.

Founded in 1920, Scholastic is the world’s largest children book publisher and distributor and a leader in comprehensive education solutions to help children read and learn. It is a publicly listed company (NASDAQ:SCHL) with annual revenue of about US$ 1.6 billion. Scholastic Asia operates in China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines and India with 3,000+ employees.

Before joining Scholastic in 2003, Frank was President of PepsiCo Foods in China from 1999 to 2003. Prior to PepsiCo, he spent 5 years with Nabisco, where he began as International Marketing Director in New York and later became the President of Nabisco China. Before his Asia assignments, he held a series of senior brand management positions with Colgate Palmolive in New York. Mr. Wong received a BA degree from George Washington University and a Master degree from Columbia University. He is the founding Chair of Teach for Hong Kong, a Vice Chair of AFS Intercultural Exchanges, and board advisor to a few PE and VC funds.

Mr Peter Yan is the Chief Executive Officer of the Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited. As the CEO of Cyberport, Mr Yan leads the digital technology flagship to focus on fostering industry development, enterprise transformation and talent cultivation to realise Cyberport’s vision to create new impetus for Hong Kong’s new economy through digital technology.

Mr Yan has 34 years of experience in the information technology industry and is a fellow of the Hong Kong Computer Society. Prior to joining Cyberport, Mr Yan was the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of SUNeVision Holdings Limited; and had held various senior management positions in large consulting and information technology services companies including Accenture, Tradelink Electronic Commerce Limited, and Computer and Technologies Holdings Limited. Mr Yan has been active in public services especially in the areas of talent development and digital technology industry development, serving as advisors to the Chinese University of Hong Kong, City University of Hong Kong and University of Hong Kong, as well as the Board of Cyberport from 2011 to 2017.

Mr Yan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and received Executive Education from the Harvard Business School.