HONG KONG Is IRREPLACEABLE
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Why HONG KONG is IRREPLACEABLE 26 FEB 2021 PROGRAMME WWW.AAIL.ORG 2 WHY HONG KONG IS IRREPLACEABLE SPEAKER Ms Teresa CHENG GBS SC JP Secretary for Justice Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China Ms Teresa Cheng, SC, is the Secretary for Justice of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. Prior to her appoint- ment as the Secretary for Justice, Ms Cheng was a Senior Counsel in private practice, a chartered engineer, a chartered arbitrator, and an accredited mediator. She was frequently engaged as arbitrator or counsel in complex international commercial or investment disputes. Ms Cheng was one of the founders and Chairman of the Asian Academy of International Law. Apart from being a Past Chairperson of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, Ms Cheng is also a Past Vice President of the International Council of Commercial Arbitration and a Past Vice President of the ICC International Court of Arbitration. In 2008, she became the first Asian woman elected through a global election as President of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. She served as Deputy Judge/Recorder in the Court of First Instance of the High Court of Hong Kong from 2011 to 2017. She is a member of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes Panel of Arbitrators, and was a member of the World Bank’s Sanctions Board. Ms Cheng is a Fellow of King’s College in London, and was the Course Director of the International Arbitration and Dispute Settlement Course at the Law School of Tsinghua University in Beijing. WHY HONG KONG IS IRREPLACEABLE 3 SPEAKER Dr Anthony NEOH QC SC JP Chairman Asian Academy of International Law Dr Anthony Neoh is a senior member of the Hong Kong Bar specialising in international litigation, arbitration and financial regulatory matters. In 1979, he commenced practice at the Hong Kong Bar after serving for 13 years in the Hong Kong Civil Service. From 1991 to 1994, he was a member of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange Council and its Listing Committee, and chaired its Disciplinary Committee and Debt Securities Group, and was Co-Chairman of the Legal Committee of the Hong Kong and China Listing Working Group. He was the chief architect of the legal structure for the listing of Chinese enterprises in Hong Kong. He is former Chairman of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission from 1995 to 1998; during this time, he was the first Asian to be elected Chairman of the Technical Committee of the International Organization of Securities Commissions. From 1999 to 2004, he was Chief Advisor of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, at the personal invitation of former Premier Zhu Rongji. On 1 June 2018, Dr Neoh was appointed as Chairman of the Hong Kong Independent Police Complaints Council to serve a term of two years. He was the Convenor of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) Expert Group on the Finance Academy and now serves as Member of the HKMA Preparatory Committee for the Finance Academy. He is also the Co-Chairman of 2018 B20 Financing Growth and Infrastructure Task Force, and Co-Chairman of The China Securitization Forum. 4 WHY HONG KONG IS IRREPLACEABLE SPEAKER Mr Eddie YUE JP Chief Executive Hong Kong Monetary Authority Mr Eddie Yue was appointed Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) from 1 October 2019. He began his career as an Administrative Officer in the Hong Kong SAR Government in 1986. He joined the HKMA upon its establishment in 1993 and was promoted to Division Head a year later. He was appointed Executive Director in 2001 and subsequently Deputy Chief Executive in 2007 before taking up his current position. Mr Yue has partici- pated in numerous areas of the HKMA’s work. During his tenure as Deputy Chief Executive, he steered major policies and initiatives relating to reserves management, research, external affairs, and market development. Mr Yue was also actively involved in tackling major financial crises and played an instru- mental role in enhancing the Linked Exchange Rate System. Mr Yue was educated at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Harvard Business School. WHY HONG KONG IS IRREPLACEABLE 5 SPEAKER Mr Stephen PHILLIPS Director-General of Investment Promotion Invest Hong Kong, The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Mr Stephen Phillips is the Director-General of Investment Promotion at Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK), the Government Department responsible for attracting and facilitating foreign direct investment into Hong Kong. In a career focused on Asia for more than thirty years, Mr Phillips first moved to Hong Kong in 1989, holding senior investment banking positions with Deutsche and BZW/Barclays Capital before co-founding a Hong Kong-based group of companies providing IT, financial and consultancy services across Asia. In 2004, he joined the UK’s Department of International Trade before becoming the Chief Executive of the China Britain Business Council in 2006, as well as Chairman of the EU China Business Association. Mr Phillips holds a BSc in Chemistry and Law from the University of Exeter. 6 WHY HONG KONG IS IRREPLACEABLE (Listed in alphabetical order) SPEAKER Mr Conrad CHAN Partner Kwok Yih & Chan Conrad specialises in advising on cross-border mergers and acquisitions in both the public and private spheres, private equity transactions, insolvency/ corporate workouts and debt restructuring, listings and public offerings, capital markets transactions (debt and equity), regulatory investigation, joint ventures, and other commercial transactions across various jurisdictions. He frequently acts for and advises multinational as well as Mainland and regional clients on a wide range of matters. He is regularly rated by various organisa- tions, including IFLR1000, Chambers Global, Chambers Asia Pacific and Asia Law, as one of the leading lawyers in the areas of capital markets, corporate/ merges and acquisitions, and private equity. Conrad sits on various panels and tribunals, including the Takeovers and Mergers Panel, Takeovers Appeal Committee, Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (as Deputy Convenor), Disciplinary (Panel A) of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Appeal Tribunal Panel of the Buildings Ordinance (as Chairman), and the Appeal Panel of the Travel Industry Council. WHY HONG KONG IS IRREPLACEABLE 7 SPEAKER Mr John CHOONG Partner Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer John is Head of Freshfields’ China International Arbitration Practice, and has many years of experience counselling clients on international dispute matters throughout Asia. He regularly acts as trusted adviser to leading international and Chinese corporates, including Fortune 500 companies, on their most significant disputes. These have included a number of publicly reported billion-dollar matters. He is listed as a leading individual for dispute resolution and arbitration by the legal directories, and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He sits on various arbitration committees and organisations, including as council member, and is regularly appointed as presiding or sole arbitrator under the leading arbitration rules. John is the author or editor of books published by the Oxford University Press and Sweet & Maxwell, including as co-General Arbitration Editor of the Hong Kong White Book. 8 WHY HONG KONG IS IRREPLACEABLE SPEAKER Mr Brian GILCHRIST Partner Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP As a world leading mediation expert, Mr Gilchrist practices dispute resolution, with a focus on commercial litigation. He is also an experienced advisor on regulatory matters and has handled both domestic and multijurisdictional arbitrations. Mr Gilchrist has acted as a key legal advisor to many of the largest Hong Kong and international companies and institutions. He has acted for as well as against Regulators, and is recognised in the market as someone who is usually involved in any ‘bet the company’ dispute in Hong Kong. Mr Gilchrist has sat as a Deputy Judge of the High Court of the Hong Kong SAR, as well as tribunal chairman for a statutory body dealing with appeals. He has been elected and currently serves as a Vice President of The Law Society of Hong Kong, having joined the Council since early 2009. Mr Gilchrist has acted as the Honorary Legal Advisor to the British Consul General in Hong Kong for over 15 years. Apart from contributing to different legal publications, he has also sat on the High Court Rules Committee and the Solicitors Higher Rights of Audience Assessment Board, and is presently a member of the Court of Final Appeal Rules Committee and the Standing Committee on Legal Education and Training, as well as a member of a number of other statutory bodies and committees. WHY HONG KONG IS IRREPLACEABLE 9 SPEAKER Ms Carmen KAN General Counsel Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited Ms Carmen Kan is General Counsel of Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited (BOCHK) and was previously General Manager, Legal & Compliance and Operational Risk Management Department of BOCHK. Currently she is also the Vice-Chairman of Legal Affairs Steering Committee of the Hong Kong Chinese Enterprises Association. She is one of the first batch of lawyers qualified in Hong Kong (1993) and the Mainland of China (1995). She also obtained a Master of Public Administration from Tsinghua University. Ms Kan was named as one of ‘The ALB In-House 25’ in 2018 by Thomson Reuters’ Asian Legal Business. She was also selected as one of the ‘Top 20 Global General Counsel’ by Financial Times in 2017 and was awarded ‘Woman Lawyer of the Year (In-House) 2017’ by Asian Legal Business. She led the legal team in winning the ‘Asia Pacific Innovative Lawyers Outstanding Award’ in 2016 and 2019, awarded by Financial Times and The Legal 500 respectively. Prior to her current tenure with BOCHK, Ms Kan spent ten years with Clifford Chance and had been a banking and finance partner of the firm since 2003, and served as the Chief Representative of its Beijing office for four years.