Ms Sophia Kao Ching-Chi SBS JP - Doctorate of the Academy Honoris Causa
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Ms Sophia Kao Ching-chi SBS JP - Doctorate of the Academy honoris causa Ms Sophia Kao Ching-chi is currently a full-time Member of the Central Policy Unit of the Hong Kong SAR Government. With a career that spans both the private and public sectors, she applies her expertise and experience in human resources management to help the Government in identifying, engaging and nurturing talents for public service. Throughout the years, Ms Kao’s career has been underpinned by a calling to serve the people of Hong Kong. Ms Kao’s association with The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts dates back to 1990, when her daughters attended the Academy’s Pre-junior Music Programme. Grateful for the positive impact of music education on their lives, Ms Kao devoted herself to giving back to the Academy by taking a more proactive role as a volunteer at The Society for the Academy for Performing Arts (SAPA) – leveraging her time, energy and network to help raise greatly-needed funds to nurture performing arts talents in Hong Kong. Ms Kao became a member of SAPA’s Executive Committee in 2003, and has served as its Joint President since 2004. As Joint President of SAPA, Ms Kao has dedicated significant time and effort to ensure the success of the Academy’s major fundraisers. Her efforts have also played an invaluable role in expanding the Academy’s network of friends and supporters throughout society. A spirit of giving back to the community has consistently marked Ms Kao’s career. A seasoned professional in human resources management and corporate administration, her corporate career began at the former Mass Transit Railway Corporation and culminated as a leader of human resources management functions at major commercial and public institutions, including the Airport Authority Hong Kong – where her contributions were instrumental to the on-time and on-budget completion of the Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok. Throughout her career in human resources management, Ms Kao made it her mission to improve the lives of employees and their families, always striving to ensure positive work environments and the best possible benefits. In 1999, Ms Kao retired from the corporate arena and decided to devote herself full-time to voluntary work in public and community service. Since then, she has served in numerous government advisory and statutory bodies, as well as boards and committees of non-government organisations, which covered a wide spectrum of areas including public policies and strategic development, women’s rights and status, university governance, education, financial reporting regulation, hospital governance, social service and development, philanthropy, etc. 1 2 As Founding Chairman of the Financial Reporting Council, a regulatory body tasked with upholding the integrity of financial reporting in Hong Kong, Ms Kao led the organisation in its mission to enhance investor protection and reinforce Hong Kong’s status as a major international financial centre. Despite limited initial funding, she was able to successfully establish the Council’s reputation as a credible, transparent, accountable and efficient member of Hong Kong’s regulatory regime – winning the respect and trust of the industry, regulatory and government sectors. Her work identified the need for an independent and robust regulatory framework benchmarked against international standards and best practices; and her proposed regulatory reforms were accepted by the Government and continue to be pursued. Believing that women should be able to fully participate in society with due status, rights and opportunities in all aspects of life, Ms Kao holds the promotion of women’s well-being and interests close to her heart. As a founding member of the Women’s Commission since 2001, and its Chairperson from 2006 to 2012, she was instrumental in formulating the long-term strategic framework for the development and advancement of women in Hong Kong. Having championed and established numerous programmes that empower women, she is widely regarded as an iconic role model for women in Hong Kong. Ms Kao was bestowed Honourary Fellowships by Lingnan University, The Open University of Hong Kong and The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 2006, 2010 and 2011 respectively. She was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 2003, and honoured with a Silver Bauhinia Star in 2009 by the Hong Kong SAR Government. 3 Dr Simon Kwan Sin-ming - Doctorate of the Academy honoris causa Dr Simon Kwan Sin-ming has won fame as an architect, a designer, a painter, a connoisseur, a scholar and a teacher. Born in Hong Kong, Dr Kwan studied Architecture and Fine Arts at the University of Hong Kong, and was awarded a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture degree in 1967 and a PhD degree in Fine Arts in 1989. In 1973 he set up his own company, Simon Kwan & Associates Ltd. In its 43 years of practice, the company has established a fine reputation for delivering exceptional design services, and has won many prizes and awards. Major projects include, of course, The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Hong Kong Science Park, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, many institutional buildings such as the Hong Kong Industrial Technology Centre, the Police Headquarters and a number of hospital complexes and numerous residential and commercial complexes. The company’s buildings are well known in architectural circles around the world, and featured in publications such as 581 Architects of the World, published in Japan. Dr Kwan and his company have won numerous awards for their work. Many of the institutional projects undertaken by Simon Kwan and Associates resulted from their winning architectural design competitions. The firm has also gained awards from the Architectural Services Department and the Hong Kong Institute of Architects and other institutes in green and sustainable architecture. In tribute to his outstanding contribution to architecture, Dr Kwan was awarded the Artist of the Year Award by the Hong Kong Artists’ Guild in 1989. In 1999, he was elected a Fellow of the University of Hong Kong. In 2004, he became an Honorary University Fellow of the Open University of Hong Kong. Dr Kwan’s love of beauty extends beyond architecture. He is also a painter, and a dedicated researcher and scholar in the field of Chinese art and design. He has written many papers and delivered many lectures on Chinese art at universities and institutions both in Hong Kong and abroad. He has served as adviser and committee member to the Hong Kong Museum of Art, the Hong Kong University Museum, and the Chinese University Museum and Art Gallery for more than 20 years. His publications on Chinese Arts include Chinese gold ornaments, brush and clay, early Chinese glass, Chinese lacquer, Chinese portraits, Chinese jades, ivories, ceramics, and inkstones. Dr Kwan’s design emphasises functionality and efficiency, spatial quality and aesthetics, while also placing emphasis on the application of advanced technology. In recent years, his company has concentrated on the study and hands-on application of building energy efficiency and environmental protection. The company has won numerous green building honours for its projects, including the Green Building Award, Sustainable Design Award, and Energy Efficient Building Award. 4 Dr Kwan was awarded the commission to design The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 1981, and his design won the Annual Award of the Hong Kong Institute of Architects after the Academy’s completion in 1985. The design of the Academy became one of his signature projects, and is cited in the 20th edition of Banister Fletcher’s classic textbook A History of Architecture. The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts is the only piece of architecture in Hong Kong that features in the prestigious Complete Book of Chinese Modern Art. 5 Ms Bonni Chan - Honorary Fellowship Ms Bonni Chan was born and raised on the outlying Island and community of Cheung Chau in Hong Kong. At the age of thirteen, after a chanced occasion seeing Swan Lake on film, she set off on what would become a lifelong journey of enquiry into the arts. She began to learn dance herself through whatever books she could find in libraries, and put her early ideas into practice by “choreographing” for her friends. After auditioning, she won a scholarship to the Hong Kong Academy of Ballet, the territory’s first professional dance training school where she studied classical ballet and modern dance. She also spent time in the summer school at the Royal Academy of Dance in London. Around this time she also began to be fascinated by the language and form of drama, as she joined the drama courses held in the Academy’s dance studio in evenings. In the year in which she graduated from the Dance Academy, she was accepted as one of the 15 students chosen for the first year of the School of Drama of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. There she went on receiving the Best Actress award for three consecutive years of study. In 1992, after working with various teachers in Europe for two years, Ms Chan co-founded Theatre du Pif with Sean Curran in Scotland. The company was dedicated to theatre training, and focused on the creation of new original works that fused text and physicality, and were intended to speak to, inspire and move the audience. She spent seven summers working with the WHALE Community Arts Centre, an underprivileged area’s local community arts initiative, and this experience enabled her to witness the power of transformation in the participants through the arts. In 2000, the company was commissioned by the Scottish Arts Council to create a production that celebrated Scotland’s cultural diversity. The company’s production Fish Heads and Tales – A Tender War based on the songs of Belgium balladeer Jacques Brel, and its adaptation of the Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol’s The Overcoat were awarded five stars at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.