Honorific Prefix: | The Honourable |
Sir Chung-kong Chow | |
Honorific Suffix: | GBM,GBS,JP,FREng,FCGI,FIChemE |
Birth Date: | 9 September 1950 |
Birth Place: | Hong Kong |
Office: | Chairman of the Urban Renewal Authority |
Term Start: | 1 May 2019[1] |
Predecessor: | Victor So Hing-who |
Office1: | Non-Official Member of the Executive Council of Hong Kong |
Term Start1: | 1 July 2012 |
Term End1: | 30 June 2022 |
Appointed1: | Leung Chun-ying Carrie Lam |
Office2: | Chairman of the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing |
Term Start2: | 24 April 2012 |
Term End2: | 25 April 2018 |
Predecessor2: | Ronald Arculli |
Successor2: | Laura Cha |
Office3: | CEO of the MTR Corporation |
1Blankname3: | Chairman |
1Namedata3: | Raymond Chien |
Term Start3: | 1 December 2003 |
Term End3: | 31 December 2011 |
Predecessor3: | Jack So |
Successor3: | Jay Walder |
Sir Chung-kong Chow , FREng,[2] FCGI, FIChemE (; born 9 September 1950), also known as Chow Chung-kong and C.K. Chow, is a Hong Kong businessman and government appointee. He is currently chairman of the Urban Renewal Authority and is a former non-official member of the Executive Council of Hong Kong. He was also chairman of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, which owns the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Previously, he was chief executive officer of the MTR Corporation, and was chief executive officer of Brambles Industries PLC, a global support services company listed in the United Kingdom and Australia, until resigning in 2003 after shareholder accusations of mismanagement.[3] [4] From 1997 to 2001, he was chief executive of GKN PLC, a leading engineering company based in the United Kingdom and before that he spent 20 years with the BOC Group PLC and was appointed a director of its board and chief executive of its Gases Division in 1993.
Chow is a chartered engineer and holds BS and MS degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of California-Davis respectively. He also holds an MBA degree from The Chinese University of Hong Kong and attended the six-week Advanced Management Program of Harvard Business School. He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Engineering degree by the University of Bath in 2001.
Chow was knighted in the United Kingdom in 2000 for his contribution to industry. He is a member of the Council of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Hong Kong Tourism Board, the Council of The Chinese University of Hong Kong and as the council's representative to serve on the Board of Trustees of its Shaw College.
Chow is also a member of the general committee of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, and the Shenzhen Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He was a non-executive director of Standard Chartered plc and until the end of 2010 was non-executive chairman of Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong).[5] He was appointed chairman of HKEx in April 2012 and as a Fellow[2] at the Royal Academy of Engineering[2] in 2001.
The Hong Kong media once described Chow as one of the most powerful Chinese men in the western world.[6]