Professor Alan Barrell has spent over 30 years in senior executive positions in technology based industries and has become one of Cambridge's most articulate promoters of entrepreneurship. He has worked in Health Care and Medical Research, as Chairman and Chief Executive of large multi-national companies and smaller technology start-ups. He teaches in Universities in UK, Europe, North America and Asia with Professorships in European and Chinese Universities. He is Distinguished Guest Professor at Xiamen University and Liaoning University, and has taught at Tsinghua University and Fudan University. Professor Barrell's interest in China, its history, people and culture has become a major feature of his life and work. Other appointments have included Senior Enterprise Fellow, University of Essex; International Fellow, Anglia Ruskin University Cambridge; and International Research Fellow, Laurea University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki and at University of Lahti, also in Finland.
In August 2013 the book Show Me The Money - How to raise the cash to get your business off the ground co-authored by Alan Barrell, David Gill and Martin Rigby was launched and the first printing was sold out in six months and is now preprinted and selling worldwide. A Chinese language version is published by Tsinghua University Press. Professor Barrell received the Queens Award for Enterprise Promotion in 2010 for exceptional service in the promotion and encouragement of enterprise in others. He was also bestowed the honour of Knight First Class of the Order of the White Rose of Finland in 2011 by the President of Finland for exceptional services to education. He is presently Director of Studies at Cambridge Innovation Academy and a Chairman or Director of there early stage companies as well as Chairman of Trustees of Cambridge Rare Diseases Network.
As a Professor of Practice of the HKMA Institute of Advanced Management Development, Professor Barrell was instrumental in leading the highly successful HKMA Cambridge Innovation Programme of the AMD in the University of Cambridge since 2016. As Director of Studies of the Programme, he put together a team of lecturers, entrepreneurs and researchers for the programme, successfully linking the participants with like-minded individuals in exploring innovative ideas of mutual interest.
Professor Viveca Chan is the founder of the WE group of companies and also Council Member of The Hong Kong Management Association. Previously, she was the Chairman and CEO of Grey Global Group Greater China and has always been an industry pioneer. In the 90's, she opened up many new marketing businesses, including independent media company (Mediacom), interactive marketing, internet advertising, CRM operation models and so on. Being a visionary, she founded her own brand marketing agency WE Marketing Group in 2005, social marketing company WE Digital in 2011, e-commerce company WE Commerce in late 2013, and WE Tech in 2014. WE Group is now the first one-stop shop agency in China that links the last mile by providing branding strategy & creative, digital marketing, e-commerce strategy and operations, big data insight, and CRM services.
As a recognised industry leader, Professor Chan has won numerous awards and honours, including Ad Age Global's 2013 "100 Most Influential Women in Advertising", New York Festivals' "Contributor Award to China Advertising", "Top 100 China Entrepreneurs" from China Economic Journal, "Leading Advertising Professionals with Influence on China's Advertising Development in the Past 30 years" from China Advertising Magazine, and more. In April 2015 at the Golden Mouse Digital Marketing Award, Professor Chan did not only win "The Most Influential Digital Marketer of the Year" but also the "Outstanding Contribution Honor" specially granted by the committee.
A Fellow and Council Member of The Hong Kong Management Association, Professor Chan has been a long-serving member of the Marketing Management Committee of the HKMA. She also actively involved in other work of the Association, including the China Marketing Award, the HKMA/TVB Award for Marketing Excellence as well as the Annual Conference, to name a few.
Professor Darwin Chen has served in the Hong Kong Government for many years and his appointments included Director of Cultural Services, Commissioner for Television, Commissioner of Labour, Director of Buildings and Lands, and Deputy Secretary for Constitutional Affairs. Former Chief Executive of the Community Chest of Hong Kong, he now serves on the board of several charitable organisations in several international and Chinese charities. In Hong Kong, he serves as Honorary Chairman of Habitat for Humanity and board member of the Hong Kong Christian Service (Vice Chairman), Jackie Chan Charitable Foundation, St. Christopher's Home, Amity Foundation and Plan International. In his many years of participation in arts and culture, he served as Chairman of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council and the Government's Committee on Performing Arts.
He now serves as Vice President of UNESCO Hong Kong Association. Professor Chen has been active for many years in the field of professional and continuing education in Hong Kong. He is Senior Advisor to the School of Professional and Continuing Education of HKU, Chairman of the School of Management of the Centennial College of HKU, and Honorary Chairman of the Peter F Drucker Academy. He was awarded the Silver Bauhinia Star by the Hong Kong SAR Government in 2003. Another recognition conferred on him was that of "All China Outstanding Philanthropic Worker" from the Ministry of Civil Affairs of China. He was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Social Sciences of the HKU and made an Honorary Fellow by the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, the Education University of Hong Kong and HKU SPACE.
Professor Chen has been instrumental in bringing Peter F Drucker programmes to the AMD. He has also been giving advice on the planned arts management programmes on curriculum design, on recommending highly distinguished practitioners as lecturers as well as on soliciting high power guest speakers.
Born in Shanghai and brought up in Hong Kong, Professor Shih Wing Ching is an entrepreneur and philanthropist. In 1978, Professor Shih established Centaline Property Agency Limited, which has now evolved as one of the largest property agencies, employing more than 60,000 staff and involving in a great variety of businesses including property agency, surveying and valuation, wealth management and information technology development on property data.
In 2005, Professor Shih launched the free newspaper, am730, and is now a columnist giving comments on current issues of the world. Professor Shih also hosts radio programmes and frequently delivers speech in tertiary institutions on a wide range of topics encompassing philosophy, economics, management and natural science. As Professor Shih has diversified interests and his analysis is based on a macroscopic view, he has become one of the most popular commentators in the Hong Kong community. As recognition of his contributions and achievements in the Hong Kong academic and economic fields, Professor Shih was conferred with Honorary Fellowship by Lingnan University, appointed as Honorary Professor of Hong Kong Baptist University, and Adjunct Professor of Business School of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
With keen enthusiasm for the society's development, Professor Shih participates in various community services and charity works. Professor Shih donated all his shares in Centaline Group in 2008 to his charitable organisation Shih Wing Ching Foundation IëC, which carries out more than 100 projects annually to alleviate rural poverty in China. Later in 2010, Professor Shih also donated the majority of his shares in am730 to his foundation, leaving the rest of the shares as am730's staff involvement in the newspaper's ownership. In support of entrepreneurship in Hong Kong, Professor Shih started the am730 Startup Fund in 2011 to fund local start-ups, and he implements in the start-up projects his management philosophy of development through selforganisation and cooperative development based on fair distribution of wealth created.
As a Fellow of The Hong Kong Management Association, Professor Shih has been a regular supporter of the work of the HKMA. He was the Keynote Speaker at the "Fuji Xerox (Hong Kong) / HKMA Leadership and Management Seminar" in July and also spoke on topics encompassing the economy, the property market and management philosophy at the Annual Conference. Recently Professor Shih advised AMD of his views on a proposed research on tracking youngsters' level of happiness. He readily shared his eagerness to study how to uphold the spirit of youngsters through strengthening some key ingredients of the life education curriculum, and encouraged the AMD to pursue along his direction for stronger impact on the community.
