Honorary University Fellows
Mr Edwin Siu Hung Leong was born in Guangdong Province, and holds a BSc from the University of British Columbia, and a MSc from the University of Toronto.
In 1997, Mr Leong founded Tai Hung Fai Enterprise, a company that has become known in the last ten years in the property investment community for specializing in retail properties. Under his leadership, it has also grown into a highly diversified property investment and development company. It is now widely regarded as one of the fastest growing companies of the past decade.
But if the scope of Mr Leong’s business enterprise is wide, it is matched only by the depth of his personal commitment to social issues faced by Hong Kong society. This can perhaps be best seen in his involvement in addressing the needs of the elderly in our community.
Mr Leong founded the Tai Hung Fai Charity Foundation in 2005, through which he established the Henry G Leong Mobile Integrative Health Centre, which provides free health screening and monitoring services to disadvantaged senior citizens throughout Hong Kong.
The University has also benefitted from Mr Leong’s support to many of our endeavours. In 2007, he established the Henry G Leong Professorship in Social Work and Social Administration, in honour of his father. In 2006, he set up the Henry G Leong Programme for Enhanced Training and Research on Holistic Care of the Elderly, in the Department of Social Work and Social Administration. In 2008, he established the Henry G Leong Professorship in Neurology, supporting the work of Professor S L Ho in the research and treatment of neurodegenerative disorders, particularly Parkinson’s disease.
Mr Leong is also an honorary patron of the HKU Foundation and has also supported the Burma/Myanmar Fund of the Faculty of Social Sciences. In 2010, he established the Edwin S H Leong Hughes Hall Scholarships for HKU students pursing postgraduate studies at Cambridge University.
Mr Leong has served as a Director and Vice Chairman of Po Leung Kuk, and is a Patron of the Hong Kong Breast Cancer Foundation.
Citation delivered by Professor Ian HOLLIDAY, Dean of Social Sciences
Mr Edwin Leong was born in Guangdong Province, and holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of British Columbia, and a Master of Science degree from the University of Toronto.
In 1977, Mr Leong founded Tai Hung Fai Enterprise, a company that has become known in the last ten years in the property investment community for specialising in retail properties.
Under his leadership, it has also grown into a highly diversified property investment and development company. In addition to its mainstay of retail shop investments, the firm’s ventures include branded hotels and service apartments, commercial and industrial buildings, luxury residential developments and mini-storage facilities.
It is now widely regarded as one of the fastest growing companies of the past decade, and Mr Leong has become known by the local press as the ‘King of Shops’!
But if the scope of Mr Leong’s business enterprise is wide, it is matched only by the depth of his personal commitment to social issues faced by Hong Kong society.
This can perhaps be best seen in his involvement in addressing the needs of the elderly in our community. Those familiar with Mr Leong will not find this particularly surprising, as they will know of his great respect for his father, the late Mr Henry G Leong, and his ongoing devotion to his mother, Madame Leong.
And at a time when communities around the world, including Hong Kong, must now face the challenges and realities of a steadily aging population, Mr Leong’s interventions are both timely and valuable.
Mr Leong founded the Tai Hung Fai Charity Foundation in 2005, through which he established the Henry G Leong Mobile Integrative Health Centre, which provides free health screening and monitoring services to disadvantaged senior citizens throughout Hong Kong.
Mr Leong knows that the University shares many of his concerns about the condition of the elderly in society, and he has supported our academic and research activities in related disciplines.
In 2005, he established the ‘Henry G Leong Professorship in Social Work and Social Administration’, in honour of his father.
The following year, he set up the ‘Henry G Leong Programme for Enhanced Training and Research on Holistic Care of the Elderly’, in the Department of Social Work and Social Administration.
And in 2008, he established the ‘Henry G Leong Professorship in Neurology’, supporting the work of Professor S L Ho in the research and treatment of neurodegenerative disorders, particularly Parkinson’s disease.
Mr Leong is an honorary patron of the HKU Foundation and has also supported the Burma/Myanmar Fund of the Faculty of Social Sciences. In 2010, he established the Edwin S H Leong Hughes Hall Scholarships for HKU students pursing postgraduate studies at Cambridge University.
Mr Leong has served as a Director and Vice Chairman of Po Leung Kuk, and is a Patron of the Hong Kong Breast Cancer Foundation.
It gives me great pleasure, Mr Pro-Chancellor, to present Mr Edwin Leong for the Honorary University Fellowship, in recognition of his contributions to Hong Kong and academia.