Honorary University Fellows
Citation delivered by Professor Christopher HUTTON, Acting Dean of Arts
Ms Leonie Man Fung KI is Managing Director of New World China Enterprises Projects Ltd, an iconic figure in the world of advertising and a distinguished community leader.
Ms Ki graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Hong Kong and entered the advertising field, which in the seventies, was still a young industry in Hong Kong. Apparently, when she was offered a position as 'copywriter', she thought that all she was supposed to do was, literally, 'copy and write'.
As it turned out Ms Ki became a creative pioneer in the industry and her contributions to advertising went far beyond revenue and business growth. In those early years, jingles were ubiquitous in TV commercials and there are few Hong Kongers of a certain age who will not recall, with misty-eyed nostalgia, her concept: ‘維他奶, 維他奶, 點 只喺汽水咁簡單’. Her creative legacy is still felt today, as many of the leaders and top creative talent in the advertising industry in Hong Kong and China are her students.
Ms Ki was the founding Partner and Chairman/CEO of Grey Hong Kong Advertising Ltd and Grey China Advertising Ltd. She was Chairman of the Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies China from 1992 to 1995.
Ms Ki was the founding Chief Executive of the Better Hong Kong Foundation, and has lent her support to many community and charity services, including UNICEF, the Children’s Cancer Foundation, Ocean Park Conservation Fund, and the Bridge to China Charitable Foundation, to name just a few.
Her alma mater has also benefited greatly from her support. Ms Ki has been a Member of the HKU Careers Advisory Board since 2005, and an active and enthusiastic Mentor since the launch of the HKU Mentorship Programme in 1997.
Ms Ki helped initiate a New World Harvard Fellows Program that takes PRC government officials to the Harvard Kennedy School for training, and includes many notable Ministers and Directors among its alumni. She is also a popular author and columnist, writing the first Chinese best-seller chronicling contemporary advertising in Greater China.
Ms Ki has been a Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Member of Yunnan Province since 2002, was appointed Justice of the Peace in 2005 and awarded a Silver Bauhinia Star in 2007.
It gives me great pleasure, Mr Pro-Chancellor, to present Ms Leonie Man Fung KI for the Honorary University Fellowship, in recognition of her contributions to Hong Kong and academia.