Honorary University Fellows
Ms Pansy Ho Chiu King is the Managing Director of Shun Tak Holdings Limited, a conglomerate listed in Hong Kong with core businesses in property, transportation, hospitality and investments. She also holds other key executive roles, including that of Co-chairperson and Executive Director of MGM China Holdings Limited.
Ms Ho holds a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing and International Business Management from Santa Clara University, and an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Business Administration from Johnson and Wales University.
A strong believer in the power of exchange and cooperation, Ms Ho has dedicated her time and effort over the years to the promotion of the tourism economy, the empowerment of women and youth, and the enrichment of life experience through art and culture across Hong Kong, Macau and Mainland China.
Ms Ho advocates helping women and youth gain socio-economic independence through education and training. Through her personal contributions and strategic alliances with non-profit organisations, a number of training and community programmes have been created in community centers in Hong Kong, China, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Ms Ho has served as a Founding Honorary Advisor and Board Director of the HKU Foundation since 1996.
Ms Ho was a patron to the “Sandro Botticelli’s Venus” exhibition, which – in collaboration with the Consulate General of Italy in Hong Kong and Macau, the Italian Cultural Institute, and the HKU Museum and Art Gallery – brought the painting to Hong Kong for the first time in 2013. The exhibition offered to students, teachers, museum visitors and the general public not only a rare viewing, learning and teaching opportunity of a Renaissance masterpiece, but also a heightened awareness of how art and culture can transcend time, distance and differences.
Ms Ho was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 2015.
Citation delivered by Professor Derek COLLINS, Dean of Arts
Ms Pansy Ho Chiu King is the Managing Director of Shun Tak Holdings Limited and is a great believer in creating change through the power of exchange and cooperation.
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing and International Business Management from Santa Clara University, and an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Business Administration from Johnson and Wales University.
Shun Tak Holdings Limited is a conglomerate listed in Hong Kong with core businesses in property, transportation, hospitality and investments.
Under Ms Ho’s leadership, the Group has expanded its network to grow in parallel with the regional integration and economic diversification of the Pearl River Delta.
She also holds other key executive roles, including Co-chairperson and Executive Director of MGM China Holdings Limited. Over the years, she has dedicated her time and effort to the promotion of the tourism economy.
Ms Ho sees the role of tourism as a global economic driver and employment generator, and aims to make a personal difference through her work with various global travel advisory organizations, including inter alia the United Nations’ World Tourism Organization, the World Travel and Tourism Council, the China Chamber of Tourism, the Pacific Asia Travel Association and the Global Tourism Economy Forum.
She has been a strong advocate of empowering women and youth through education and training, in order to help them achieve socio-economic independence.
Through her personal contributions and strategic alliances with non-profit organisations, a number of training and community programmes have been created in community centres in Hong Kong, China, Cambodia and Vietnam.
And Ms Ho has supported and encouraged the enrichment of life experience through art and culture across Hong Kong, Macau and Mainland China.
At this University, Ms Ho has served as a Founding Honorary Advisor and Board Director of the HKU Foundation since 1996.
So great was her belief in the importance of art and of experiencing great masterpieces in person, that Ms Ho did what many would have thought impossible.
She was determined to bring the painting “Venus” (ca. 1482) by the Florentine Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli to Asia for the first time ever, and more specifically, to HKU.
To this end, she worked tirelessly with the Consulate General of Italy in Hong Kong and Macau, the Italian Cultural Institute, and our own HKU Museum and Art Gallery.
Of course, Ms Ho proved to be unstoppable, and “Venus” duly arrived at HKU in 2013.
In her own words: “This exhibition will undoubtedly give the Hong Kong audience a glimpse of the High Renaissance style in painting, and yet another opportunity to appreciate the magnificence of Italian artistic culture. It will also cement Hong Kong as a venue where globally-influential European art is appreciated, interpreted and studied.”
Ms Ho was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 2015.
It gives me great pleasure, Mr Pro-Chancellor, to present Ms Pansy Ho Chiu King for the Honorary University Fellowship, in recognition of her contributions to Hong Kong and academia.