Mr Pro-Chancellor,
Dr Patrick Poon Sun-cheong is a remarkable, self-made man who has dedicated his life to supporting others. He has built an extraordinary career in insurance and laid the foundation for a second, even more impactful philanthropic career that touches nearly every aspect of civil society.
Dr Poon was graduated from King’s College in 1967. When I asked him what he was good at in primary and secondary school, he said he loved all varieties of history, with a special interest in Chinese history, chemistry, and mathematics. In primary school his math teacher first recognized his math talent and he fondly recalled those early years as the ones in which, most importantly, he learned how to learn.
There were no public libraries in Hong Kong in late 1950s. The first modern public library was founded at City Hall only in 1962. And so as a young student Dr Poon would frequent bookstores so he could read as widely as possible. This insatiable hunger for knowledge, across many disciplines, is key to appreciating the professional life that he would build for himself.
In 1970 he received his BSc (Hons) degree from HKU. After graduation he joined the Hong Kong Civil Service as an Executive Officer. It made sense to him to start there because his father had also worked in the Civil Service, collecting receipts from the conductors, counting money, and reconciling receipts daily. But after two years Dr Poon left the Civil Service to join the life insurance industry as an actuarial trainee at American International Assurance (AIA) in Hong Kong.
These years he worked incredibly hard. At a time when it was normal to pass the professional actuarial exams in 7 or 8 years, Dr Poon would work all day, come home, eat dinner around 6pm and then nap for two hours until 8, only to begin studying each night until 3am. As a result of this extraordinary effort, he managed to pass all actuarial examinations in 3 years, to the astonishment of his professional peers. He became the first Hong Kong born citizen to obtain full actuarial professional qualifications as a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries in the United Kingdom in 1975. Later, he also obtained the fellowships of actuaries in Australia, China, Taiwan, and the United States. He is an Associate of the Society of Actuaries, a member of the American Academic of Actuaries, and was Past President of the Hong Kong Actuarial Society and Past President of the Actuarial Society of Malaysia. He was a Founder of the East Asian Actuarial Conference and the Co-Founder of the Life Insurance Council of Hong Kong. And from 2017-2023, he served as a member of the Hong Kong Insurance Appeals Tribunal Panel.
To go back in time a little, after a posting in Malaysia for seven years, Dr Poon returned to Hong Kong as AIA’s head of Hong Kong and Macau region in 1983. In 1987, he joined Aetna International to establish its new life insurance subsidiary in Taiwan and eventually made it one of the most successful start-up life insurance companies in Asia for decades following. But there is a story Dr Poon shared with me about something that happened in Taiwan which illustrates his larger-than-life character. In 1999 Taiwan suffered a massive earthquake. After this quake and owing to the important role his company played, Dr Poon made the executive decision to pay out a monthly allowance to all the orphans created by this catastrophe until the end of their university education! No hesitation, no second thoughts—just a direct humanitarian gesture that would have impact for years to come. It is no wonder Dr. Poon made his name there and became known as the “Godfather of Insurance.”
In 2000 Aetna Taiwan was acquired by ING and Dr Poon became the CEO of Greater China for ING Insurance, and Chairman and President of the ING Life Insurance for the Greater China Region. In 2006, he joined the China Pacific Life Insurance Company as its CEO and the Chairman of its Operations Committee. During his tenure there, he helped the company win the prestigious “Life Insurance Company of the Year” award in the Asia Insurance Industry Awards for 2010. He retired as its CEO but remained its top advisor until 2011, when he returned to Hong Kong.
Given Dr Poon’s 40 years of experience and success in the insurance industry, you may be wondering what were his ingredients for success. When I asked Dr Poon what made him so good at his business, he shared several fascinating insights. The first was his professional knowledge combined with a people-oriented approach that allowed him to motivate his staff to achieve greater success. As an example of his people-oriented approach, Dr Poon understood that his insurance sales agents needed to be in the right mood to make sales calls. And so he installed tiny mirrors on all of their landline telephones so they could be sure they were smiling before making calls. He did this long before there was research to demonstrate that people can actually “hear” a person smiling over the phone, insofar as their tone, pitch and cadence all change when smiling and make a person’s voice sound warmer and friendlier!
Dr Poon would also give his sales staff complete permission to try out their ideas and let them take ownership of their own initiatives. Someone would come to him with a proposal, and even if it had some flaws in it he would endorse it right away, giving them his confidence to move forward. Only later, when his staff inevitably ran into difficulties, would he very discreetly offer suggestions to improve the execution of their plans, but in a way that kept them responsible for achieving the objectives they’d set for themselves. This is both leadership and masterful management in action. It should be no surprise that Dr Poon has written three books on his management philosophy, two of which, Be Bold and Patrick’s Way became best-sellers in Taiwan. Be Bold also won the prestigious Golden Tripod Award and has been translated into Korean.
Another key insight into Dr Poon’s leadership success was that he was not afraid to be bold and make fun of himself and show vulnerability as a leader. At his annual corporate dinners, it might both surprise and delight you to find Dr Poon dressed as a Japanese geisha, or Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, or a graceful swan…I understand there are videos still available of these memorable evenings if anyone is curious!
Dr Poon’s contributions to the insurance industry have won him many awards and honours, starting early in his career, including “The Hong Kong Ten Outstanding Youth Award” in 1985, the “Outstanding Manager Award (CEO and President category) in 1988, “The K.T. Li Medal of Management” in 1997, the “Order of Brilliant Star Medal” in 1999, the “Best Insurance Leadership Award” at the Insurance – Belief, Hope and Love Award, and no surprise here, the “Personality of the Year” award at the Asia Insurance Industry Awards in 2000.
Dr Poon’s accomplishments continue non-stop from there and include his deep commitment to education. He is the Chairman of Shing Cheong Charitable Foundation Limited and Harvest SCP Group Company Limited, his family owned investment enterprise. He is the co-founder and Chairman of Master Insight Media Limited, an independent media company that is famous for publishing good quality articles, organizing political, economic and investment forums and Chinese literature competitions for primary school students.
He is also the Non-Executive Director of SmarTone Telecommunications Holdings Limited. He is a Governor of the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, the Charter President of Rotary Club of Hong Kong Harbour and Chairman of the Association of Zhong Shan Siulamese in Hong Kong. He was Treasurer, Council and Court member at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Chairman of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University Foundation. He was also an Independent Non-Executive Director of Hang Seng Insurance Co Ltd in Hong Kong, and harking back to his early interest in the arts, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta.
At HKU, his alma mater, Dr Poon has been and remains an extraordinary contributor to the university and community. He is the Deputy Chairman of HKU Foundation, the Chairman of the Advisory Committee of HKU Lap-Chee College, an Honorary Patron and a member of the Honorary Advisory Board of the BSc (Actuarial Science) Programme in what was the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, and which is now part of the new School of Computing and Data Science. He is also the immediate past Chairman of HKU Convocation and the former member of HKU Council and HKU Court.
Dr Poon has contributed financially to HKU and to many other universities and educational institutions in Hong Kong in ample and exemplary measure. His donations have supported the establishment of the Patrick Poon Lecture Series in Actuarial Science in 2003, the Patrick SC Poon Professorship in Statistics and Actuarial Science in 2011, the Patrick SC Poon Scholarship scheme in 2011-2012, to the support the development of actuarial science talent in Hong Kong. In addition, he’s also made donations to support the Endowed Professor Gallery and NAM-HKU Fellowship in Global Health Leadership.
Beyond HKU, Dr Poon has donated to the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong. He’s made gifts to the Hong Kong Polytechnic university to support the Endowed Professorship and student programme.
To the broader community, he has donated funds to support scholarships of the Vocational Training Council. He has also made significant donations to the Rotary International, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta Limited and other institutions. Dr Poon’s tremendous and broad-based giving has contributed to higher education, community service institutions, and the arts.
In turn, the community and its higher education institutions have given Dr Poon many awards. He was awarded the Silver Bauhinia Star from the HKSAR Government in 2018. This award is given to people who have taken a leading part in public affairs and/or voluntary work over a long period. He was nominated as a Distinguished Alumni of the HKU Science Faculty in its 70th Anniversary in 2009, and made an Honorary University Fellow of HKU in 2011. He was conferred the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws (Hon LLD) by PolyU in 2013 and Honorary Fellow of the Vocational Training Council in 2015.
In sum, Dr Patrick Poon has built a remarkable career in life insurance and, as a humanitarian and philanthropist, has truly succeeded in ensuring that life for others has been advanced and made materially better by his gifts and by his presence.
Mr Pro-Chancellor, it is my great honour and privilege to present to you Dr Patrick Poon Sun-cheong for the award of Doctor of Social Sciences, honoris causa.
