Last week Hughes President Anthony Freeling visited Hong Kong for a dinner with our alumni and to meet current and prospective donors. Here is a personal account of his trip:
It was by no means my first trip to Hong Kong, but it was in many ways the most impressive. The alumnus group, led by Frank Lee (1982, LLM) is a model for how we would like all our international alumni groups to be. It comprises some who have been active for many years and others who have graduated in only the past few years. They are graduates from all our College focus areas of Law, Business and Finance, Medicine, Engineering and Mathematics, and Education as well as several from other disciplines. At the dinner there were academics, business people, and politicians, including Alan Leong, 1983, LLM, a member of the Legislative Council and leader of the Civic Party. Although it is therefore a very diverse group, it is apparent how they have gelled together, with a range of discussions and perspective on all sorts of topics – although looming large was unsurprisingly the continuing student protests.
I was able to give a summary of our newly agreed College strategy which I believe was appreciated, as was the fact that this was the first foreign trip of my Presidency.
I must make a special mention not only to Frank, for his fabulous hospitality, but also to Winston Chiu (1994, M.Phil in Development Studies), Sik-Yan Tse (2007, M.Phil in Education Research) and Richard Khaw (1993, LLM) who hosted Ron and Pennie Zimmern and me for drinks at the Hong Kong University Alumni Association Club, which is chaired by Sik-Yan.
And last, but by no means least, many thanks to Ron and to Pennie for guiding me through the complexities of our Hong Kong history and relationships. As ever, their generosity, of their time and hospitality knew no bounds.
I am sure I shall be back for many more meetings, dinners and discussions. Even with the jetlag, I can hardly wait!
Winston Chiu, Frank Lee, Anthony Freeling, Sik Yan Tse, Ron Zimmern, Robert Chan
