Selflessly Serves Community with Enthusiasm
Colin is a trustworthy person who is devoted to upholding fairness and maximizing benefit for people in need. He was mentored personally by the late Chairlady of Chinachem Group, Nina Wang, to head her investment portfolio, business management and philanthropy which enriched Colin’s insights to legacy planning. To prepare estate planning for Nina Wang with Chinachem Group, Colin was entrusted to understand Rotary. Impressed by the 4-way test and Code of Conduct from Rotary, Colin is now a Past President at the Rotary Club of HK North Point.
While an investment advisor in a private bank, he noticed it incentivized frequent churning which could neglect fiduciary duties to clients; it reminded him of the horrible situation caused by greedy bankers, which cost his father’s entire fortune, and Colin had to work 3 part-time jobs while studying undergraduate. This, in turn, led him to embark on entrepreneurial journey in 2016 to apply his multi-billion-dollar portfolio management experience to provide lower risk and enhanced return for clients with a fee approach. Technology advancement made it feasible to apply Colin’s multi-strategy expertise, research skill and insight to multi-asset classes for wealth management with an institutional approach.
Colin expresses that a hardworking team is essential for success, but he believes finding people with similar visions requires luck. Due to his father’s condition, Colin sold his company in early 2020. His rivals nastily discredited the circumstances as business failure, despite of outperformances with lower cost for clients which challenges current private wealth models. Deceitful accusations from attackers made it challenging, but Colin’s honesty and commitment earned back some clients’ trust.
The journey of life for Colin made him believe in being a tiger and how it is imperative to uphold integrity, and being sincere brings genuine friendship. “Sometimes, fairness requires being a tiger where opinions must be voiced for realisation” which he learnt from Past District Governors, Y.K. Cheng and Eric Chin, from Rotary District 3450. Colin regularly voices concerns against discrimination in Chinese fluency within HKSAR that disadvantage English speaking ethnic minorities to encourage diversity, equity and inclusion in work places.
Helping people’s improvement drives Colin’s passion for Service Above Self. He has mentored 20+ students from Hong Kong University’s Business Consulting Practicum and several high school students from Wofoo Social Enterprises’ Millennium Entrepreneurship Program. In cooperation with Neighbourhood Advice-Action Council and other NGOs, Colin initiated Temporary Accommodation for Homeless service which helped 150 street sleepers with shelters and basic needs where Chinachem Group was a major donor. Also, to service people’s well-being, Colin joined Rose Spence, founder of the George A. Spence Foundation.
Leo Chau, a founding member of Cherrybrook Chinese Community Association and also his father, inspired Colin to help underprivileged people. Nina Wang’s teaching and nurturing developed Colin’s entrepreneurial mindset. Nina Wang’s confidence with his private equity investment abilities allowed Colin to achieving successful responsible investing which brought new standards for treatment into cerebral aneurysms with stents, cancer with nanotechnologies and rare diseases with Interferon, along with establishing Chinachem’s hospitality business. Colin was grateful with community services through Rotary Club of HK North Point to accomplish helping India’s COVID outbreak with providing health protective gears and several oxygen concentrators and assisting to fed 600 people over 6 weeks while HKSAR battled COVID hardship.
Leadership, according to Colin, has 8 different styles, namely: Transaction, Democratic, Autocratic, Laissez-Faire, Bureaucratic, Servant, Transformational and Charismatic. “Applying these styles depends on the team’s resources and capabilities. For startups and community organisation, servant leadership are essential before achieving sustainability. A leader must constantly learn from stakeholders, appreciate others and lead accomplishment.” He also claims that delegation is ineffective if the team have service ‘about self’ people while creating leaders and followers are equally essential.
Nina Wang taught Colin how to commit her entire fortune for community development was very impressive. Days before she passed away, Colin remembered receiving a phone call from Nina Wang asking him to one day return back to Chinachem Group to help her to lead her legacy is still in Colin’s mind. After his father death in March 2022, Colin became even more committed to contributing helping people in need.
