HALL OF FAME
RONNIE CHAN
Hang Lung Group tycoon Ronnie Chan hit headlines around the world in 2014 when he gave US$350 million through his family’s Morningside Foundation to Harvard University, which at the time was the largest donation ever received by the institution. But that wasn’t even Chan’s total giving for the year: he also donated US$20 million to the University of Southern California. And Chan gives time as well as money: he is chairman of the nonprofit educational institution the Asia Society Hong Kong Center and chairman emeritus of the Asia Society’s global board, as well as chairman of the Centre for Asian Philanthropy and Society, which aims to improve the quality and quantity of philanthropy in Asia.
LI KA-SHING
Billionaire Li Ka-shing was given the nickname Superman because of his enormous influence over Hong Kong’s business community, but the moniker applies just as neatly to his position as one of the city’s most generous philanthropists. The CK Hutchison magnate regularly gives enormous sums to universities and hospitals: he has donated HK$1 billion to the faculty of medicine at the University of Hong Kong, US$40 million to the University of California Berkeley and £20 million to the University of Oxford. Li has pledged to donate to charity a third of his wealth—which is estimated at more than US$28 billion, at the time of writing—so Superman’s work is not over yet.
VICTOR LO
Hongkongers have long donated to visual art organisations and museums, but Victor Lo has been pivotal in encouraging the city’s wealthy to also support the industries of architecture and design. Lo, who by day is chairman and CEO of listed company Gold Peak Industries, is on the board of directors of the non-profit Hong Kong Design Centre—which organises exhibitions, talks and the annual Business of Design Week festival—and PMQ Management Trust, the social enterprise that manages the creative hub PMQ. He was also pivotal in establishing the Hong Kong Ambassadors of Design, the charity behind the Design Trust, which funds grassroots creative projects in Hong Kong and around the Greater Bay Area.