AmCham HK e-Magazine
January/February 2026
COVER STORY
Four new Governors join AmCham board
Four new Governors are leaders in sports business, finance, consulting and retail
Four new Governors joined the AmCham Board of Governors in January. The new Governors add a wide range of experience across sports business, retail, finance and consulting.
AmCham HK Chairman David Butts welcomed the new Governors. “As Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong for the second year, I am very excited to have these four exceptional business leaders joining our Board of Governors.”
CEO INTERVIEW
Belinda Au, President of Chubb Life Hong Kong and Head of North Asia
Pioneering a premium life insurance brand
Insurance is not only one of the world’s oldest industries, at 4,000 years, give or take, but also among the largest, with roughly USD 9 trillion in premiums written in 2024. It is also an industry infused with life’s changes. At Chubb Life Hong Kong’s headquarters in Causeway Bay, Belinda Au, a 38-year veteran of the insurance industry, shared how Chubb, which traces its history to 1792, has changed and evolved in the age of digital transformation and against the unique landscape of cross-border insurance in the Greater Bay Area (GBA).
CHINA
In search of the soul of the Greater Bay Area
By Kristian Odebjer
Hong Kong is part of the Greater Bay Area (GBA) but how many of us know it beyond the major metropolises of Shenzhen and Guangzhou? Here the intrepid president of the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong spends a weekend in July traversing all nine cities that make up the region in mainland China, leaving out Hong Kong and Macau. What he learns may surprise you.
PEOPLE
As International Women’s Day approaches on March 8, AmCham talks with former Jardine Pacific CEO Anna Cheung about the challenges and opportunities women face in corporate board inclusion in Hong Kong.
Anna Cheung is a self-declared Hong Kong outsider to the relatively small group of people, men and women, who are regularly called up to serve on boards. Yet Cheung became an independent director on not just one but three boards – two public, one private – by accident. She demurs at that description, but it sticks.
HONG KONG
As recently as last November, Bloomberg was comparing debt levels in the Hong Kong property market to the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-98. That was then. By early January, in between major transactions and a continuing run of IPOs boosting demand for high-quality office space, the mood shift was palpable, and the turnaround has come so quickly that bargains may soon be hard to find. AmCham HK e-Magazine turns to JLL’s Alex Barnes, co-CEO of Greater China and managing director for JLL Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau to find out why.
HONG KONG
The city’s glamorous new office towers (and a groundscraper)
In 1985, HSBC stunned the architectural world with its $1 billion headquarters building, a steel suspended structure so bold, experimental and expensive that it was an immediate lightning rod for controversy. Designed by a then little-known British architect, Norman Foster, it was seen as a statement of commitment to Hong Kong’s future, soon after the Sino-British agreement to return Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.
PEOPLE
Billie Tsien, architect: Hong Kong felt like “These are my people”
By Edith Terry
As one of the principal architects behind the Asia Society Hong Kong Center, Billie Tsien has left an indelible mark on a city that, under other circumstances, might have been her home. The Center itself, which opened in 2012, is by now familiar, both for its lively programming and for the beautifully restrained horizontal slab of a building that serves as an entrance and bridge to its barely tamed hillside and the restored colonial structures above, nestled in a profusion of green.
CHINA
By Mehran Gul
In The New Geography of Innovation: The Global Contest for Breakthrough Technologies (Simon and Schuster, 2026) author Mehran Gul writes about technological innovators across three continents and eight countries, arguing that culture is a key dynamic in triggering success. Here we provide an excerpt from his chapter on China, looking at the corporate history of Tencent as an example of how the geography of innovation has shifted from an era when the United States dominated technological innovation and investment.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed on this platform are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of officers, governors, or members of the Chamber. Any views or comments are for reference only and do not constitute investment or legal advice. No part of this website may be reproduced without the permission of the Chamber.
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