Founded in 1968, the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong is the oldest and largest international business organization in Hong Kong. It has been in continual operation for 55 years.

Few incoming AmCham chairmen have shown more enthusiasm than AmCham’s 52nd chairman, David Butts, president, Asia Pacific and Group Executive Vice-President for Techtronic Industries (TTI), a global leader in cordless power tools with international operations and a Hong Kong heritage; it was founded in Hong Kong in 1985 by German entrepreneur Horst Julius Pudwill and listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong in 1991.

At his inaugural luncheon as chairman on January 14, Butts said: “I plan to excel in real dedication, integrity and extreme energy.” He wasted no time sharing his vision for AmCham during his tenure, with a robust roadmap to achieve it. And he encouraged members to follow in his footsteps, using AmCham as a means of growing his business through connecting with others facing similar challenges.

AmCham initiatives for the coming year

An over-arching priority for the chamber is connectivity to government and offering timely information and access that businesses require for investment decisions. Butts revealed three important new initiatives, supporting connectivity both within the chamber and with Hong Kong, Chinese and United States governments and the Hong Kong community. These build on the work of the previous Board of Governors as well as the prodigious energy and performance of AmCham President Eden Woon and his staff.

The first of these initiatives is to massively ramp up the engagement with CEO and senior management of leading US and multinational businesses operating in Hong Kong. The number of American companies in Hong Kong increased by 10% between 2023 and 2024, to almost 1,400 – higher than the pre-Covid numbers. “We are foremost all about business,” Butts said. “We want to be the first choice for business leaders when they look outside their organizations for ideas, information and access. My ‘inner sales manager’ wants all 1,400 as members.”

Among the ways AmCham will support this initiative to is expand the number of executive roundtables. These are CEO and expert-led events under Chatham House rules, where participants can share freely their perceptions and analysis of geopolitics and the dynamics of trade and business, which promise to be even more dramatic in 2025 than in 2024.

To develop more connectivity at a senior level, Butts will organize a lunch with fellow CEOs every few months, starting with one on February 28.

The second initiative is to accelerate the disciplined forging of strong and honest relationships with the governments of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China and the US. This works in two directions – inviting experts in and organizing information-gathering trips outside.

On a regular basis, AmCham invites government officials and experts in geopolitics to share analysis of the volatile regional and international landscape, either in private settings or chamber-wide discussions.

The chamber also organizes trips to Beijing and Washington every year. These are called ‘doorknocks’ based on the principle that AmCham knocks on multiple doors in the power centers of the two nations, to reach the most senior officials available to meet with the chamber delegations.

In addition to the doorknocks, AmCham visited Guangzhou and Shanghai in 2024, organized by the China Business Committee, and plans more such visits to the Greater Bay Area and elsewhere in China in 2025. The China Business Committee is planning a potential trip to Chengdu and Chongqing in China’s southeastern province of Sichuan, with a date yet to be determined, as well as a trip to Shenzhen.

AmCham’s third 2025 initiative is to double down on improving our service to members and enhancing the effectiveness of AmCham’s 18 committees, two of which are new in 2025. The committees serve as a direct conduit to industry and regulatory issues and are one of the main ways members can share ideas and recommendations with policy makers, through white papers and briefings. The Board is strengthening its connection with the committees through a revitalized liaison system in which individual Board members will become more closely involved with specific committees.

The two new committees, on education and retail, hospitality and tourism, have already gained significant support and will begin meeting in the next months.

AmCham’s new bi-monthly e-Magazine also serves the overall mission of improving connectivity, by sharing the front line of Hong Kong and China business with its 20,000 readers around the world. Its most recent issue had a ‘hit rate’ of 40,000, indicating that a significant amount of social media sharing is going on.

New Board of Governors members

In addition to the new chairman, a new vice-chairman and treasurer have been named – vice chairman Sally Peng, senior managing director for export control, sanction, and trade at FTI Consulting, and treasurer Grégory Franc de Ferrière, head of products, wireless enterprise headsets, for Logitech. 

Six new members have also joined the Board of Governors.

• Jeremiah Heller is managing director of Jardine Schindler Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. 
• Arthur Ozeki is executive vice president and head of Asia Pacific for RGA Reinsurance Company. 
• Joanne Hon is managing director of Equinix Hong Kong, an American multinational that is the largest global data center and colocation provider for enterprise network and cloud computing. 
• Jessica Cutrera is president of Leo Wealth, an independent global wealth advisor and multifamily office. 
• Bryan Ha is head of public policy, Hong Kong, for Amazon Web Services (AWS) Greater China Region. 
• Tim Sypko is senior vice president, operations for Hong Kong Disneyland Resort.

Siebengartner remains an ex-officio member of the Board of Governors as newly appointed chairman of the Board of Trustees of AmCham Charitable Foundation, the philanthropic division of AmCham. He is managing director, head of government affairs and corporate responsibility for J.P. Morgan Chase.

Siebengartner carried out his first official duty by presenting the foundation’s Ira Dan Kaye Community Service Award for volunteer efforts to Shirralee Sisson, CEO of Positive Wellbeing Limited, for her work coordinating a mental health program for HELP for Domestic Workers, an NGO supporting migrant workers in Hong Kong. She designed a Train the Trainer ‘Emotional Wellbeing, Selfcare & Support’ course for 10 counsellor volunteers who have in turn trained 3,000 domestic workers.