Maneuvering the World in Transition

Gala Dinner
Reception 6.30pm 
Dinner and Program 7.30pm 

Dress code: Business Attire

For enquiries, please email programhk@asiasociety.org or call 2103 9508.

As the year comes to a close, please join us for an evening in the company of Jim Yong Kim, 12th President of the World Bank Group and Joseph Tsai, Executive Vice Chairman of Alibaba Group. These distinguished leaders will engage in a thought-provoking and wide-ranging discussion moderated by Asia Society Hong Kong Center Chairman Ronnie C. Chan on the challenges and opportunities facing the global community in 2019.

Jim Yong Kim is the 12th President of the World Bank Group. Soon after he assumed his position in July 2012, the organization established two goals to guide its work: to end extreme poverty by 2030 and to boost shared prosperity, focusing on the bottom 40% of the population in developing countries. During his term in office, the World Bank Group supported the development priorities of countries at levels never seen outside a financial crisis and, with its partners, achieved two successive record replenishments of the World Bank Group’s fund for the poorest. In September 2016, the World Bank Group Board unanimously reappointed Mr. Kim to a second five-year term. Prior to joining the World Bank Group, Mr. Kim, a physician and anthropologist, served as President of Dartmouth College, and held professorships at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health. He has received a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, was recognized as one of America’s “25 Best Leaders” by U.S. News & World Report and was named one of TIME magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World”.

Joseph C. Tsai joined Alibaba Group in 1999 as one of the 18 founders. He served as Chief Financial Officer until May 2013 and is currently Executive Vice Chairman of the company, overseeing Alibaba’s strategic acquisitions and investments. Mr. Tsai has been a member of the company's board of directors since its inception and is a founding member of the Alibaba Partnership, serving on its Partnership Committee. He has made education the main focus of his philanthropic initiatives. Through the Joe & Clara Tsai Foundation, he and his wife established the Wu Tsai Neuroscience Institute at Stanford University and founded the Tsai Centre for Innovative Thinking at Yale, among others. In August 2018, Mr. Tsai expanded his philanthropic activities to Mainland China, establishing the Joe Tsai Foundation in his ancestral home town in Zhejiang Province to focus on education of students from rural and under-privileged backgrounds. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Economics and East Asian Studies from Yale College and a juris doctor from Yale Law School.

Ronnie C. Chan is Chairman of Hang Lung Group Ltd. and its subsidiary Hang Lung Properties Ltd., both publicly listed in Hong Kong. The Group expanded into Mainland China in 1992, developing, owning and managing world-class commercial complexes in key tier one and tier two cities. He founded and chairs the China Heritage Fund, is Co-Founding Director of The Forbidden City Cultural Heritage Conservation Foundation, Beijing, and is former Vice President and former Advisor of the China Development Research Foundation in Beijing. Mr. Chan is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Chairman Emeritus of Asia Society and Chairman of the Asia Society Hong Kong Center, and Founding Chairman of the Centre for Asian Philanthropy and Society. He serves or has served on the governing or advisory bodies of several think tanks and universities, including Peterson Institute for International Economics, World Economic Forum, East-West Center, Pacific Council on International Policy, Eisenhower Fellowships, The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation, University of Southern California, Indian School of Business, Yale University, Tsinghua University and Fudan University. (Moderator)

We look forward to your support. Proceeds from the evening will contribute to supporting the Asia Society’s mission of educating people about the countries and cultures of Asia, and global issues that impact the region.