Ms Marjorie Yang is Chairman of Esquel Group, a leading Hong Kong-based textile and apparel manufacturer with operations throughout the world, annually producing 100 million cotton shirts for internationally well-acclaimed brands.  She was recently listed on Forbes Asia’s 50 Power Business Women and she was named on FORTUNE as among the Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Business in 2009, 2005, 2004 and 2000.

Ms Yang has an interest in education especially in finding ways to improve our ability to teach better whether in rural or urban areas. She served on the MIT Corporation for ten years from 2001 to 2011, and has been an Honorary Member of the Court of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology since 2008. In 2010, she was appointed as Chairman of the Council of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.  She is currently a member of various advisory boards at Harvard, Harvard Business School, MIT, and Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management.  Equally important, she has placed huge emphasis on a corporate culture that embraces cultural diversity and gender equality, promotes ethical business practices, social and environmental responsibility and cares for the employees and their families.
 

Ms Yang is currently a Non-official Member of the Executive Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.  Apart from public and community service, she also serves on the boards of Novartis, Swire Pacific Limited, and The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC).

Ms Yang has a Bachelor of Science degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Prof Tony F Chan is the President and Chair Professor in Computer Science & Engineering, and Mathematics at HKUST.

Prior to joining HKUST in September 2009, Prof Chan was Assistant Director of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in charge of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate, which is the largest directorate at NSF, and guided and managed research funding in astronomy, physics, chemistry, mathematical science, material science, and multidisciplinary activities. Before this, Prof Chan was a faculty member at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1986 to 2006, and Dean of Physical Sciences from 2001 to 2006.

Prof Chan is an expert in mathematical image processing and computer vision. He has published over 200 refereed papers and is one of the world's most cited mathematicians. He is also an active member of many scientific societies, including Fellow of the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics.  He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, President's Advisory Council of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Committee of 100, the Selection Committee for the Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences, and the Steering Committee of the Innovation and Technology Commission of the Hong Kong Government.
 

Prof Chan received his BS and MS degrees from Caltech and his PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University. He pursued postdoctoral research at Caltech, and was a faculty of Computer Science at Yale University before joining UCLA.

UC RUSAL (www.rusal.com) is the world’s largest producer of aluminium, in 2010 accounting for approximately 10% and 10% of global production of aluminium and alumina, respectively. UC RUSAL employs about 76,000 people in 19 countries, across 5 continents. UC RUSAL markets and sells its products primarily in the European, Asian and North American markets. UC RUSAL's ordinary shares are listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (Stock code: 486) and global depositary shares representing UC RUSAL's ordinary shares are listed on the professional compartment of Euronext Paris.

Founded in March 2007, the United Company is a result of the merger of RUSAL, SUAL, and the alumina assets of Glencore of Switzerland. En+ Group owns a 47.41% stake in the United Company, 17.02% is owned by ONEXIM, SUAL’s shareholders hold 15.80 %, 8.62% is owned by Amokenga Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Glencore, and others own 11.14%.

In 2010 UC RUSAL produced 4.1 mln tonnes of aluminium and 7.8 mln tonnes of alumina. United Company RUSAL's assets include bauxite and nepheline ore mines, alumina refineries, aluminium smelters, casthouse business for production of alloys, foil mills and production of packaging materials as well as power-generating assets.

RUSAL is comprised of 16 aluminium smelters, 12 alumina refineries, 8 bauxite mines, 3 powder metallurgy plants, 3 silicon smelters, 3 secondary aluminium plants, 3 aluminium foil mills, 2 cryolite plants, and one cathode plant. RUSAL has its own R&D and engineering capabilities and owns the RA-300 and RA-400 technologies.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), situated in Hong Kong, China, is a top-ranked university in Asia. Established in 1991, HKUST has five schools - Science, Engineering, Business and Management, Humanities and Social Science, as well as the Fok Ying Tung Graduate School in Nansha, Mainland China. The University has nine research institutes, among them the Institute for Advanced Study of HKUST, set up to foster cross-discipline collaboration among the top scientists and scholars in the world. Currently, there are about 6,200 undergraduate students and 3,700 postgraduate students. As a research university, HKUST focuses on five areas of frontier research, namely nano science and technology; biological sciences and biotechnology; electronics, wireless and information technology; environment and sustainable development as well as management education and research.

As a major initiative of HKUST's 2005-2020 Strategic Plan, the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge to meet the great challenges of the 21st century. IAS aims to bring together the most brilliant minds to drive cutting-edge discovery and scholarship. Its goal is to be a premier intellectual center and a platform for innovation and scientific development in Hong Kong and the Greater China region. IAS has 27 Visiting Members, 14 Senior Fellows, 2 Senior Visiting Fellows, 3 Affiliate Members and 3 Postdoctoral Fellows from diverse disciplines who champion collaborative, inter-disciplinary, inter-institutional projects in high-impact areas. Since its establishment in 2006, it has sponsored more than 220 distinguished lectures, seminars, conferences and workshops. Guest speakers include Nobel Laureates, members of National Academies, world renowned academics and researchers, senior government officials and business leaders.

"The Power of Focus: Turning Opportunity into Success"
Guest Speaker: Oleg Deripaska, CEO of UC RUSAL
Date: 21 September 2010
Details

"Equilibrium in the Labour Market with Search Frictions"
Guest Speaker: Christopher Pissarides, Norman Sosnow Chair in Economics of
London School of Economics and Political Science,
2010 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences
Date: 21 March 2011
Details

"The Changing Dynamics of the World"
Guest Speaker: Jim O'Neill, Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management
Date: 14 October 2011
Details