Mr Chuanzhi Liu is Chairman of the Board and Chair of the Executive Committee of Legend Holdings; Chairman of Legend Capital, Hony Capital and Raycom Real Estate; Founder and Honorary Chairman of Lenovo.

After founding Lenovo, in 1984, with a mere RMB 200,000, Mr Liu led it forward, to continue growth, and lay a solid foundation for its future. In his role as a leader, he helped Lenovo break with traditional concepts that had restrained Chinese scientists and researchers for a long time, and he was a pioneer in developing a Chinese approach to the commercialization of technology. He pushed the Lenovo acquisition of IBM’s PC Division, which made Lenovo a global company and a valuable example for other Chinese companies wanting to go global. In February 2009, he returned to the chairmanship to help the company get through its most difficult period and turn the business around. Thanks to him, Lenovo prevailed in the competition against multinationals and became a world leader in the PC and PC+ industry. In November 2011, he retired as Lenovo’s chairman and began to focus on the new businesses of Lenovo’s parent, Legend Holdings.

Under Mr Liu’s leadership, Legend Holdings has become a conglomerate that covers both industries and investment, and has nurtured a number of outstanding enterprises. In investment, it has fostered such leading investment platforms as Hony Capital, Legend Capital and Legend Star, supporting the entire life cycle of businesses. In industries, Legend Holdings has gotten into Consumer & Modern Services, Modern Agribusiness, Real Estate, and New Chemical Materials through a well-designed plan and is committed to build leading and trustworthy brands in those areas.

Mr Liu was a deputy to the 16th and 17th National Congresses of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and a delegate to the 9th, 10th and 11th National People’s Congresses (NPC) of China. His other civic duties include Vice President of the 9th and 10th All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC), Vice Chairman of the Private Business Chamber of Commerce of China, Chairman of the China Entrepreneur Club (CEC), member of the advisory board of Tsinghua University’s School of Economics & Management, guest professor at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), Peking University, and Renmin University.

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. Prof Chan is an elected member of the US National Academy of Engineering. 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 2012 accounting for approximately 9% of global production of aluminium and 8% of alumina. UC RUSAL employs about 72,000 people in 19 countries, across 5 continents. UC RUSAL markets and sells its products primarily in the European, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, South East Asian and North American markets. UC RUSAL’s ordinary shares are listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (Stock code: 486), global depositary shares representing UC RUSAL’s ordinary shares are listed on the professional compartment of Euronext Paris (RUSAL for Reg S GDSs and RUAL for Rule 144A GDSs), and Russian depositary receipts that are issued on common shares of the Company are listed on Moscow Exchange (RUALR/RUALRS). Founded in March 2007, UC RUSAL is a result of the merger of RUSAL, SUAL, and the alumina assets of Glencore of Switzerland.

UC RUSAL’s current capacity could produce 4.7 million tonnes of aluminium, 11.5 million tonnes of alumina and 80 thousand tonnes of foil per annum. RUSAL is comprised of 16 aluminium smelters, 12 alumina refineries, 8 bauxite mines, and 4 foil mills. The Company also has three aluminium powder metallurgy plants and produces cryolite, aluminium fluoride and cathodes. RUSAL has its own R&D and engineering capabilities and owns the RA-300, RA-400 and RA-500 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 eleven 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 3 Professors, 36 Visiting Professors, 19 Senior Fellows, 4 Senior Visiting Fellows, 2 Visiting Fellows, 2 Affiliate Members, 2 Fellows and 4 Junior Fellows from diverse disciplines who champion collaborative, inter-disciplinary, inter-institutional projects in high-impact areas. Since its establishment in 2006, it has sponsored close to 550 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

"Making a Difference, a Stitch at a Time"
Guest Speaker: Marjorie Yang, Chairman of Esquel Group
Date: 3 May 2012
Details

"8.5 Billion Global Consumers by 2030: Opportunity or Looming disaster?"
Guest Speaker: Barry Cheung, Independent Non-Executive Director,
UC RUSAL Chairman, Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange
Date: 2 Nov 2012
Details

"Answering Gauguin's Questions with the Large Hadron Collider: What are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?"
Guest Speaker: John Ellis
Clerk Maxwell Professor of Theoretical Physics, King's College London Physicist, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)
Date: 12 April 2013
Details

"Entrepreneurship: Turning 'I Wish' into 'I Will' "
Guest Speaker: Dr Allan Zeman, GBM, GBS, JP
Chairman of Ocean Park Corporation and Chairman of Lan Kwai Fong Group
Date: 22 Nov 2013
Details