Happenings

March 31, 2023

The Centre for Civil Society and Governance (“the Centre”) at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) welcomes Mr. George Chen to join as an Honorary Senior Fellow of the Centre. As a practitioner–scholar, Mr. Chen brings his over two decades long professional experience in media, technology and policy to the Centre and the wider Faculty of Social Sciences.

Mr. Chen, a Yale World Fellow appointed by Yale University in 2014, was the most senior policy representative based in Hong Kong, one of the two Asia Pacific hubs for Meta, previously known as Facebook, for more than seven years until most recently. Mr. Chen joined then Facebook in January 2016 to build the company’s regional policy operation from scratch out of its Hong Kong office. Later Mr. Chen became Meta’s first-ever Managing Director of Public Policy for Greater China, Mongolia, and Central Asia. At Meta, Mr. Chen also led the company’s supply chain related policy issues across the Asia Pacific region.

During his time at Meta, Mr. Chen helped to launch the Tech for Good Initiative at the Centre in 2021, including the Meta-HKU Scholarship in Public Policy and Sustainability Leadership to support students of Master of Public Administration (MPA) and Master of Social Sciences in the field of Sustainability Leadership and Governance (MSocSc(SLG)) on the basis of academic merit.

Prior to Meta, Mr. Chen served in various editorial and management positions for major media organisations in Hong Kong and Shanghai, including the South China Morning Post (SCMP), Reuters, and Dow Jones. Mr. Chen was the youngest Managing Editor appointed by the SCMP in its century-long history. He also had short stints for Reuters in New York, London, and Dubai.

Mr. Chen has been on the board of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong since 2019. Mr. Chen was awarded the “Medal of Friendship” in 2022 – one of the highest honours for foreigners — by the order of the President of Mongolia for his long-time contributions to Mongolia’s IT industry development.

Mr. Chen earned his Master of International and Public Affairs (with distinction) from the HKU, with concentration on US-China-Taiwan triangle relations. He’s been also working on his Doctor of Public Administration dissertation about misinformation and regulation at the HKU.