HL Yiu 姚慶良
Chief Corporate Development Officer Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (EMBA Class of 2004)
The Perennial Student
HL Yiu (EMBA 2004) has worked for the past 17 years at Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation, building its innovation and technology ecosystem; he previously worked at Motorola and his own start-up, FiiTech. He took a CUHK EMBA between 2002 and 2004, and has studied for multiple other qualifications since.
Why did you decide to take an EMBA?
I worked for almost 16 years at Motorola – it was my first job. I had quite a few different roles: product development, engineering, even sales. In 1998, there was the financial crisis, followed by the dotcom boom and then by the dotcom bust. The world changed a lot. As a businessperson, sometimes you find yourself in a situation you’ve never seen before and you need to be better equipped – that was my reason for taking the EMBA.
What was the most rewarding aspect of your studies?
Learning is a journey. An EMBA is not just about what you learn from school; it’s also about what you learn from your classmates. When you have questions about things you’ve never dealt with, you can call up your classmates. People in my class worked as entrepreneurs, in corporate finance, in sales and in a lot of different industries. When we were dealing with an assignment, you could see all the different ideas. My classmates would always challenge the professors’ theories. I learned a lot through the interactions.
What were your experiences with your start-up?
Starting my own company had always been a dream. You have to try before you know whether you can do it or not. My company was in integrated circuit design. It was hard; all the VCs said: “You need to move to mainland China.” They wouldn’t invest in a company in Hong Kong at the time.
What does your role at HKSTP involve?
HKSTP asked me to join to help them with services that develop their ecosystem. I’ve worked for several different departments but my role tends to be the same: to facilitate R&D and industry through the facilities we provide, which is our responsibility by law. Usually people consider us a landlord, but the rent we collect and how we spend it is how we build the ecosystem.
What has been a defining project you’ve been involved with?
The development of the InnoParks [HKSTP’s trio of high-tech business parks, redeveloped from existing industrial estates] has been one of my major roles. I remember when I took the job, telling my son about it. He turned to me and said: “Are you nuts? There’s no manufacturing industry in Hong Kong.” But that’s exactly the point – we are here to facilitate it.
Why have you studied for so many qualifications?
Continuous learning keeps you competitive. You need to update yourself constantly – what you learned 10 or 20 years ago doesn’t work today. I started my studies because of certain challenges in my work. I learned about finance because I wanted to know how the investment people think, and I studied law because we deal with a lot of contracts and sometimes legal issues at HKSTP. I also studied for a DBA, because of a challenge from one of my CEOs. He said: “We invest a lot in technology support infrastructure – how can you quantify the returns? What are we actually contributing to the ecosystem?” That’s what my thesis was about. It led to the company adopting some new strategies in developing the ecosystems.