LEADERSHIP & BOARD of DIRECTORS

Kam Sen Lau

Board Chairman
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KAMSEN LAU is an Executive Director at Lifestyle International Holdings Limited, a Hong Kong-based retail operator that specializes in mid to high-end department stores in Hong Kong. He is responsible for the Group’s property development and investment portfolio. Mr. Lau is also the Chairman of Savvina Consultant & Management Limited, which focuses on property development in Ho Chi Minh City. Mr. Lau served as an Executive Director of Lifestyle Properties Development Limited between March 2016 and May 2017. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University and a Master of Arts degree from New York University.

Marisa Yiu

Co-founder / Executive Director
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MARISA YIU is the Co-founder and Executive Director of the DESIGN TRUST initiative, that supports creative and research content related to Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area. She has been instrumental in shaping the growth of the NGO since 2014 and created and conceptualise the Design Trust Futures Studio programme. Yiu is also an architect and Founding Partner of ESKYIU, an award winning multi-disciplinary architecture and research design studio actively integrating culture, community, art and technology based in Hong Kong. She was the Chief Curator of the 2009 Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of UrbanismArchitecture located at the West Kowloon waterfront; and curated Studio-X Shenzhen. Along with her partner Eric Schuldenfrei, they were awarded the ‘Architectural League Prize’ for their installations featured in the Venice Biennale received Architectural Record’s Design Vanguard recognition and Design for Asia Award for Ephemera, commissioned by Swire Art Basel and Movement culture: installation for Ido Portal.

 

Yiu’s work and writings have been published in A/D, Domus China, MIT’s Thresholds, and Architectural Record among others and spoken at numerous global platforms including TEDxCUHK, BoDW, UNESCO forum and at Harvard’s AsiaGSD conference. She has taught at London’s Architectural Association, Parsons, HKU, School of Architecture at CUHK.Yiu is an AIA member, HKIA associate, served on the Board of Advisors for RTHK (seven years term), and formerly a Board member of the Hong Kong Ambassadors of Design.

 

Gabriela Kennedy

Board Member
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GABRIELA KENNEDY is a partner of Mayer Brown and head of the Asia IP and TMT group. She is also co-leader of Mayer Brown’s global Intellectual Property practice. She is based in Hong Kong, practising intellectual property, media, information technology and telecommunications law. One of the best known intellectual property and technology lawyers in Asia, Gabriela holds various leadership roles in the arts, education and advancement of leadership for women. She served on the board of the Hong Kong International Literary Festival for 7 years and was co-chair of the board for a number of these years.  She serves as a mentor for women enrolled in the Leadership Foundation Programme of the International Women's Forum (IWF), on whose global board she sits. Gabriela is a strong advocate of pro-bono work and represents a number of non-profit organisations and charities with a focus on arts organisations,  including the Hong Kong International Literary Festival, The Hong Kong Arts Festival, Hong Kong Ambassadors of Design, and The Absolutely Fabulous Theatre Connection (AFTEC)  to name just a few. A former theoretical linguist, Gabriela speaks English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian and Spanish.

Denise Lau

Board Member
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DENISE LAU heads the distribution arm of her family business The B.S.C. Group, and is also the curator of B.S.C.’s lifestyle store COLOURLIVING. With B.S.C. Group’s motto of Enriching Human Space and COLOURLIVING’s passion to bring unique and tasteful designs to customers in Hong Kong, Denise always aspires for new ideas to delight, often drawing inspiration from travelling and benchmarking with other industries. Educated at the LSE, Cass Business School and Inchbald School of Design, Denise began her career in corporate banking at Credit Suisse London before joining the family business in 1992. The B.S.C. Group, founded by Denise’s parents in 1970, is Hong Kong’s leading interior contractor and supplier of interior furnishing and finishing building materials.

Ivan Pun

Board Member
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IVAN PUN is a Chinese-Burmese entrepreneur and founder of Pun + Projects, a firm focused on creating innovative lifestyle and cultural concepts. Born in Hong Kong, Mr Pun was raised between Hong Kong, Yangon and England, where he was educated at the University of Oxford. After working in New York and Beijing in his early 20s, he relocated to Yangon and started Pun + Projects in 2013. Inspired by a love for architecture and urban history, the firm’s projects include the Burmese beerhall Port Autonomy, arts initiative TS1, and Paribawga, a modern furniture design firm that uses local artisans and materials. As a passionate patron of the arts, Mr Pun is also on the advisory board of Performa, and continues to support South East Asian contemporary artists through TS1’s non-profit art shows and initiatives.

ELIZABETH CHU

Board Member
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ELIZABETH CHU, Chairlady of Hong Kong-based ZS Hospitality Group, runs award-winning restaurants including MICHELIN-starred Hansik Goo, Whey, Ying Jee Club and more. She holds a BSocSc degree from the University of Hong Kong, and turns her passion for food into a thriving business through bringing innovative and original concepts to the city’s dining scene. She is also the CEO of Capital Advance Limited, with a primary focus on property development projects in Hong Kong. 

Jonathan Cheung

Board Member
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JONATHAN CHEUNG (JC) first became involved with the art world as a collector of contemporary art. Alongside his role as Partner at Art-Bureau, JC is a devoted supporter of art through his global activities with international institutions. He currently sits on the Asia-Pacific Acquisition Committee of Tate and the Council of Serpentine Galleries, where he was originally a founding member of the Asian Council. In Hong Kong and Asia, JC sits on the International Council for Visual Art of M+ Museum, where he is also a founding patron. JC is an executive committee member of the Society of Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. Additionally, JC is a founding member of the Asia Art Archive Women in Art History Fund, a platform to support research on archives about women in art in Asia.