The Stanford Club of Hong Kong

The new normal has brought about tremendous shifts to education at every level: from students and parents, to teachers and administrators, to schools and technology providers. 

In this talk, Mariana Kou will share her insights about China’s and Asia’s education industry, both historical and current, and her take on education trends in the new normal. 

Mariana has worn 3 hats in the education industry. As an entrepreneur, she is CEO of Research Study Education Group, which offers educational travel products and is now expanding into EdTech. Previously as an analyst, she was Head of China Education and HK Consumer Research at CLSA. As an author, she published her first book “Investing in Dragons: Education Industry and Capital Markets” in 2020.

We hope alumni who are interested in education and technology – whether as a an industry participant or as a parent  – in the new normal will join us online.

Events Details
Date: Tuesday, 22 September, 2020
Time: 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm Hong Kong time (GMT+8) 
Online Videoconference Link: Provided by email after RSVP, closer to event date
Cost: Free for alumni and non-alumni.
Lunch Etiquette: Lunch not included due to online nature. You are most welcomed to eat while videoconferencing in.

RSVP: Required. Please RSVP by filling in this form.

Event Contact: Andrew Kwan (akwan@stanfordalumni.org)

 

About the Speakers

Mariana Kou

Mariana Kou is executive director and CEO of Research Study Education Group, which offers educational travel products and is now expanding into EdTech. Prior to this role, she was an award-winning equity research analyst specializing in the China education industry and the global luxury goods sector. Mariana started her banking career in New York at Lehman Brothers, and was most recently Head of China Education and HK Consumer Research at brokerage and investment group CLSA.

In 2020, she published her first book “Investing in Dragons: Education Industry and Capital Markets”.

She also serves as board advisor to education ventures and has been keynote speakers and panelists at government and industry conferences as well as interviewed regularly by international media. Mariana was appointed representative for China by the World Business Angels Investment Forum, an affiliated partner of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) in Jun 2020. She is a member of ForbesWomen Forum and she is the Columbia Venture Community’s Hong Kong chapter founding lead. 

Mariana holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and is a graduate of Stanford Innovation and Entrepreneurship certificate program. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame with magna cum laude and Raymond P. Kent Award. She is a CFA charterholder and a member of global business honor society Beta Gamma Sigma and economics honor society Omicron Delta Epsilon. 

Due to recent cases of COVID-19 in Hong Kong, Stanford Club of Hong Kong has decided to withdraw its participation in the Joint Clubs Happy Hour Drinks on July 10 at 6:30 pm.

We encourage our alumni and their families to practice social distancing as much as possible.

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Questions? Contact Wally Cheung at CheungWK@stanfordalumni.org
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Join us for our upcoming Annual General Meeting of the Stanford Club of Hong Kong. This event is open to Stanford alumni only.

In addition to providing club updates and initiatives for the coming year, we will be voting for your SCHK Executive Committee and General Committee Members for 2020/21. Nominations are as follows:

Executive Committee

President: Andrew Kwan
Vice President : Marc Hubert
Co-Vice President: Kristine Li
Honorary Treasurer: Wally Cheung
Honorary Secretary: Sandy Wan
Co-Treasurer: David Fan

General Committee

Kendrick Kwok (Head of IT), Queenie Lee, Simon Mui, Ronald Issen, Diana Ibarra, Lavina Tien, Hill Wang, Dorothea Koo, Vivian Kong, Erica Ma, Jasmine Li

Event Details

Date: Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Time: 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm (registration starts at 5:45 pm)

Venue: CoCoon*, 3/F, Citicorp Centre, 18 Whitfield Road, Tin Hau, Hong Kong
* If public health conditions make it impractical to have a physical meeting, the AGM shall be moved online to Zoom.

Venue: Due to continued public health conditions, the AGM has been moved to Zoom.

Cost: $100 (includes refreshments if meet at CoCoon; no refreshments available if meet on Zoom)

Cost: $30 (Price reduced since no refreshments can be served on Zoom. All who have registered previously will also be enjoying this reduced cost and not $100.)

Event is open to Stanford alumni only.

RSVP: Required. Please RSVP now.

Stanford Club of Hong Kong is doing an online-only Career Mentoring Day, and we invite alums to join us in volunteering!

Although Beyond the Farm is cancelled globally this year due to COVID-19, we are running a club-organized, online event to sustain the volunteering spirit of Beyond the Farm locally. Through online videoconferencing, alumni will be able to volunteer their time, share their career journeys and provide career mentorship to local secondary school students.

We are collaborating with CoCoon Foundation (https://foundation.hkcocoon.org/) to invite students as mentees. CoCoon Foundation has brought entrepreneurship education programs to 40+ local secondary schools across different neighborhoods, so some of the students we will mentor are from schools that may lack access to these types of career mentorship opportunities.

Events Details
Date: Saturday, 2 May, 2020 Saturday 30 May, 2020 (to avoid timing conflicts with majority of DSE exams)
Time: 2:30 – 4:00 pm
Rundown:
2:30 – 3:15 pm: General career tips and future of work
3:15 – 4:00 pm: Breakout sessions organized by industry, led by alumni volunteers
Alumni Volunteering Commitment: We are asking for 45 minutes of your precious time, via online videoconference from 3:15 to 4:00 pm.
Online Videoconference Link: Provided by email after RSVP, closer to event date
Event Contact: Andrew Kwan (akwan@stanfordalumni.org) and Sandy Wan (sandy.wan@simandian.com)

Register to be a mentor now: https://forms.gle/QLjVBYhfkGEaiRTcA

We are looking for alumni working across all sectors to participate, so students can develop a broader view of work. Thank you in advance for those of you who will give time to volunteer online!

Register to attend as a student or teacher now: https://www.eventbrite.hk/e/103298097390

 

Technology Landscape in Southeast Asia

Due to popular demand from alumni, (in alphabetical order) Stanford Club of Hong Kong and Stanford Club of Singapore are co-organizing a fresh online event to talk about Southeast Asia’s tech landscape.

The two clubs are delighted to welcome (in alphabetical order) Mark Inkster, Adrian Li and Roland Yau as speakers to share their insights on why the world is excited about the Southeast Asian tech scene.

Mark Inkster is Chief Business Officer of Beam Mobility, an e-scooter company based in Singapore and Venture Partner at Antler, a startup generator & early-stage VC.

Adrian Li is the Founder & Managing Partner at Convergence Ventures, an early stage Indonesia focused technology venture capital fund with a portfolio of 30+ businesses.

Roland Yau is the Managing Partner of CoCoon Ignite Ventures, L.P., a Hong Kong-based venture capital fund focusing on investments in early stage technologies, including Cafe X and Soundbrenner.

We hope alumni who are interested in technology, investing and the future of Southeast Asia will join us online.

Events Details
Date: Wednesday, 8 April, 2020
Time: 12:30 pm – 1:45 pm
Online Videoconference Link: Provided by email after RSVP, closer to event date
Cost: Free for alumni and non-alumni.
Lunch Etiquette: Lunch not included due to online nature. You are most welcomed to eat while videoconferencing in.

RSVP: Required. Please RSVP by filling in this form.

Event Contact (in alphabetical order): Ee Fann Goh for SG alums (goheefann@alumni.gsb.stanford.edu) and Andrew Kwan for HK alums (akwan@stanfordalumni.org)

About the Speakers

Mark Inkster

Mark has built digital businesses globally since the late 1990’s. As director of international operations at Yahoo!, he led the rollout of Yahoo!’s full suite of communication, media and e-commerce properties around the world and built product teams in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Mark moved to Asia in 2003 as vice president of Yahoo!’s search business unit for Asia-Pacific, based in Seoul. In late 2003, Mark joined eBay as chief product officer of eBay China, which at the time was the leading e-commerce site in China. He led the customization of eBay’s technology for China, one of the largest development projects in eBay’s history.

Mark founded a Shanghai-based travel startup, Yiqilai.com.cn, in 2006, and was also a founding member of AngelVest, the leading angel investment network in China. In 2009, Mark joined Microsoft’s online services business as managing director of Southeast Asia, leading MSN, Hotmail, Windows Live and Bing in the region, where he initiated partnerships including xinMSN, Singapore’s leading portal. He led Vistaprint’s business in Asia and global emerging markets from 2012-2013 as President of the “Most of World” business unit, and served as the Chief Digital Officer of Aegon Asia from 2014 to 2018.

Since 2018, Mark has been chief business officer of Beam Mobility and a venture partner at Antler. Mark lives in Singapore with his wife and children.

Adrian Li

 

Adrian is Founder & Managing Partner at Convergence Ventures, an early stage Indonesia focused technology venture capital fund with a portfolio of 30+ businesses. Previously, he co-founded several ventures in China and Indonesia.

Adrian’s 1st Internet venture was Idapted where as CEO & cofounder he raised 2 rounds of venture financing and led the company to be the largest live 1:1 online English test preparation service in China. Idapted was acquired by Eleutian in 2011. He then joined Rocket Internet as a Managing Director where he worked on new technology ventures in China and South East Asia. At the end of 2014 he launched Convergence Ventures.

Adrian graduated from Cambridge University with a BA and MA in Economics and was elected a Hawk in recognition of his contributions to University and National level Judo. He obtained his MBA from Stanford while studying in the dual degree MBA & Education MA program and is currently enrolled in the Tsinghua OBOR EMBA program. He is a Kauffman Fellow in Class 21. He speaks Mandarin and English fluently and is proficient in Cantonese and basic Bahasa.

Roland Yau

Roland is the Managing Partner of CoCoon Ignite Ventures, L.P., a venture capital fund focusing on investments in early stage technologies. At CoCoon Ignite Ventures, Roland has led investments in companies including Cafe X and Soundbrenner. In addition to investing, Roland is also an active advisor to his portfolio companies, large corporations, founders and other venture capital funds.

Roland graduated from New York University in 2004 with a bachelors degree in biology and graduated from the University of London in 2007 with a bachelors degree in law. Prior to establishing CoCoon Ignite Ventures, Roland was with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, an international law firm, from 2008 to 2015. At Freshfields, Roland worked on corporate financing and structuring transactions relating to fundraising, deal structuring and mergers and acquisitions.

With the health situation of COVID-19, the need for strengthening emotional well-being and resilience becomes more apparent than ever.

The Stanford Club of Hong Kong is delighted to welcome fellow alum Dr. Joanne Chan 陳頌恩博士 (Stanford BA ’02 and MA ’02, HKU PhD ’06) as our speaker for this online-only event.

As one of Hong Kong’s leading psychologists and advocates for emotional well-being, Joanne will share tips on:
1) How to manage individual stress
2) How to help children maintain emotional well-being
3) How to increase self-efficacy for prevention of COVID-19

We hope alumni who are interested in maintaining well-being for their families and communities during these times will join our event online.

Events Details

Date: Wednesday, 11 March, 2020
Time: 12:30 pm – 1:20 pm
Online Videoconference Link: Provided by email after RSVP, closer to event date
Cost: Free for alumni and non-alumni
Lunch Etiquette: Lunch not included due to online nature. You are most welcomed to eat while videoconferencing in.

RSVP: Required. Please RSVP by filling in this form.

Event Contact: Andrew Kwan (akwan@stanfordalumni.org)

 

About the Speaker

Dr. Joanne Chan 陳頌恩博士 is a psychologist, writer, storyteller, scriptwriter and guest host for television and radio programs. She has published over 25 books. She is passionate about sharing psychology for the promotion of health and happiness. She designs and conducts psychology programs for children.

Joanne graduated from Stanford University with her B.A. (honors) with distinction in Psychology & Chinese, and M.A. in Psychology. She obtained her Ph.D. in Psychology from The University of Hong Kong with multiple scholarships. She was awarded the Outstanding Teacher Awards four times by the Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and she was a Teaching Excellence Ambassador.

Grabbing the next Grab & GoJek: Tech Investing in Southeast Asia

With the health situation of COVID-19, many of our alumni in Hong Kong are temporarily working from home, or supporting their children’s learning from home. In this context, the Stanford Club of Hong Kong is planning a series of online-only speaker events to facilitate alumni to continue connecting, learning and engaging with one another online.

To kickoff the series, the Club is delighted to welcome Eddy Chan and John Kaaiohelo as speakers to share their insights on why the world is excited about investing in the Southeast Asian tech scene, and where the next Grab or GoJek may come from.

Eddy Chan is the founding partner of Intudo Ventures, an “Indonesia-only” venture capital firm that has raised 2 funds managing US$70M since 2017. John Kaaiohelo is the CEO and CIO of BOD Tech Ventures, whose assets include some of Myanmar’s leading tech companies in logistics, online travel, food delivery and fintech.

We hope alumni who are interested in technology, investing and the future of Southeast Asia will join us online.

Events Details
Date: Friday, 6 March, 2020
Time: 12:30 pm – 1:45 pm
Online Videoconference Link: Provided by email after RSVP, closer to event date
Cost: Free for alumni and non-alumni.
Lunch Etiquette: Lunch not included due to online nature. You are most welcomed to eat while videoconferencing in.

RSVP: Required. Please RSVP by filling in this form.

Event Contact: Andrew Kwan (akwan@stanfordalumni.org)

About the Speakers

Eddy Chan

Eddy Chan is a founding partner of “Indonesia-only” independent venture capital firm Intudo Ventures. He is a founder and venture investor, with expertise in founding and operating companies, venture investing, business development/partnerships, capital raising, recruiting and deal structuring.

He has invested in and advised startups in Indonesia, Silicon Valley and North Asia since the late 1990s, including PayPal, SpaceX, Palantir Technologies, Getaround, Branch International, SEA Ltd., Xendit, Kargo, TaniHub and BeliMobilGue, invested in venture funds including Founders Fund, founded and operated venture-backed technology companies with operations in Silicon Valley and Asia, practiced corporate/M&A/private equity/venture capital law in Silicon Valley and Asia at Morrison & Foerster LLP and represented companies as an investment banker.

Eddy holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where he was a Global Law Scholar, and a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley’s Walter A. Haas School of Business.

John Kaaiohelo

John Kaaiohelo is the CEO and Chief Investment Officer of BOD Tech Ventures, a tech holding company whose assets include Myanmar’s largest logistics company, largest online travel agency, largest food delivery platform, largest bus ticketing platform, and largest B2B fintech wallet; Cambodia’s largest bus ticketing platform; and Bangladesh’s first cloud kitchen. Prior to BOD Tech Ventures, John worked in public equities, corporate venture capital, and corporate M&A. He is currently a Social Enterprise Fellow at raISE, the Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise.

John is a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy and earned his A.B. summa cum laude in History from Princeton University, and his A.M. in Regional Studies-East Asia from Harvard University, where he was named a Graduate Prize Fellow.

What?Come out to connect with your fellow alumni and to meet new friends from Berkeley,  Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Yale, UChicago, and UPenn! We would love to see more new faces, so join in to unwind on thirsty Wednesday! 

Where?Old Bailey at Tai Kwun, 2/F, JC Contemporary, Tai Kwun, Old Bailey Street, Central
When?  Wednesday December 18, 2019 6:30 – 9:30 p.m. 
How? Cash bar  No RSVP required; Just show up!
Questions? Wally Cheung  (CheungWK@stanfordalumni.org)

What? Come out to connect with your fellow alumni and to meet new friends from Berkeley, Cambridge, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, MIT, Oxford and Yale!

We would love to see more new faces, so join in to unwind on thirsty Friday! 

Where? VOLAR, Basement, Ho Lee Commercial Building, 38-44 D’Aguilar Street, Central

When? Friday November 29, 2019 6:30 – 9:30 p.m. 

How? Cash bar (HH menu) No RSVP required; Just show up!

Questions? Wally Cheung  (CheungWK@stanfordalumni.org)

Take a behind-the-scenes tour of HK Disneyland, and learn more about how magic is made!

Hosted by Takero Sone (’16) – Assistant Producer at Disney; Kendall Elliott – Park Art Director; Isabel Caruncho – Creative Director.

Event Details

Date: Saturday, December 7th, 2019

Time: 9:30 am to 3:00 pm

Cost: HK$350/person, which includes lunch (view lunch menu here)

Deadline & RSVP: First come first served! Space is limited to the first 15 alums to confirm their slots via RSVP and payment:

RSVP and Pay Now.

Restrictions: Given the limited capacity, we can accept Stanford alums and significant others only. UNFORTUNATELY ADULTS ONLY / NO KIDS. I know I know…probably the first time you’ve ever read that in relation to Disneyland! More details below.

Contact person: Marc Hubert (’03, ’04). marc.hubert@gmail.com; +852-6398-0178. Please review the attached menu and email me with your selections. If you’re ordering the beef, please let me know how you would like your meat cooked. Please also let me know if you have any dietary restrictions.

More Details:

Attendees: college-aged adults and older. In addition to the nature of the topics discussed (Imagineering practices and principles), the sessions contain proprietary information that the Disney team wouldn’t typically share outside of the Disney organization.

Agenda:

We will begin with an introduction to Walt Disney Imagineering, covering the history, business, and legacy of the company. Following the overview, we will talk about the importance of story in Disney, and how this permeates the Hong Kong Disneyland park.

The Park Art Director will then lead a guided walk through the park to highlight its stories and characters, and how these inspire the “show” that Guests experience.
Taking the recently completed “Dreamer’s Lookout” as an example, we will look at how an idea is initially conceived and brought to completion. Dreamer’s Lookout is a new chocolate boutique in the Disney Explorers Lodge hotel, and we will get to see the “sketch to reality” by visiting the newly opened site. There will be some opportunity to see backstage/back-of-house areas.

Enjoy lunch together at World of Color restaurant in Disney Explorers Lodge
For those wanting more time at the park after lunch, discounted tickets are available. Please email me for more information, after confirming your slot via the above PayPal link.

Meeting location:
For those coming via MTR: Once you exit the MTR station at the Disneyland stop, please meet at the green gazebo that you see in front of you.

For those coming via taxi or parking: Follow directions to Hong Kong Disneyland Park. You will approach a giant green arch (impossible to miss), with “Welcome to Hong Kong Disneyland” and a Mickey Mouse figure on the top. There are two green gazebos by the arch, one to the left and one to the right. We will meet at the gazebo to the RIGHT of the arch (it is the one that is closer to the MTR station, which would also be on your righthand side).

Hope to see you on Dec. 7th…at The Happiest Place on Earth!