TEDxHong Kong

Speakers

Speakers may not be confirmed. Check the event website for the latest lineup.

• Dr. Pui-Wah Choi

  Founder & CEO of WomenX Biotech Limited

  Dr. CHOI is a female biomedical scientist. She has a deep interest in tackling women's diseases. Her Ph.D. study focuses on ovarian cysts formation and the migration of ovarian cancer cells. With new cell culture modeling and animal model, she revealed the pathogenesis of ovarian cancer, the deadliest gynecologic cancer which causes 150,000 death worldwide. After she completed her Ph.D. study, she pursued postdoctoral training at the renowned OB/GYN department at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston MA. She continued the study on ovarian cancer, including finding new biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis of ovarian cancer and investigating ovarian cancer stem cells. Being a female scientist, she has a vision of developing biotechnology to facilitate treatment, diagnosis, and management of women's diseases and to help women understand more about their health status fertility profile.

• Hiro Yoshikawa

  Sustainable Fashion Founder

  As the second son of an 18th-generation sake family in Japan, Hiroyuki Yoshikawa grew up surrounded by craftsmanship and a deep understanding of ingredients. With no pressure to inherit the family business, he stepped away in 1989 to pursue fashion. Years of traveling between Europe and Asia led him to denim, and eventually back to Japan’s Okayama prefecture, the fabric’s birthplace, where he became known as a Master Jeans Wash designer using WASHI fabrics.

• John Terenzini

  Environmental Researcher

  An accomplished environmental researcher with a background in outdoor education. John’s fascination with jellyfish began during a canoe expedition in Alaska. This experience led him to study Environmental Management at the University of Hong Kong. In 2020, John founded the "Hong Kong Jellyfish Project," a citizen science initiative aimed at empowering the public to collaborate with scientists. Through this model, John is able to conduct detailed research on the distribution of jellyfish in Hong Kong waters, deepening understanding of key aspects of local marine biodiversity and effectively promoting marine conservation efforts.

• Karen Chu

  Baker & Founder of The Good Cake

  Karen Chu has never received formal baking training—her baking journey didn't begin in the kitchen, but rather during a year of volunteer work with the elderly community in Hong Kong. That experience allowed her to witness firsthand the reality of the city's aging population, that even in a wealthy city like Hong Kong, food shortages remain a reality for many, especially for the elderly. In 2019, Karen founded The Good Cake: a social enterprise bakery where every order provides food support for low-income seniors and creates dignified work for retired aunties and uncles in her kitchen. To date, her tiny bakery has sent away 5.2 tonnes of rice, the equivalent of 80,000 meals, to elderly residents across Hong Kong.

• Lawrence Kan

  Film Director & Screenwriter

  Born in Hong Kong, Lawrence Kan grew up immersed in its golden era of cinema. After graduating from Vancouver Film School, he returned home and founded “Marc. Two Visuals”, directing music videos and commercial shorts. His 2011 short film Staircase won multiple awards at the Chinese Youth Short Film Competition. Kan, a filmmaker with social conscience, shook the Hong Kong film industry with his 2023 feature In Broad Daylight, produced by Derek Yee, which took five years to make. The realist film looked at real cases of abuse in care homes for the disabled and elderly. His bold experiment earned 16 Hong Kong Film Award nominations, winning 3, and was nominated for Golden Horse Award.

• Li Hua Tan

  Impact Investor & CoFounder of Audacy

  Li brings close to two decades of investing experience, co-founding Audacy in 2017 to bring high impact, sustainable investments across multiple cutting-edge sectors to like-minded investors. In 2014, Li co-founded the Platinum Whisky Investment Fund, the world’s first private equity fund investing in vintage and rare single malt whiskies, and successfully completed its exit in 2021. Prior to the whisky fund, she managed her own family office (Asia Green Group) assets, which included a diversified public equity portfolio as well as investments in alternative assets across the US, Europe, and Pan-Asia. Alongside this, she managed the family’s real estate corporation with a gross development value of US$450 million. Li began her career as a Financial Analyst in the Consumer and Healthcare team at Citigroup in New York and Los Angeles. Li graduated from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Science in Corporate Finance and Business Administration.

• Ray LC

  Professor (Neuroscience & Robotics)

  RAY LC’s practice explores how humans adapt to constraints to foster creativity, examining their expression in co-creation with AI and machines. He uses human-computer interaction and speculative narrative approaches in large scale robotics and immersive media to probe the ways humans and social communities are affected by emergent technologies. He takes perspectives from his own research in neuroscience (pubs in Nature Communications) and in HCI (pubs in CHI, CSCW, HRI, DIS) in his artistic practice. RAY comes from UC Berkeley EECS-Math (BS), UCLA Neuroscience (PhD), Parsons School of Design (MFA).

• Vince Siu

  Founder & CEO of Press Start Academy (Game Designer)

  As the founder and CEO of Press Start Academy, an innovative education start-up in Hong Kong, Vince reimagines design thinking and the meaning of creativity. With extensive expertise in gamification and learning experience design, he creates pioneering game-based programs for both corporate and educational clients, helping organizations develop learning strategies focused on engaging learning through play. His impactful work has earned recognition as a Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum and as a Gen.T Leader of Tomorrow by Tatler Asia.

• Zoe Chan

  Art Curator & Exec Producer of Picture Rhythm Studio

  A professional curator and performance producer, Zoe is constantly seeking new sensations of sight, sound, touch, and feeling to create novel, immersive experiences that connect people from different mindsets and cultures across the globe. A Hong Kong native, she has produced performances ranging from 4,000 cruise-line attendees to exclusive, intimate gallery exhibitions. She thrives on collaborative idea generation and new creative challenges. Zoe is currently the Executive Producer of Picture Rhythm Studios and co-founder of IAE International Art Exchange. Supported by HKADC’s One-Year Grant as a professional arts organization in the Visual Arts category, IAE has completed over 10 Artist Research Residencies and delivered more than 20 overseas exhibitions across five years—building fruitful dynamics through campaign baseline contextual research.