WISDP President

Professor Karen Q. Cheung

Professor Karen Q. Cheung

  • President of World Institute of Sustainable Development Planner;
  • President of UNESCO Hong Kong Association;
  • Director of Hong Kong Institute of Education for Sustainable Development;
  • Executive Director of China Education and Sustainable Development Think Tank;
  • Visiting Professor of the South China Normal University Education Development Higher Research Institution of The Greater Bay Area;
  • Adviser on Strategic Development for Interdisciplinary Research Center of AI and Curriculum Education, South China Normal University;
  • Founding Member of Hong Kong Professionals and Senior Executives Association;
  • Director of Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers
  • Co-President (HK) of the Executive Management Committee of China Institute for Responsible Management Education and Sustainable Development
  • Visiting Professor of Changzhou University
  • The Member of Academic Development Advisory Committee of the Professional Committee for Educational Cooperative Development in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, The Guangdong Society of Education
  • Honorary President of Hong Kong Intangible Cultural Heritage Association

Prof. Cheung is a Bachelor of Business Administration, a Master of International Trade, a Ph.D of Industrial Economics. She is a Certified Risk Planner, Senior Member of Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (1996-2014) , Senior Fellow of World Institute of Sustainable Development Planners and Certified Sustainable Development Planner (CSDP).

Prof. Karen Cheung has been engaged in asset management, risk management and industrial operation and development since 1991, and has actively participated in the construction of development zones and new urban areas. She has successfully completed international investment promotion, overseas financing, industrial restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, etc. In 1998, as the director of the China Representative Office of the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada (1998-2014), Prof. Cheung has carried out international accounting qualification certification with over 20 universities in China, including Tsinghua University, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, University of International Business and Economics, Nankai University, Jinan University etc. She has served as the financial development consultant of Shanghai Pudong Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park (1998-2003), the R&D consultant of Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone (2000-2005), and the Luliang Municipal Government of Shanxi Province (2017-present).

Since 2002, Prof. Cheung has devoted herself to the research and development of UNESCO’s education for sustainable development, and actively planned and promoted education for sustainable development projects. She was the MBA visiting professor at the School of Real Estate, Zhuhai Branch of Beijing Normal University (2004-2006), deputy director of the China-Hong Kong Cooperation Center of the Institute of Public Policy, Hong Kong Polytechnic University (2007-2009). Her professional fields and research directions include lifelong learning and sustainable development education, monitoring and evaluation, sustainable development planning and governance, innovative teaching, social sciences.

Presided over more than ten international and domestic research projects, including the National Development and Reform Commission’s “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” project (2010), the Ministry of Education’s comprehensive research into “China’s Sustainable Development Education Innovation Practice”《中國可持續發展教育創新實踐》 (Editor: Chen Xiaoya) (2009), she has published more than 40 papers in domestic and international academic forums and journals (1 patent, 6 software copyrights, and 9 books), including “Sustainable Development Planning” ISBN 978-988-79581-0-9 (2019), UN75 Dialogue Booklet “UN 75 Dialogue – Hong Kong Story” ISBN 978-988-79581-6-1 (2020), “UNESCO World Heritage and Intangible Cultural Heritage Hong Kong School-Based Curriculum Casebook”《聯合國教科文組織世界遺產及非物質文化遺產香港校本課程案例手冊》 ISBN 978-988-75669-2 -2 (2021), “Carbon Literacy and Low Carbon Lifestyle” ISBN 978-988-75669-4-6 (2022), etc.

Prof. Cheung also enthusiastically participates in social welfare, environmental and ecological conservation, and practices civic social responsibility. She actively supports the China Children and Teenagers’ Fund, sponsoring out-of-school girls and impoverished college students every year. In 2000, she was appointed as Honorary Director of the China Children and Teenagers’ Fund; in 2002, she was awarded the “Charity and Caring Person”「慈善愛心人士」 in the first “China Children’s Charity Day”「中國兒童慈善活動日」, and was named “China Children’s Charity Monument”「中國兒童慈善功德碑」 on the Great Wall of China Badaling; in 2006, she received the “Women’s World Excellence Awards – Social Services” from “the Women’s World”; in 2012, she was selected as “China’s Top Ten Outstanding Management Figures”; in 2013, she was awarded “Education for Sustainable Development Pioneer Award” from the China National Commission for UNESCO ; in 2018, she was selected as “Chinese Education for Sustainable Development Outstanding Contributor” by the UNESCO China National Working Committee and in the same year, she led the Hong Kong Institute of Sustainable Development Education (HiESD) to be awarded the “Most influential region of China’s 20 Years of Education for Sustainable Development.”, and won the “Most Influential Region in the 20 Years of Sustainable Development Education in China” for Hong Kong.

Honorary Presidents

Professor Ei-ichi Negishi

Professor Ei-ichi Negishi

PhD (U Penn), Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 2010

Professor Ei-ichi Negishi is a Manchurian-born American chemist of Japanese origin who has spent most of his career at Purdue University in the United States. He is best known for his discovery of the Negishi coupling.The Nobel Prize for Chemistry, 2010, was awarded jointly to Richard F Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki for their independent work on ‘palladium- catalysed cross couplings in organic synthesis’. Synthesis of organic compounds has opened doors in many areas of science from the pharmaceutical industry to modern electronics. In nature, organic chemistry takes place in myriad forms and is the basis of life itself, using the stable base of carbon.

He discovered Negishi coupling which condenses organic zinc compound and organic halide under palladium or nickel catalyst to obtain C-C bonded product. With this achievement, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2010. He commented that “I keep thinking for 50 years, dreaming has come true,” and “that young Japanese people should also come overseas.” Negishi have also reported that organoaluminum compounds and organic zirconium compounds can be used for cross-coupling. He has not obtained a patent for this coupling technology, his reason is as follows: “If we do not obtain a patent, we thought that everyone could use our results easily, and made it half conscious”. In addition, Zr(C5H5)2 obtained by reducing zirconocene dichloride is also called Negishi reagent and is used for the synthesis of polysubstituted benzene. He received many awards on his contributions to society:

1996 – A. R. Day Award (ACS Philadelphia Section award)
1997 – Chemical Society of Japan Award
1998 – Herbert N. McCoy Award
1998 – American Chemical Society Award for Organometallic Chemistry
1998-2000 – Alexander von Humboldt Senior Researcher Award
2003 – Sigma Xi Award, Purdue University
2007 – Yamada-Koga Prize
2007 – Gold Medal of Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
2010 – Nobel Prize in Chemistry
2010 – ACS Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry
Among many other honors, Professor Eichi Negishi has recived the the Chemical Society of Japan Award in 1996, the Humboldt Senior Researcher Award in 1998, the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Sir Edward Frankland Prize Lectureship in 2000, the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and several honorary doctorates. Professor Eichi Negishi is a member of the Honorary Board of the Asian Journal of Organic Chemistry, and the journal has prepared a virtual special issue to celebrate the occasion.

1960-61 – Fulbright-Smith-Mund Fellowship
1962-63 – Harrison Fellowship at University of Pennsylvania
1987 – Guggenheim Fellowship, 1987
2000 – Sir Edward Frankland Prize Lectureship
2009 – Invited Lectureship, 4th Mitsui International Catalysis Symposium (MICS-4), Kisarazu, Japan
2010 – Order of Culture
2010 – Person of Cultural Merit
2011 – Sagamore of the Wabash
2011 – Order of the Griffin
2011 – Fellow, American Academy of Arts & Sciences
2012 – Honorary Fellowships of Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
2014 – Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences

Vice Presidents

Professor Gerry Postiglione

Professor Gerry Postiglione (Education for Sustainable Development)

PhD (SUNNY ALBANY)

Professor Gerard A. Postiglione is Chair Professor in Higher Education, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong. He is former Associate Dean for Research and Head of the Division of Policy, Administration and Social Science Education. He has published 16 books and over 150 articles and chapters. His books include: Mass Higher Education in East Asia, Crossing Borders in East Asian Higher Education, Asian Higher Education, Education and Social Change in China, and China’s Precarious Balance (forthcoming with Johns Hopkins University Press). He is editor of Chinese Education and Society, and four book series about education in China.
In 2006, he received the Outstanding Research Supervisor Award from The University of Hong Kong. In 2011, he received the Best Book Award from the North American Comparative and International Education Society. In 2014, he received the Humanities and Social Science Prestigious Fellowship Award by the Hong Kong Government Research Grants Council. In 2015, he received a Lifetime Contribution Award from the North American Comparative and International Education Society for studies in higher education. In 2016, he was inducted as a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association for his contribution to research. In 2016, his autobiography was published in Leaders in the Sociology of Education.In 2017, he received a second Best Book Award. A collection of his research works will be published by Routledge Press in 2018.

Professor Peter R Hills

Professor Peter R Hills (Sustainability)

PhD (Aston), Hon MHKIP

Professor Emeritus at The University of Hong Kong and he was the Chair Professor, The University of Hong Kong – Centre of Urban Planning and Environmental Management/The Kadoorie Institute Hong Kong form year 1993 to 2016. He is the expert of Urban Planning and Environmental. He worked in urban and environmental area as Director, The University of Hong Kong – Centre of Urban Planning and Environmental Management/The Kadoorie Institute Hong Kong for more than 20 years from year 1989 to 2012. He published more than 100 research papers related to policies and improvement of sustainable development, environmental facilities, energy saving, low-carbon economy and eco system.

Professor David W K Yeung

Professor David W K Yeung (Sustainable Economy)

Dr h c (St. Petersburg), Co-director, Centre of Game Theory at Saint Petersburg State University

Professor Dr. Dr.h.c. David W. K. Yeung is Distinguished Research Professor and Head of Business Administration at Hong Kong Shue Yan University, and Kantorovich Research Chair in Stochastic Differential Games and Co-director of Centre of Game Theory at Saint Petersburg State University. He is also Distinguished Honorary Professor of Qingdao University – an honor he received along with Nobel laureates John Nash, Reinhard Selten, Robert Aumann and Lloyd Shapley. Yeung also serves as Director of the SRS Consortium for Advanced Study in Dynamic Cooperative Games — a joint research initiative under the auspices of Saint Petersburg State University, Russian Academy of Sciences and Shue Yan University. He has held Faculty positions at Queen’s University, University of Hong Kong and National University of Singapore.

Yeung’s main areas of research are game theory, optimization and stochastic processes. He serves as Managing Editor of International Game Theory Review, Guest Editor of Annals of Operations Research, Associate Editorof Dynamic Games & Applications, Associate Editor of Operations Research Letters, Editor of the Routledge (Taylor & Francis) Series on Economics and Optimization, and Board of Editors of Mathematical Game Theory & Applications. Yeung has published extensively in world renowned science journals, in particular, Automatica, Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Annals of Operations Research, European Journal of Operational Research, International Game Theory Review and Mathematical Biosciences.

Professor C L Jenkins (Sustainable Hospitality & Tourism)

PhD (Strathclyde)

Since his retirement from the University of Strathclyde, Emeritus Professor Jenkins has undertaken consultancy assignments in International Tourism and Hospitality in the Middle East and Thailand. His expertise in Tourism Policy and Planning has been well sought after by governments and institutions in Europe, Asia and Central and South America. Professor Jenkins has served on the Editorial Boards of six International Journals on Tourism Economics and Management

Professor Albert Lee

Professor Albert Lee (Public Health)

MB, BS (London), MPH (CUHK), FRCS (London & Ireland)

Professor Albert Lee, Professor (Clinical) and Director of Centre for Health Education and Health Promotion, JC School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), has been elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), a national resource for independent, scientifically informed analysis and recommendations on health issues. Election to the IOM is considered one of the highest honours in the fields of health and medicine and Professor Lee is one of the 10 foreign associates recently elected by the IOM.

Professor Lee is a world-renowned pioneer in global health. He developed widely used toolkits and frameworks to enable effective promotion and inculcation of health in various settings, from the school level through to municipal level and up to healthcare infrastructures. Those works lead to over 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals, and advisory roles in the World Health Organization and government bodies.

His contributions in health development are also recognized by his election as Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians in London and Ireland, the Chief Executive Commendation for Community Services in 2004 Honours list of Hong Kong Government, and Award for Pioneer in Healthy Cities for Research by Alliance for Healthy Cites (AFHC) in 2014. He was Chairman of Scientific Committee of AFHC 2014 Global Conference. He also hold honorary and adjunct professorships at many leading academic institutions in Hong Kong and overseas.

Professor Frank HK Fu

Professor Frank HK Fu (Health & Wellness)

MH, JP, DPE (Springfield), International Fellow of the National Academy of Kinesiology, USA

Professor Fu has published over 120 refereed articles in renowned international journals, and over the years, he has delivered over 130 lectures or presentations at conferences or seminars around the world. His research was supported by various funding bodies and covers development of sports culture; physical fitness and psychological profile of different populations; exercise prescriptions and intervention programmes; quality of life and wellness; historical studies on the development of physical education and sport in Hong Kong; cardiovascular risk factors and lifestyle management; cardio-respiratory functions and selected biomarkers of endurance athletes; and implications of air pollution and high altitude training on physical activity and health fitness.

He has served as Chairman on a number of committees in public bodies, including the Elite Sports Committee, Hong Kong Association of Sports Medicine and Sports Science and the Hong Kong Coaching Committee. He is currently Chairman of the Anti-Doping Committee and the Hong Kong Olympic Academy.

Professor Fu is devoted to advancing sport development in Hong Kong. His excellent performance was recognised by the Hong Kong SAR Government with the appointment as Justice of the Peace and the awarding of the Medal of Honour.

Professor Victor Sit

Professor Victor Sit (Sustainable Cities)

PhD (London), Deputy, National People’s Congress, the People’s Republic of China (1993 – 2008)

Professor Sit is currently an advisor of China Aircraft Leasing Limited and a senior advisor of China Airport Synergy Investment Limited. He obtained his Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom and was professor of Geography and Head of Department of Geography and Geology, University of Hong Kong from 1977 to 2007, and founding director of the Advanced Institute for Contemporary China Studies of Hong Kong Baptist University, 2008 to 2013. He also serves as Honorary Professor of a number of renowned universities in China, including Peking University, Zhongshan University, Jinan University and Xian Jiaotung University .

Professor Sit was also Deputy of the National People’s Congress of the PRC (1993 -2008), an advisor to the Governor of Guangdong (2000 – 2005), a member of the Preparatory Committee of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Port and Marine Board, Committee on Port and Harbour Development, and Port Development Board of the HKSAR Government. Professor Sit has published a lot on urban studies and development strategy and on comparative urbanization. Currently he is focusing his research efforts on China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the global aviation industry and its impact on the global economy.

Dr. John Cribbin

Dr. John Cribbin (Lifelong Learning)

EdD (Nottingham), Chairman, Cricket Hong Kong

Dr. John Cribbin is a career University Administrator. A graduate in Geography of University College London, he also holds a Masters degree in HRM/ Training from Leicester University and an Ed.D. from Nottingham University. He has worked at Kings College London, the UK Open University and the University of Hong Kong. At HKU he has worked in the Registry, the Faculties of Education and Arts and HKU SPACE.

His major duties include corporate governance as the Company Secretary in support of the Board of Directors and its Committees; the servicing of the School’s Boards, Committees and academic units, the work of the School’s Registry Affairs and Quality Assurance teams. He participates in the senior management of the School as a member of the Directorate team. He is responsible for the application internally of the HK Government’s Qualifications Framework. He has published in the field of lifelong learning and transnational education and has made a number of conference presentations.

He also represents Hong Kong at the Asian Cricket Council and International Cricket Council and serves on a number of their committees.

Professor P Kevin MacKeown

Professor P Kevin MacKeown (Climate Change)

PhD (Durham), FInstP, Honorary professor (Department of Physics) of University of Hong Kong, An expert researcher and the author of the book “Early China Coast Meteorology:­ The Role of Hong Kong”

Professor P Kevin MacKeown has published a book, Early China Coast Meteorology: The Role of Hong Kong, 1882-1912 which provides valuable and informative insights into the controversies involving appropriate responses to the protection of life and property in any community regarding the weather. He is a graduate of the University College Dublin and the University of Durham, and spent the bulk of his career teaching physics and studying cosmic radiation at the University of Hong Kong, where he remains as an honorary professor today.

Professor Kevin MacKeown has been researching in Cosmic Rays in the last five decades. He poses the following question and provides a response.

Can the Cosmic Radiation Influence Climate Change?

Charged cosmic rays, both primary and secondary (most of them are charged), will produce ionisation in the atmosphere, in particular in water vapour there which may play a role in seeding cloud formation. Variation in the cosmic ray flux, which is well established, could then result in greater or lesser cloud cover and thus cooling or heating of the earth’s surface. Phrased like that the problem seems very straightforward, but as with all aspects of climate change, the devil is in the details, and the complexities in the analysis are multiple. As a result, there is no unanimity in answering the question posed. First principles calculations are very challenging so most investigations look for correlations between observed quantities, but are mindful that any such correlations are not an automatic proof of causality. Because the charged cosmic ray flux in the atmosphere varies with latitude, due to the shielding effect of the earth’s magnetic field, a dependence in the variation of cloud cover, and thus temperature modulation, could be expected to show some latitude effect.

Professor Jacobus Root

Professor Jacobus Root (Sustainable Business)

Vice President Marketing, Shanghai (China) Jiao Tong University

Professor Root first stay in China was in 1982 when he landed in Beijing, and has since held lecturing posts for many years at several famous Chinese universities, among which: Shanghai Jiao Tong University SCE (est. 1896), teaching MBA Graduates as well as the TEFL Teachers training program. Additionally, he has lectured English Major students at SISU, Shanghai International Studies University in the Shanghai suburb of Songjiang.

An engaging speaker, he has been course leader at many seminars and training events such as Chamber of Commerce seminars. Professor Root is also Vice President Marketing at Shanghai Jiao Tong University SCE and is in charge of the organization, design and marketing educational products for the International Continuing Education division.

He has studied at Wellington, New Zealand Victoria University as well as Shanghai Jiao Tong University SCE, and was accorded a special Award and Diploma by the Shanghai Education department for the successful management of no less than four “English Culture weeks” in 2004, 2005,2006 and 2010.

Professor Gerhard Berchtold

Professor Gerhard Berchtold (Environmental Technology and Waste Management)

Dean of European Programmes (Austria), Universidad Azteca

Professor Berchtold is the Dean of European Programmes, Dean of the European Branch Campus of Universidad Azteca and Universidad Central de Nicaragua (UCN), Innsbruck, Austria. Professor Berchtold is also the Director and Professor of School of Environmental and Waste Management of UCN International Programs, and European Representative of UCN International Programs in areas of Environmental Management. He has linguistic proficiency in German, English, Italian, Spanish and French. He earned degrees in international management, higher education management, environmental decision making, environmental technology, business administration, public administration, environmental policy, education, and law. He is an Austrian scholar, management consultant, environmental policy adviser and an expert on environmental technology, waste and environmental management.

Since the 1980ies, Professor Berchtold has held a wide range of professional management and policy management experience, as well as distance education management and lecturing, research and consulting experiences especially in the areas of waste management, environmental policy, soil and groundwater remediation, general management and strategic and transnational higher open and distance education management. He has served the Austrian national Parliament (1990 – 2002) and the European Parliament (1995 – 1996) as consultant and assistant, was a full-vote member of the Austrian Superfund Commission
(Altlastensanierungskommission 1995 – 1999) and headed the environmental legislation working-group of the branch of waste and waste water management within the Federal Economic Chamber of Austria WKO (2000 – 2005), he used to be the administrative and political director of an independent fraction of the Tirol State Legislature (2005 – 2008). He has won awards including the Austrian annual prize for environment and public administration proposals, Oekomanager 2000, and is also a Salzburg Seminar alumnus (Environment and Diplomacy, 1994). He has published numerous publications and contributed substantially to both, environmental and waste management at the operational level in terms of projects, facilities and technologies, as well as to formulation, development and implementation of environmental law.

Hon. Prof. Dr. Samson CW Ma

Hon. Prof. Dr. Samson CW Ma (Sustainable Business & Management)

DSc (Azteca), FCMC, CMC-AF, FBCS, FIFC, FinstLM, Independent Consultant, Associated Partners of international consulting firms

Dr. Samson Ma served for telecom, IT and service industries over 40 years and participated in management consultancy for more than 20 years. He is the principal consultant with specialty in business valuation, executive coaching, executive search, facilitation, growth management, IT management, leadership development, marketing, organizational design & development, physical & cyber security, process improvement, project management, quality management, reengineering, sales & business development, small & family business, strategy planning, supply chain & logistics, and sustainability.

He worked in various sections and projects under Cable & Wireless, Unisys, Shell, Bain & Company, HK Telecom, Telcordia Technologies, PwC, PCCW, Ovum and ValuePartners. He successfully conducted and delivered more than 50 development and consulting projects to public corporations, government and government agents in China, Hong Kong and Asia Pacific region, which included IT automation, Information systems development, quality management, business change/development, industry transformation, industries regulation, government policy, marketing research, sales efficiency improvement, product delivery, customer services improvement, logistics enhancement, process management, strategies setting and scenario planning.

Dr. Ma also supported and contributed his knowledge to NGOs and volunteer services included ICT innovation, e-services, e-health management, as well as sustainable development and research, which included the working with FHKI to promote sustainable development for business and industries, and supporting of HIESD to develop sustainable smart healthy school project in Greater Bay Area.

Honorary Advisers

  • Dr John M Morgan
    DPhil (Oxon), DSc (hc), Institute of Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences, UNESCO Chair of the Political Economy of Education, Chair of the United Kingdom National Commission for UNESCO (2010-2013)
  • Etienne Clement
    Senior Consultant for Legal Protection of Cultural Heritage, Former Director of the UNESCO Office for the Pacific States
  • Milenko Gudić
    Founding Director, REFORMENT Consulting and Coaching, Serbia, Co-chair, UNPRME Anti-Poverty working group
  • Denis Nkala
    Coordinator for UNOSSC (UN office for South-South Cooperation), Asia Pacific
  • Dr Raymond Woo
    Hon Doctorate, (Federation University, Australia), Honorary Life Chairman of IIM, Chairman of Executive Board to The Hong Kong Real Property Federation
  • Professor Ronald Berenbeim
    Adjunct Professor at the NYU-Stern School of Business (Business Ethics), US. Working with the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME)
  • Professor Daniel R. LeClair
    CEO of the Global Business School Network, Former executive at AACSB
  • Paul Myers
    President of the World Organization of Building Officials, President of the International Code Council (ICC) – the Building Officials and Code Administrators, Inc (BOCA), Co-founder of the International Federation for Safe and Sanitary Buildings (IFSB)
  • Daniel A. Witt
    President of International Tax & Investment Center (ITIC), Co-founder of the Asia-Pacific Tax Forum, Eurasia Fiscal Experts’ Seminar, Middle East/North Africa (MENA)
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