Doctor of Social Sciences, honoris causa (2015)
Ms Elizabeth Law’s family originated in Shunde in Guagndong Province and migrated to Hong Kong many decades ago. Since then the Law family has been actively engaged in the business sector and has, over time, become a business conglomerate very much to be reckoned with. As an entrepreneur, Ms Law has been known for her distinguished achievements in many industries, including textiles, garment, hotel management and realty investment and development. She was a director of the Laws International Holdings Limited (1975–2003) and the General Manager and Chief Executive Officer of Park Hotel International Limited (2003–2013), and is now the Managing Director of Park Hotel Property Management Limited.
The leadership acumen of Ms Law is not confined to the commercial field, but is also amply manifested in community service and pro bono activities. True to the spirit of giving being more blessed than receiving, and the concept that what is taken from society should be contributed back to society, Ms Law applied herself to charitable undertakings with great compassion over the past decades. She joined the Board of Yan Chai Hospital in 1997, serving successively as Director, Vice-Chairman and Chairman, and is currently a member of the Hospital’s Advisory Board. She was also a Committee Member of the Elderly Academy Development Foundation. She is a member of the Steering Committee on Child Development Fund of the Labour and Welfare Bureau, and sits on the Board of the Child Development Matching Fund. She is a Member of the North Lantau Hospital, and is serving as a Board Member of the Treasure Truth Transpiring Templum Limited. Ms Law has a deep concern for the medical welfare of the people of Hong Kong, and has been a most generous donor in supporting the expansion programme of Yan Chai Hospital, as well as financial aid schemes for patients in need. In 2001, she founded the Windshield Charitable Foundation with the aim of rendering assistance to disadvantaged groups in Hong Kong and the Mainland, such as elderly people, new arrivals in Hong Kong, households on five state guarantees in the Mainland, destitute children, and orphans. In recognition of her services to the community, and in particular her contribution to the growth and development of Yan Chai Hospital, Ms Elizabeth Law was awarded the Medal of Honour by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in 2009.
Ms Law, and the Law’s Charitable Foundation which she chairs, consistently subscribe to the view that education is essential to the strengthening of a nation and that education has profound and lasting influence on society. As a result Ms Law is firmly committed to supporting various educational causes, and has made many donations, both in Hong Kong and elsewhere, to build schools, to improve campus facilities, to establish scholarships, to facilitate student exchange programmes, to raise quality of teaching as well as to enhance the environment for learning. Through these endeavours, Ms Law has benefitted a large number of students in Hong Kong, the Mainland and elsewhere in other parts of the world, often in very significant ways. As a memorial to her late mother, Ms Law donated to Yan Chai Hospital to provide for the establishment of two schools, both named after her mother as the Yan Chai Hospital Law Chan Chor Si Primary School, of which Ms Law was Supervisor, and the Yan Chai Hospital Law Chan Chor Si Secondary School, where Ms Law is the current Supervisor. In addition, Ms Law also acted on behalf of her family through the Law’s Foundation Limited to provide for many other schools, among them the two Castar Kindergartens, and the Law Ting Pong Secondary School in Tai Po. Furthermore, Ms Law provided funding support to the Po Leung Kuk Castar Primary School, the Po Leung Kuk Laws Foundation College, and the Po Leung Kuk Laws Foundation School (a special education school). On the education front, the conviction of Ms Elizabeth Law is unswerving and her efforts indefatigable—she aims at nurturing new talents of the finest quality, and outstanding leaders for the community. With these objectives she has laboured hard and courageously, travelling to the very frontiers of educational provision around the world. Education besides, the foundation headed by Ms Law is also actively engaged in donating to a large variety of meaningful causes, among them medical services, relief services for those who suffer from disasters, community building, as well as environmental protection. For many years she has served as the Deputy Supervisor of the Law Ting Pong Secondary School in Daliang, Shunde.
Ms Elizabeth Law’s association with this University is deep-rooted and profound. She is an Honorary Permanent President of the Hong Kong Baptist University Foundation, and an Honorary President of the Developing Committee of the HKBU Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology. Since 2015, she has furthered her support by becoming a member of both the Board of Governors and the Entrepreneur Committee of the HKBU Foundation. Ms Law shares the holistic concept of education that we cherish at the Baptist University, and endorses the University's emphasis on creative research and our policy of strategic integration with the community. Since 2013, her gifts to the University have included support to the HKBU Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology Development Fund, the establishment of the Endowed Chair of Advanced Materials, the Mainland Students Scholarship Fund, and the Albert and Mabel Chan Student Exchange programme. Also in 2013, Ms Law made the most valuable contribution in garnering the finance which would underwrite the development of the Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology, through her wise counsels and relentless efforts as Deputy Chairman of the organising committee of the fund-raising dinner for the Academy.
Ms Elizabeth K S Law is an entrepreneur of admirable achievements, and possesses the highest sense of responsibility for the well-being of the community. She is wholeheartedly committed to social service, philanthropic activities and educational undertakings, and her valuable munificence has had the most benevolent effect on the holistic education and academic research being carried out at this University.