Mr Mohamed D. Butt
Chairman of the Board, FLAIR
Mr Mohamed D. Butt has led HKPC since December 2017. He brought to the Council with more than 30 years of executive leadership experience, well-practised senior management skills and success cases from multinational environment, with deep industry and customer knowledge in infrastructure, industrial and consumer sectors, backed by his profound strategic mindset, rich business insights and remarkable winning track records.
Mr Butt previously spearheaded large transformational projects, in collaboration with private and public sectors. He worked for General Electric (GE) for over two decades, where he held various senior management positions including President & CEO of GE’s Transportation Business in the Asia Pacific region, provided strategic leadership to have expanded the business footprints. Before such role, he also served as President & CEO of GE Lighting Asia and GE Security Asia respectively.
Mr Butt graduated from Winona State University, Minnesota, US, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration. He also received his Master in Business Administration from Kellogg School of Management and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Mr Edmond Lai Shiao-bun
Member of the Board, FLAIR
Mr Edmond Lai Shiao-bun joined HKPC in 2018 to lead the digital transformation, smart manufacturing and Mainland businesses of HKPC. Mr Lai is an expert in Industry 4.0 (i4.0) and Enterprise 4.0 (e4.0) business transformation, as well as digital product development, with experience in local and overseas market development. He assumed the position of Member of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Hong Kong Industrial Artificial Intelligence & Robotics Centre (FLAIR) in 2019.
Mr Lai worked in General Electric (GE) for more than 20 years. He successfully completed the management trainee programme in the information technology department of the multinational company, and then had also served in their internal audit and ¬finance functions. He also spearheaded his expertise across other business units, such as aviation, capital, healthcare, plastics, power, transportation, etc., among various regions including Greater China, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland, the United States, etc. He also assumed regional and global responsibilities to drive the business growth for various industries, such as energy storage, mining, marine, rail, renewable energy, thermal power generation, etc.
Mr Lai held the Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Engineering) and Master of Philosophy (Computer Science) degrees from the University of Hong Kong.
Dr Lawrence Cheung Chi-chong
Member of the Board, FLAIR
Dr. Lawrence Cheung has over 30 years of experience in managing research and development and consultancy business portfolio. In HKPC, he currently manages a broad business functions on technology research and development as well as consultancy services in smart living, automotive, 5G applications, gerontech, green living technology, testing, food processing & Chinese medicine, FutureSkills training as well as SME and Start Up support.
He is respectively a Member of Steering Committee of New Energy Transport Fund, Assessment Committee of Green Tech Fund, and Awards Committee on the Hong Kong Awards for Environmental Excellence, all in the Environmental Protection Department; a Member of Steering Committee on Promotion of Vocational and Professional Education and Training (VPET) and Qualifications Framework (QF) in the Education Bureau, and, a Member of the ITF Enterprise Support Scheme (ESS) Assessment Panel in the Innovation and Technology Commission.
He is also an Honorary Advisor of the Hong Kong Electronics and Technologies Association; an executive committee member of respectively the Hong Kong Wireless Technology Industry Association and the Hong Kong Electronic Industries Association; Member of Innovation & Technology Development Committee in Federation of Hong Kong Industries; and Member of Industry & Technology Committee in Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce.
Prior to joining HKPC, Dr. Cheung was living in Australia holding a senior research position in Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) of Australia. He obtained Bachelor of Engineering with 1st class honours and Bachelor of Science degrees from Monash University in Australia. His doctorate degree on Computer Imaging research was also from Monash University. Dr. Cheung joined HKPC in 1996.
Mr Toni Drescher
Member of the Board, FLAIR
Mr. Toni Drescher drives disruptive innovations in the area of Industry 4.0, Artificial Intelligence, Additive Manufacturing and Hydrogen Technology.
He serves as Department Head of Technology and Innovation Management at Fraunhofer IPT. Mr. Drescher is founder and CEO of KEX Knowledge Exchange AG – a company providing information access to novel technologies and trends. He also founded and serves as Executive Director of INC invention Center at RWTH Aachen Campus – a company accelerating the commercialization of high-tech innovations.
Mr. Drescher supports corporate and medium-sized companies. He can draw on more than fifteen years of successful project implementation in life science, mechanical, automotive, transport, energy, chemicals, construction and materials industry. He impacted companies in more than 50 consulting projects and mentors C-Levels in Technology and Innovation Management.
Mr. Drescher is an innovator and strongly believes in the principle of entrepreneurship. His network spreads across Europe, China and USA. Toni holds a M.Sc. in Systems Engineering. He studied at University of Chemnitz, Germany and ETH Zürich, Switzerland.