Bulletin Autumn‧Winter 1993

CITATIONS came f r om the Panyu County of Guangdong Province, no t far from Shunde. He joined the Union Insurance of Canton as a trainee in 1949 and in a 10-year period leamt all there was to learn about insurance. He describes this as his first break. He attended United College in the Department of Economics and graduated in 1958, among the second batch of graduates to come out of the college. He remembers those years very well and speaks fondly of the excellent teachers he had who not only imparted knowledge but stimulated thinking. Having finished his studies at United College, Thomas Cheung moved to marketing at Union Insurance and in 1960 established his own company, Pacific Insurance. From this point on, his career moved forward very quickly and very successfully, propelled perhaps by the new-found confidence which came with a college education. Thereafter, he took over his father's shipping agency business. In 1961 he diversified int o transportation and warehousing and founded the Pacific Container and Godown Limited. He also began to branch out into other parts of Asia. In 1971 he started a warehousing company in Singapore. In the same year he ventured into transportation, warehousing, shipping agency and helicopter businesses in Taiwan. In recent years, he has also taken an active interest in the real estate business in the Republic of China. In 1972, his shipping business took him as far afield as Sri Lanka and, after a long association wit h that country, the island state decided to appoint h im Honorary Consul in 1986 and conferred upon h im the National Honour of Sri Lanka Ranjana. Mr. Chancellor, Thomas Cheung has the reputation of being the most famous alumnus of this university. He is certainly the most supportive of our work in terms of effort and financial contributions. Since winning the nomination to become the chairman of the A l umni Association of United College of The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1972, he has been re-elected 10 times over the last 20 years and is still chairman of the association today. He plays such a pivotal role in association affairs that he is not allowed to step down or resign or dissociate himself. This curious arrangement might perhaps be called 'alumni association with Chines e characteristics'. In 1976 , he also established amore formal link with United College by accepting the invitation to serve on its board of trustees. As the University grew out of a federal structure consisting of three constituent colleges, there were also three alumni associations to begin with. In 1978, they came together to form The Chinese University of Hong Kong Federation of A l umni Associations. Thomas Cheung served three terms in the capacity of chairman and made 46th Congregation 25