Bulletin Autumn‧Winter 1993

CITATIONS a significant contribution to fund-raising for an education foundation. Under his leadership the Federation of Alumni Associations established a kindergarten, a primary school and a secondary school and he is the chairman of the board of trustees of all three establishments. In 1991, Thomas Cheung became the first alumnus to be invited to serve on the University Council , The following year, he made a donation of $10 million to the University. His philanthropy is not restricted to education or to this university, for he also established a medical research fund at the University of Hong Kong and has sponsored a free medical scheme at the Tung Wah Hospital . Mr . Cheung ascribes his own success in business to a very simple formula: meticulous planning, careful execution and rigorous review. He ascribes the success o f the whole insurance business in Hong Kong to the rule of law. Without it, insurance and other businesses in the financial sector would become virtually impossible becaus e none of us would know where we stood and we might all be at the mercy of a capricious government, or even worse, a capricious insurance company. To take out insurance on a car is to ensure that i f the unexpected happened and you were involved in a crash, you, your passengers and the other party would all be covered and the damage and liability limited. To take out insurance on Hong Kong is to ensure that the rule of law w i l l prevail and w i l l provide the minimum guarantee withou t which the current way of life which we all cherish cannot continue. Mr. Chancellor, our honorary graduand today understands well the need to take out insurance, even for himself. Having been made a Lloyd's Name in 1978, he reinsured his risks and as a consequence was not caught out in the calamitous events which bedevilled Lloyd's at the late eighties and early nineties. In insurance, he always says, you need long-term thinking; i f you do, the short term w i ll take care of itself. Over the years, Hong Kong has benefitted fro m the confluence of two streams: British institutions and Chinese ingenuity. Mr. Cheung and others like him have made their best contribution to this university and to Hong Kong when their own businesses are allowed to thrive and prosper on a level playing field under the protection of Hong Kong laws within the framework o f a legal system whic h follows the common law tradition. A t this the thirtieth anniversary of our University, I thin k I represent the majority when I express the wish that long may this continue. Wi th these words, Mr. Chancellor, I present Thomas Cheung, entrepreneur, insurer, philanthropist, favourite alumnus of the University, the first alumnus resident in Hong Kong to be thus honoured, for the award of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa. 46th Congregation 26