Gigi Chao

Gigi Chao is a meta-hyphenate on multiple missions. A graduate of the University of Manchester’s School of Architecture, she studied with British urban designer Sir Terry Farrell in London and Hong Kong, participating in the Kowloon Station and Tsuen Wan West Station projects, along with design submissions for buildings in mainland China. She worked in construction and marketing, overseeing accounts such as Audemars Piguet, Rolex, Mont Blanc and L’Oréal, before joining her family’s real-estate development business, Cheuk Nang Holdings in 2014, as executive vice-chairman. She’s since cultivated legal aspirations, obtaining a University of London Bachelor of Law degree in 2017 and studying for a Postgraduate Certificate in Law in FinTech: Law and Regulation; payments, alternative financing and cryptoassets. This year, she completed her professional certificate in coding at MIT x Pro, and professes to being in love with coding and open-source software. In her formative years, Chao did volunteer work in Malawi, Alaska and Hunan, China, and in 2008 she set up Faith in Love Foundation, a charity servicing socially disadvantaged youth and families in Hong Kong. As an openly queer woman and activist, she’s also a specialist private-sector adviser to the United Nations Development Programme’s Being LGBTI in Asia and advocates same-sex marriage in Hong Kong. She also advises global organisations on issues of diversity, inclusion and ESG business responsibility in building social capital. She believes harnessing creativity lies at the core of our humanity.