HKUST Alumni | 9 8 | HKUST Alumni Bonding Trip with Core Staff Lifewire Photo Exhibition 2021 Site Lunch with Frontline Staff Dragon Boat Team master’s degree and worked at a consulting company. He came back to Hong Kong after his mother asked him to return, and having realized he had been in the United States since he was 14 and was missing out on spending time with the family. “My father put me on site immediately as an Assistant Project Manager working on the Tin Shui Wai West Rail Project. I was segregated and not given responsibility initially, but I got involved and earned the trust of colleagues, and knew what was going on, so I took on projects like drainage, traffic diversions, pipe works, and other initiatives that, shall I say, lacked in glamor. It was challenging, everything was new to me,” Derrick says. Becoming a leader Perhaps seeing his own future within the business, he built a network among frontline colleagues and construction veterans on a range of projects across Hong Kong, rolling up his sleeves, getting his hands dirty, and forging himself as a leader of laborers and workers of all disciplines. All this work on projects including civil engineering, infrastructure, and luxury housing building, where he managed contractors and subcontractors. Soon, with a track record for doing everything from laying gravel to cleaning sewage, he shed the “heir” reputation and earned his role as a leader years before becoming CEO in 2017. Personal tragedy That path was cemented when his father unexpectedly passed away in 2010. Before that sad moment, Derrick was already forging a role handling “difficult and potentially money losing projects,” so he was in many ways uniquely placed to eventually become CEO. Indeed, he was on this path while pursuing his PhD at HKUST, which he admits proved “arduous, but I was determined to finish as my commitment to my father, and professor’s encouragement and support,” he says. Aside from gradually forging his own path in the company, he extended his ‘firefighting’ skills to tackling a number of issues that have plagued the construction industry. These include labor shortages, downsizing in hard economic times, company reputational damage, and lack of talent within the construction industry as a whole. “Aside from my construction experience, I have always had an intellectual side. Within my company, I have taken a firm role in HR and administration, developing the Elite Program [Management Trainee Program], selecting the best and the brightest from universities to look at the company from a macro point of view, encompassing safety, commercial and environmental angles,” Derrick says. Talent and technology The CEO has also subsidized continuing education for middle and senior management, and promoted the construction industry in universities, to help modernize the industry in Hong Kong. A major tension within family business is how to transition from the old to new. Derrick has therefore always dedicated himself to adopting new techniques to his business and other interests. It’s a reason he founded crowdfunding platform Lifewire. Having witnessed the popularity of crowdfunding overseas, Derrick decided to adopt it for his charity efforts in Hong Kong, becoming the first Hong Kong-based crowdfunding platform to support children’s health and medical needs in 2014. “When I was young I loved to do charity work, and have always kept this ethos in my mind, and really decided to push this when my father passed away,” Derrick says. “We are evolving from a traditional company to an organization built on modernization and decentralized management systems. People should be able to make their own decisions, and we tap into the talent rather than the centralized person. To do this we need to transform culture, making small changes over time and create a snowball effect where eventually the whole company is a new and refreshed entity,” Derrick says. We need to transform culture, making small changes over time and create a snowball effect where eventually the whole company is a new and refreshed entity. Working from the ground up Derrick Pang (2014 PhD Civil Engineering) has been dedicated to a career across the construction industry. The Chief Executive Officer of Asia Allied Infrastructure Holdings Limited (previously known as Chun Wo Development Holdings Limited) not only has deep knowledge of the inner workings of construction, but also a very strong academic background. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in the United States in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science degree and obtained a Master of Engineering degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, along with a master’s degree in Business Administration from The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2007. Following this, came a Doctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering from HKUST. Diving into a PhD So how did he originally decide to join the HKUST community? “My late father (Dr Pang Kam Chun, former CEO) didn’t have the chance to go to university, and this remained one of his unrealized dreams,” says Derrick. “At the same time, I have always been inspired to learn more and always wanted to complete the ultimate – a PhD. I had lunch with a professor, who recommended HKUST with its reputation for being ‘hardcore’. So, being one who always loves a challenge, I decided to go for it and chose HKUST,” he adds. Arguably equally impressive is his more than 20 years of geotechnical design and construction experience in Hong Kong and the United States, the country of his birth. Having joined Chun Wo Development Holdings Limited (now known as Asia Allied Infrastructure Holdings Limited) in 2001, working his way to the top, he has served as a member of the Construction Industry Council; advises on the Aviation Development and Three-runway System Advisory Committee; is a Non-Executive Director of the Insurance Authority and was appointed as Justice of the Peace by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Starting from zero But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing for Derrick. After his undergraduate studies, he stayed in the United States for his Alumni Stories
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