Moderator:
Timothy Smith, Business Director, Hays Hong Kong

Speakers:
Chris Brown, Founder & Director, EnviroEvents (Rethink) Limited

Kenneth Lee, Regional Account Director, LinkedIn

Panellists:
Jenny Lee, Under Secretary General, Hong Kong Green Finance Association

Margaret Burnett, Programme Director of the Master of Social Sciences in Sustainability Leadership and Governance, The University of Hong Kong

Mark Harper, Group Head of Sustainability, Swire

Bridging the Green Skills Gap: Strategies for Building a Skilled and Sustainable Workforce

Join us for an enlightening discussion on bridging the green skills gap and building a skilled and sustainable workforce for the future of Hong Kong. As a carbon-neutral business committed to improving social and governance issues, Hays recognises the importance of nurturing the world's best talent to achieve social and climate ambitions. Professionals from across the corporate, government, education and NGO sectors are all seeking information on how to gain a competitive advantage in this talent-short market, and our expert panellists will share insights on the latest trends in the green skills market, best practices for developing green skills, and strategies for building a skilled and sustainable workforce. We are pleased to have the team from LinkedIn with us, who will present the Green Skills Index, providing valuable data on the trends in the green skills market. 

Join us for this thought-provoking discussion and discover how we can work together to drive social and climate improvements worldwide.

About the moderator:

Timothy Smith, Business Director, Hays Hong Kong

About the speakers:

Chris Brown, Founder & Director, EnviroEvents (Rethink) Limited

Chris has 20+ years of experience working on large-scale business events. Originally from the UK, Chris has lived and worked in Hong Kong since 2015.

Chris moved to Hong Kong to launch a series of digital transformation events. The challenges of living sustainably and a developing concern around the exponential threats of the global climate emergency compelled Chris to “rethink” his own personal contribution to Hong Kong and how he could best make a positive impact on a city he proudly calls home. 

Chris conceived, designed and launched the ReThink HK event during the first part of 2019 – a new event concept for uniting the business and sustainability ecosystems, championing positive action, shared value and responsibility. The inaugural 2020 event was, unsurprisingly, delayed due to Covid but was hosted, in-person, at K11 Quarry Bay with 450 attendees and all delegate fees were donated to local charities. 

Chris’ experience in hosting content-led expo-style healthcare events in the UK, where partnerships and collaboration were crucial to scale and success, has provided the foundation for him to bring on board an extensive network of organisations and sponsors to help scale ReThink HK. The event takes place at the HKCEC and is widely recognised as Hong Kong’s best attended event dedicated to the business of sustainability, with over 4,700 attendees in October 2022. Chris is proud to have maintained the event’s model and impact pledge; with over HK$700,000 of delegate fees contributing to impact projects with local Hong Kong charities to date.

Chris received a Bachelor’s degree in International Business and Italian from the University of Plymouth (UK), is a member of the British Chamber of Commerce’s Social Sustainability Committee, and sits on the Executive Committee and the Sustainability sub-committee of the Hong Kong Exhibition & Convention Industry Association.

Kenneth Lee, Regional Account Director, LinkedIn

Kenneth has worked in the tech B2B space for 10 years. He is currently working at LinkedIn as a Regional Account Director overseeing Asia and the global search and staffing accounts in the region. His day to day includes consulting the top Global Search and Staffing accounts on hiring trends in their countries, new potential opportunities and guiding them on how to achieve their goals. 

About the panellists:

Jenny Lee, Under Secretary General, Hong Kong Green Finance Association

Jenny is the Under Secretary General for Hong Kong Green Finance Association (HKGFA), primarily responsible for driving green and sustainable finance initiatives across its eight working groups, leading private and public sector, regulator, and government stakeholder engagement to enhance Hong Kong’s position as a leading sustainable finance center. Jenny contributes to the Centre for Green and Sustainable Finance capacity building and data analytics workstreams, and co-created the HKGFA – HKUST Certificate in Sustainable Finance. Jenny has over two decades of experience in global investment banking and consulting, primarily in equity derivatives, prime brokerage, equity financing and new business development at Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and JPMorgan, and has lived in London, New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong. 

Jenny left a career in banking to pursue her desire to make a positive impact, shifting the focus of her business and finance experience into sustainability. She is a life-long learner and passionate about creating a green and sustainable ecosystem, inclusive of finance, ESG and technology. She co-founded Development Finance Asia and is certified in CFA ESG Investing.

Margaret Burnett, Programme Director of the Master of Social Sciences 
in Sustainability Leadership and Governance, The University of Hong Kong 

Margaret is the current Programme Director of the Master of Social Sciences in Sustainability Leadership and Governance, at the University of Hong Kong. Developed and delivered the curriculum, instructor for several courses within the programme, and frequent speaker at sustainability-related events. Long term professional, with over 30 years in the field of sustainability having worked with corporate clients, NGOs, and community stakeholders to address corporate environmental stewardship, and social responsibility challenges and opportunities. 

Have demonstrated the benefits of embedding sustainability initiatives into the core of organizational purpose, strategy, and operations. Extensive experience developing and implementing stakeholder engagement, community development, food systems, climate change, benchmarking, materiality assessments, integration of ESG, reporting, and strategies for awareness raising through training workshops and the embedding of sustainability into multiple functional roles. Have developed and delivered training, workshops, and lectures to a variety of audiences including bespoke executive education to support the bridge between theory and practice.

Mark Harper, Group Head of Sustainability, Swire
 

Mark has worked for around 20 years in the field of corporate sustainability. As Group Head of Sustainability at Swire, Mr Harper is responsible for managing the Group Sustainable Development Office, and leading on the design, execution and performance monitoring of global corporate strategy for sustainability for the Swire Group, and on acting as the lead change agent in driving improved sustainability performance and best practices, with a view to further embed sustainability into overall business strategy for Swire. 

Prior to taking up the Group Head of Sustainability role, Mr Harper had worked at John Swire & Sons (H.K.) Ltd. for over six years, where he was responsible for managing the Group’s ESG disclosures as well as advising operating companies on their own ESG submissions. In addition to his work on ESG ratings, Mr Harper was also responsible for advising the Group on policy and strategy development, particularly in the areas of climate resilience, biodiversity and sustainable waste management. He also sits on the Board of Business Environment Council, the Executive Committee of the Drink Without Waste working group and is Vice Chair of the Environment and Energy Committee of the British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.

Mr Harper has extensive experience of ESG disclosure standards such as GRI and the Hong Kong Exchange ESG Reporting Guide, as well as conducting sector focused benchmarking studies, corporate environmental management, as well as organising hands-on corporate citizenship and CSR training programmes.

Before joining John Swire & Sons (H.K.) Ltd., Mr Harper worked in a number of senior management roles at high profile NGOs including the Earthwatch Institute, Fauna & Flora International, China Water Risk, and Business Environment Council, where he was responsible for managing the organisations advisory services on ESG reporting and corporate sustainability strategy development.

Agenda:

Registration: 5:45 - 6:00 PM
Welcoming Speech: 6:00 - 6:05 PM
HK Green Skills and Talent Trends by LinkedIn: 6:05 - 6:20 PM
Panel discussion: 6:20 - 7:05 PM
Q&A : 7:05 - 7:20 PM
Networking session: 7:20 - 8:00 PM

This event is hosted by David Graham. Please note that walk-ins are not allowed to this event.

Please note that Business Attire is required by the Hong Kong Club - collared shirts must be worn by men, and jeans, sandals and sports shoes are not permitted. To see the full list of club rules on dresscode, please click here.

Event Organisers

Pricing
Member: HK$495
Non-Member: HK$630

Terms & Conditions

• Reservations in advance are required. Please consider your booking confirmed unless notified otherwise.
• Cancellations must be made in writing 24 hours prior to the event. No shows will be charged.
• This event is closed to the media.
• The event will be cancelled if the No.8 Typhoon signal or the Black Rain Storm warning is in force.
• By attending this event, you agree to be photographed, recorded, and/or filmed and give permission to use your likeness in promotional and/or marketing materials.
• For further information please email [email protected]
• All payments for this event need to be settled by credit card through PayPal. Please note you do not need a PayPal account to complete payment.