About the Signature Series:

The Overall Objective of the Series is to exchange experience about the challenges entrepreneurs, start-ups including MSEs (Micro and Small Enterprises) face while establishing and operating a business in Hong Kong and the Asia Pacific Region. We hope that the Series will be helpful to those who are looking for new ideas, different business strategies, solutions to business problems, or more profitable ways of doing things.

About the Event:
 

James Gibson of Emack & Bolio’s leads the team that successfully launched the award-winning ice cream brand with rock and roll roots here in Hong Kong. James will share details of his personal entrepreneurial journey so far including the key lessons he’s learnt along the way. 

Arnold Leung is the sole founder of Vancouver based Appnovation Technologies and started the company straight after graduating from the UBC Sauder School of Business in 2007. Since then the IT services firm has opened offices in Atlanta,London and Montreal and currently holds a workforce of over 100 full time employees worldwide. He decided to open an office in Hong Kong last year 2015. When asked who his mentor was, he said Steve Curtis. (Steve Curtis is the founder of ZAG Group and board member of Take a Hike Youth at Risk Foundation. He started his first company at the age of 19 with a budget of $500 and with no external funding he grew the firm to just under $5 million in annual revenue in less than five years.) Arnold will share his inspirations with us and will also discuss what practical skills he needs to learn to overcome challenges and continue with the growth of his business.  
 
Charles Ng of InvestHK will present the recent trends of the types of entrepreneurs and start-ups moving into Hong Kong. He will also discuss with the audience the three most consistent concerns of these new companies at the set-up phase.

Join us to hear about these entrepreneurs and business owners’ challenges and experience of success. Ask them questions about how they build their companies and keep things running amid challenges from Day 1.

About the Speakers:

James Gibson
CEO, Emack & Bolio's

James recently embarked on his entrepreneurial career having spent over 20 years working at the international banks JPMorgan, Societe Generale and UBS. As a Managing Director in those firms James was responsible for the technology functions that supported key business units, such as Currencies & Commodities, or regional geographies, such as Asia Pacific. During his career he has lived and worked in London, Singapore, New York and now Hong Kong. In 2014 James decided to take a sabbatical from the banks to explore a number of entrepreneurial ventures - including the launch of Emack & Bolio’s in Hong Kong. James is a graduate of London Business School and Columbia Business School Executive MBA Program.

Arnold Leung
Founder & CEO, Appnovation Technologies 

Arnold Leung is the CEO and Founder of Appnovation Technologies. He founded Appnovation right graduation from the UBC Sauder School of Business. While he is a finance program graduate, he has always been an enthusiast in the information technology space. In 2007, he saw the emergence of Open Source technologies in enterprises and governments, and as a result founded Appnovation with a focus on helping organizations deploy open source solutions. He is a winner of the Vancouver Top 40 under 40 Award, BC Business' Top 30 Under 30, and the BDC Young Entrepreneur Award. He is also a board member of the Vancouver Enterprise Forum. 

Charles Ng 
Associate Director-General of Investment Promotion, Invest Hong Kong
The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
 

Charles Ng heads up one of the two divisions helping overseas and Mainland companies to establish or expand their business presence in Hong Kong. His teams are responsible for Financial Services, Innovation and Technology, Information and Communications Technology, Research and Knowledge Management and StartmeupHK.
 
He has worked for companies in the manufacturing, trading and financial services and banking sectors in Mauritius, Canada and Hong Kong. He speaks 6 languages and dialects and holds an MBA degree awarded jointly by the Business School of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Kellogg School of Management of Northwestern University.