College of Business
AACSB International EQUIS - European Quality Improvement System

Ms Li Yifei shares her secret to success


On 25 February, a lecture delivered by Ms Li Yifei, Director of Rockefeller Foundation and former country chairwoman of Man Group’s China unit, was held successfully at CityU. The event was co-organised by Our Hong Kong Foundation and the College of Business and it was a great success with a full-house attendance of close to 300 participants.

The event began with the welcome remarks by Professor Wayne Yu, Assistant Dean (Executive Education) of College of Business, and Professor Chang Hsin-kang, Honorary President of China Institute of Our Hong Kong Foundation and former President of CityU, followed by an inspiring talk by Ms Li who shared her secret to success.

Ms Li began with the story of winning the national martial arts champion when she was young. She then talked about how she transformed from an executive in a media company to the country head of a global hedge fund. She concluded that five competences have led her to success – willingness to learn, timely action, effective communication, right decision, as well as self-reflection. In the QA session facilitate by Professor Chang, Ms Li continued to share tips to success and exchanged views with the audience on a wide range of topics covering politics, philosophy, business and more.

For four years in a row since 2001, Ms Li was one of the 50 Most Powerful Women selected by the Fortune Magazine. She was also named one of Ten Women to Watch in Asia by Wall Street Journal in both 2005 and 2006. Ms Li was the Managing Director of MTV Networks, Greater China, Executive Vice President of MTV Networks Asia, and Chief Representative of Viacom China.  She joined The Rockefeller Foundation board of trustees in 2013. She is also former Country Chair for Man Group in China, one of the world’s largest hedge fund managers. A native of Beijing, Ms Li has a Bachelor of Law degree from Foreign Affairs College in Beijing and an M.A. in International Relations from Baylor in the US. Additionally, she was a national champion in Chinese Martial Arts.

This is the 11th lecture of the 360° View on China Lecture Series organised by the Our Hong Kong Foundation. The talk series aims to improve understanding development of China by inviting outstanding scholars to bring local public insightful seminars with topics on history, art and culture, biological sciences, finance and technology.