Mrs Laura M. Cha is Senior Advisor to the Board of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd (HKEX), where she served as Chairman from April 2018 to April 2024. She is also Chairman of HKEX’s International Advisory Council and Mainland China Advisory Group.
Mrs Cha currently serves as an Independent Non-Executive Director of Ant Group Co. Ltd. and is a member of the Hong Kong-United States Business Council. She is a director of the board of the Bretton Woods Committee, a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation, and a member of Sotheby’s International Advisory Board. In addition, she is Vice Chairman of the International Advisory Council of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, a member of the Global Leadership Council of Oxford University's Said Business School, a director of the Yale Asia Development Council, and an advisory council member of the Yale Beijing Centre.
Mrs Cha became the first, and to-date, the only person outside Mainland China to join the Central Government of the People’s Republic of China at the vice-ministerial rank when she was appointed as Vice Chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission in January 2001. She served in that position until 2004. Prior to that, Mrs Cha practiced law in the US and in Hong Kong and worked at the Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong from 1991 to 2000, becoming its Deputy Chairman in 1998.
Mrs Cha has been active in public service in Hong Kong over the last 30 years, having been a member of the Executive Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government from 2004 to 2022, Chairman of the Financial Services Development Council from 2013 to 2018, and Chairman of the University Grants Committee from 2007 to 2012.
Mrs Cha has also served as director on the boards of HSBC Holdings plc, Unilever plc, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Johnson Electrics Ltd., and China Telecom Ltd.
Mrs. Cha received her BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her JD from Santa Clara University, in the US. She was awarded a Silver Bauhinia Star in 2001, a Gold Bauhinia Star in 2009 and a Grand Bauhinia Medal in 2017 by the HKSAR Government in recognition of her public service.
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