The Retrofit Reinvention: Bridging the Gaps in Policy, Finance and Engineering

Ms. Zoe Lau is General Manager and Group Head of People & Sustainability Division at The Bank of East Asia, Limited (“BEA”) in charge of formulating people, sustainability, corporate branding and communications strategies, as well as steering related policies and initiatives of the Bank Group for Hong Kong, Chinese Mainland and branches in other markets.

Ms. Lau joined BEA in March 2020. With extensive experience in advertising, corporate communications, marketing, personal banking, wealth management, corporate planning, investor relations and corporate social responsibility, she has held senior positions in financial institutions such as American Express International and China CITIC Bank International. Prior to joining the Bank, she was Director of CEO Office of China CITIC Bank International.

Ms. Lau holds a bachelor’s degree in Social Science from the University of Hong Kong (“HKU”), and is currently a master’s degree candidate in Sustainability Leadership and Governance at HKU.

My Sustainability Goals for 2024:

The success of Hong Kong’s sustainability journey is dependent on effective stakeholder engagement. Since the banking industry plays a pivotal role in driving global progress towards net zero, and given my unique position as Group Head of People and Sustainability at The Bank of East Asia, I realise the importance of communicating and collaborating with a wide array of internal and external stakeholders across geographies, who often hold different perspectives and focuses.

It is through strong stakeholder engagement that we solicit commitment and mobilise resources from all walks of life to accelerate the achievement of sustainability goals set by Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland. In this way, we should not only be able to keep pace with developments in the European Union and elsewhere, but also contribute to sustainability efforts on a global scale.

Nana Li leads Impax’s sustainability research, stewardship strategy and policy advocacy across the Asia-Pacific region. She is responsible for overseeing sustainability analysis and engagement priorities, coordinating dialogue with investee companies and regulators, managing external sustainability- and stewardship-related inquiries, and contributing to the ongoing development of Impax’s proprietary sustainability frameworks and methodologies.

Prior to joining Impax in 2022, Nana served as Research and Project Director at the Asian Corporate Governance Association (ACGA). During her tenure, she authored and co-authored multiple flagship research reports on corporate governance in Asia and regularly presented to regulators and market participants, including the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges and the Shenzhen Asset Management Association. Since 2018, Nana has chaired ACGA’s China Working Group, a role she continues to hold, and she remains a Specialist Consultant to ACGA following her transition to Impax.

Nana is a frequent speaker at international conferences and industry forums organised by financial institutions, multilateral organisations and market bodies, and she is regularly invited to contribute to discussions on corporate governance, stewardship and sustainability. She has been interviewed by leading international media outlets and serves as a guest speaker at universities in Asia, Europe and North America. In 2024, Nana co-authored Unlocking Corporate Success by the Power of Diversity, the first book to examine gender diversity in Japan from an investor perspective. She is also the author of Navigating Sustainability in Asia: A Practical Guide for Corporate Leaders and Investors, which provides an applied and region-specific perspective on sustainability, governance and stewardship across Asia-Pacific. In 2025, Nana was awarded the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) Excellence in Stewardship Award (the first Asian recipient), recognising her leadership and contributions to stewardship and policy advocacy in Asia.

Nana serves on the Stakeholder Advisory Council of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board and the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants. She is also a member of the Global Policy Committee of the ICGN, the Global Policy Reference Group of the Principles for Responsible Investment, the Advisory Group of the Global Capacity Building Coalition, the ESG Committee of Women in Finance Asia and the Caixin China ESG30 Forum. In addition, she participates in global standard-setting and capacity-building initiatives as a member of the IFRS Sustainability Reference Group and the Global Capacity Building Coalition Advisory Group. Nana is also an instructor with the Association of Stewardship Professionals.

Nana holds an MBA (Honors) from the University of Chicago, a Master of Finance from the University of Hong Kong (Dean’s List), and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of New South Wales (Distinction). She is a CFA charterholder and has completed the HKICPA Qualification Programme.

Lizette is a Managing Partner of dynamic impact-driven decarbonization firm IXO Partners, headquartered in Hong Kong by two women civil engineers specialising in structural engineering (the ‘inside’) and façade design (the ‘outside’). Leveraging a combined 27 years of design-through-construction expertise, IXO Partners helps building industry stakeholders appraise and navigate ‘new normal’ carbon, circularity, and climate resilience risks for new and existing buildings.

Lizette is responsible for the ‘outside’ stream at IXO: façade design and consulting. Facades are complex systems, representing both significant embodied carbon and significant impact to operational carbon during their lifetime. Lizette’s deep understanding of façade materials, envelope thermal performance, modular systems, façade failures and remediation, construction contracts and supply chains, is derived from firsthand experience on local and international projects across APAC, Europe and the Middle East. In Hong Kong, she advocates for sustainable urban development as the Lead of the Net Zero Working Group at the Australian Chamber of Commerce Hong Kong and supports women in STEM as a past member of The Women’s Foundation (TWF) Advisory Council 2023-2024.

My Sustainability Goals for 2024:

1. Mass adoption of practical and scalable decarbonization technology, particularly via the Hong Kong Green Tech Challenge
2. Updates to local Building Code regulation to permit engineering material and design innovations

Ir Dr Conrad Wong is a professional engineer who has over 30 years of building construction experience. He is the Vice Chairman of Yau Lee Holdings Limited, Managing Director of Yau Lee Construction and REC Engineering Co Ltd. He has a keen interest in green building technologies, Building Information Modeling (BIM), modular and precast construction, and manufacturing automation.

Since 2017, Ir Dr Wong has been putting a great deal of effort in developing various robotic and Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications for the construction industry. He received his Doctor of Philosophy Degree at City University of Hong Kong, specializing in adopting AI to optimize energy consumption for large scale central air conditioning system.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chairman of the Council of the Hong Kong Metropolitan University, the President of the Hong Kong Modular Integrated Construction Manufacturer Association, the Vice Chairman of the Energy Advisory Committee and the Chairman of the New Energy Transport Fund Steering Committee. In the past, Ir Dr Wong served as the Deputy Chairman of Vocational Training Council, the Chairman of the Occupational Safety and Health Council, the Chairman of the Hong Kong Green Building Council, the President of the Hong Kong Construction Association, the President of the International Federation of Asian and Western Pacific Contractors’ Associations, the Chairman of Pneumoconiosis Compensation Fund Board, the Member of Construction Industry Council, the Member of the Antiquities Advisory Board, the Member of the Advisory Council on the Environment, the Member of Town Planning Board and the Director of the World Green Building Council.