Prof. Cassian Cheung

Professor Cassian Cheung is an Adjunct Professor at the School of Business and Management at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). He teaches management and marketing in the Global Business and World Bachelor in Business programs and contributes to executive education and MBA teaching.

Professor Cheung is also the Managing Partner of Cairnhill Consultants, advising Asian companies on growth and market‑entry strategy. His professional experience includes senior executive and board roles, including Chief Executive Officer of Next Digital Limited and Independent Non‑Executive Director of Trinity Ltd., a Fung Group company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. He previously served as President of Wal‑Mart China, leading large-scale retail expansion and workforce management, and President of Quaker Oats Asia, following earlier leadership roles at Nestlé across the United States, Southeast Asia, Europe, and China.

He serves on the Global Advisory Board of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Professor Cheung holds an MBA from Kellogg and a bachelor’s degree from St. Joseph’s College of Indiana, which later conferred upon him an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.

Prof. Cassian Cheung will be speaking on June 12th at 14:00-15:00.

Prof. Joon Nak CHOI (JC)

Professor Joon Nak CHOI (JC) is Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Management; Advisor to the MSc in Business Analytics Program, Department of Information Systems, Business Statistics, and Operations Management; and Faculty Associate, Institute for Emerging Market Studies at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. In addition to his academic appointments at HKUST, JC has also held visiting professorships at Stanford University, NYU Shanghai, and the Asian Institute of Technology in addition to participating in the AI for Human Flourishing Program as convened by Harvard University. He has been a member of HKUST’s Task Forces on the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (heading the Subcommittee on Incubation and Funding), and Foundational Courses in AI, as well as an Expert Delegate in Artificial Intelligence to the Digital Education Council representing HKUST. He graduated with an AB in International Relations, Urban Studies, and Economics from Brown and an MA and a PhD in Sociology from Stanford.

Professor Choi’s work focuses on the intersection of business and technology, encompassing AI, data science, business analytics, management consulting, innovation, and business ethics; he is co-teaching HKUST's award-winning undergraduate common core course on understanding and leveraging AI. His research has been published in academic outlets including Stanford University Press, the Strategic Management Journal, Routledge, and the American Journal of Sociology as well as newspapers of record including the South China Morning Post and Maeil Kyungjae Daily; his work has also been cited in the MIT Technology Review and Sina.com in addition to the South China Morning Post and the Hong Kong Economic Journal. He serves as a board member of the Brown University Alumni Association of Hong Kong, a steering committee member of the Asia Technology Entrepreneurship Conference, and has been an invited speaker at events hosted by the World Economic Forum, UNESCO-ICHEI, the Digital Education Council, the Conference Board, various Chambers of Commerce in Hong Kong, and various other corporate and industry entities.

Professor Choi has been involved with several startups. He was Chief Data Scientist for AssertID, which was spun out from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and co-founded Zectr, which applied machine learning to automate survey-driven market research. More recently, he founded Learnovate, a HKUST spinoff that is applying AI to education. He also advises the Certina Group, a private equity fund based in Munich, and several AI startups.

Prof. Cassian Cheung will be speaking on June 11th at 10:30-11:30.