Alumna
Gigi Chao is Vice Chairman of Cheuk Nang Holdings Limited, a Hong Kong-listed property development company.
She is perhaps better known, in Hong Kong and worldwide, as a gay rights activist. She is a founding member of the Big Love Alliance, a charity that campaigns for LGBT rights and organizes the annual Pink Dot HK event, Hong Kong’s largest diversity and equality event.
In October 2016, Gigi was named the most influential LGBT executive in the world by The Financial Times and OUTstanding, a professional network for LGBT+ executives and their allies. She was the first Asian to top the list. In the words of Mr. Suki Sandhu, CEO of OUTstanding: “She stood up for her own beliefs and who she is, and set up an LGBT organization in Hong Kong to promote acceptance and visibility.”
She is also the founder and chairwoman of the Faith in Love Foundation, a charity that works to encourage volunteering and alleviate poverty in Hong Kong.
Alumna Therese (Cheng) Tee ’96 nominated Gigi for the Bob Christian Alumna of the Year Award in 2014, writing: “Gigi exemplifies HKIS’s vision of what a creative, resilient and truly caring member of our society should be. Gigi has come from a family of great wealth in resources and has taken what she has to create a foundation to help the underprivileged youth, the lone elderly, and the mentally handicapped in Hong Kong. Through her foundation, Faith In Love, with her team of inspired volunteers, she personally reaches out into Hong Kong to help the needy.”