HKU dean quits for Jockey Club

The dean of medicine, Gabriel Matthew Leung, will leave the University of Hong Kong by the end of this academic year to become executive director of charities and community at Hong Kong Jockey Club.

President and vice-chancellor Zhang Xiang sent an e-mail to staff yesterday, saying a global recruitment drive for a new dean has been launched.

"On behalf of the senior management team, I would like to thank Professor Leung sincerely for his leadership in the faculty, his commitment to his colleagues and students, and his excellent contributions to the HKU community over the past 22 years," Zhang said.

He also acknowledged Leung's "exemplary stewardship," saying he has led the faculty's stellar initiatives in public policy and research to fight the challenges brought by the worldwide pandemic.

His e-mail was followed by Leung announcing his resignation "with a heavy heart" in an e-mail to students, alumni and colleagues.

As an epidemiologist and policymaker, Leung said he has spent the best part of his career on three major health challenges.

These include the unfinished epidemics of infectious diseases such as SARS in 2003 and Covid-19, the emergent epidemic of non-communicable diseases like cancer screening and pediatric and life course research, and the "unnecessary epidemic of environmental insults" like tobacco control.

Leung, who turned 49 this month, said he would like to dedicate the next stage of his career to addressing the ultimate challenge of the "unethical epidemic of inequalities" in the upcoming decade of "fateful reconciliation." He was citing from The Analects of Confucius, which means that one should know his or her destiny by the age of 50.

"I will focus my efforts on the third redistribution or philanthropy," he said, adding the HKJC job means his main duty is to shepherd its Charities Trust. He is to be paid HK$9 million a year.

The club said Leung will take up his role on July 18, succeeding Cheung Leong, who will leave upon his contract expiry in August. Leung will be a member of the board of management and report directly to chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges.

He graduated from medical school at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. He obtained a master's degree of public health from Harvard University in the United States, and a research postgraduate doctor of medicine degree majoring in epidemiology and health services research from HKU.

He was Hong Kong's first undersecretary for food and health from 2008 to 2011 and the fifth director of the chief executive's office in 2011/2012.

He rejoined HKU as head of community medicine in 2012, and was appointed as the 40th dean of medicine in 2013 at the age of 40, becoming the second youngest dean at the medical faculty. He is one of the four government advisers on Covid-19.

Hok Yau Club's Student Guidance Centre director Ng Po-shing said while many top students chose to study medicine at the Chinese University in recent years, he believed there had been no pressure on HKU to recruit students for its medical school.

Editorial: Leung in for a charity ride