Laura M. Cha

Former Chairman, HKEX; Trustee, Rockefeller Foundation

Laura Cha Shih May-lung was born in Shanghai in 1949 and raised in Hong Kong. She studied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, took a doctorate in law from Santa Clara University in California and practised law in San Francisco. She returned to Hong Kong in 1991 and joined the Securities and Futures Commission, rising to deputy chairman. In 2001 she was appointed vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, becoming the first person from outside mainland China to hold a vice-ministerial post in the central government. She chaired the board of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing from 2018 to 2024, served as deputy chairman of the board of HSBC Holdings, and is a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation.