Bespoke Themes

• Project Assistant

Charmaine believes in empowerment, in how different stories collide, and how we all can learn from one another. As a keen listener and storyteller, she is fascinated by the stories she heard during her studies, volunteering programmes and placements – the underprivileged and marginalised such as women, families with children with special educational needs, and many more. Since then, she has been dedicated to exploring different narratives and new media, seeking ways to shape Hong Kong into a more humanistic, empowering and visionary society. That is how she dived into social innovation and became passionate about making a difference.

Having graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Charmaine holds a BSSc in Social Work. As part of her undergraduate studies, she spent an adventurous year in Leiden University in the Netherlands studying International Relations, Children’s Rights and Museum Studies. As a film and exhibition lover, you can often spot her in film festivals and cultural venues. She is also a self-proclaimed professional bathroom singer, who records her singing covers every now and then. With her enthusiasm and cheerfulness, Charmaine aspires to enable different voices to be heard in the society, where she hopes “to inspire and be inspired”.

• Project Officer

Inspired by the Chinese Taoist classic “Tao Te Ching”, Christy believes the greatest virtue is like water, that it “nourishes everything but contends for nothing”.

Aspiring to build a better society, Christy made a career move after working in the field of Corporate Communications for years. She has been exploring the possibility of social innovation with Good Lab, in particular, advancing the avant-garde approach of community and stakeholder engagement in several flagship projects in public service innovation.

Outside of work, you will find Christy at home and in playgrounds learning from and growing with her kids who enlighten her every day with their creativities. She holds a BA in English for Professional Communication from City University of Hong Kong and a MSc in International and Public Affairs from the University of Hong Kong.

• Project Director

Gumgum believes that social innovation is one of the most powerful remedies to heal the mutilated world from neo-liberalism and power greed. The buzzword is “change” – yet, systemic change and mindset change is a dialectic process, and that is what social innovation is about.

Gumgum is a cross-disciplinary cultural advocate who has accumulated knowledge, built social networks and human connections by working in different fields – as a gender/culture teacher in universities, a radio host at RTHK, a District Councillor in Wanchai, an editor, an arts administrator, a feminist activist – and currently a Director of Hong Kong Children’s Musical Theatre and Gaga Icoop.

Gumgum earned her BFA in Communication Arts (NYIT), an MPhil studying women and enlightenment in Buddhism (CUHK), and a PhD researching on the relationship of community building and coloniality (HKU).

Above all, Gumgum is a singer-songwriter and a fiction writer.

Hedda began her social impact journey as a volunteer in Sweden tutoring refugee students. Through hearing these young people’s stories of leaving home to seek safety in a foreign country, she learnt that regardless of the different backgrounds we come from, what we’re seeking is the same. Such also, is the beauty of social innovation – although the problems each society faces may be similar, there is a spectrum of possibilities in how we tackle them when we work with different people to co-create solutions. After working in the asylum seeker space for six years, Hedda journeyed on to explore other ways of looking at societal challenges and is currently coordinating the design thinking training program at Good Lab. When she’s not building PowerPoint decks, she’ll be pretending to be a hipster at the local café or trying to convince friends to binge watch a Scandinavian detective series.

Hedda holds a BA (Linguistics) from The University of Melbourne and is currently studying a Masters in Social Impact.

• Project Assistant

Wing is particularly interested to focus on engaging youth to propel community change. She believes that passion and creativity are crucial for social innovation, and both of which are what young people can fulfil. Having infinite potential, the youth are just waiting for a platform to perform – and their own community is the best place to start with.

Outside of Good Lab, Wing mentors a group of kids at church, who motivate her to keep looking for new solutions and methods to mentor in order to better engage with them and unleash their full learning capacity. She is keen on exploring different communities with young people, building social networks, and creating real impact for Hong Kong.

She received her Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Studies at Lingnan University, where she was inspired to explore and commit to her own community more.

• Project Officer

Stephany believes in the value of design, and that a good design that places an emphasis on user needs can change people’s daily experiences and even their lives, bringing positive impacts to the world. That’s why she is passionate about exploring and creating human-centred design, an innovative and strategic problem-solving approach that focuses on the human perspective. To her, that is also the key to overcome social challenges nowadays, which involve various deep-rooted problems and people with different backgrounds and beliefs.

Stephany has developed her career in the non-profit sector since she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in History and Comparative Literature from the University of Hong Kong. Before she joined Good Lab, she worked in various non-profit organisations across the fields of education and design promotion.

Stephany enjoys learning and discovering new things in her leisure time, from travelling to meeting a new friend, and from watching a great movie to learning a new language.

• Project Officer

Douglas is an intercultural communicator. Graduated from the School of Communication at Hong Kong Baptist University, he loves igniting unusual social initiatives with people across cultures and sectors – be it creating colourful balloon-arts with deaf and hearing youths, or formulating mind-blowing community projects with experts and villagers.

Douglas is a purpose globetrotter. Exploring offbeat places which he cannot even type without a spellchecker, he treasures the moments interacting with locals more than chilling out on the beach with a beer (actually, he enjoys that quite a bit too). From kebab vendors to fellow train passengers, he believes every single person he has connected with will give him some inspirations.

Douglas is a long-distance runner. He puts one foot in front of the other for hours on end. It seems purposeless and boring, but he learns most from it – believe in dreams, never give up, and things will turn out for the best.

• Project and Communications Officer

“Everything you can imagine is real.”

Lydia finds social innovation fascinating – as it often involves collaboration among the most unusual suspects, turning the unthinkable into reality. She reckons such synergy would tap into resources of different sectors and lead to fresh solutions to the city’s, as well as the world’s many socio-political deadlocks.

She likes to think of her career as a zig-zag journey of challenge. Prior to joining Good Lab, she was a reporter and TV producer at a fast-paced newsroom for about two years. There she worked on feature stories about a myriad of current affairs, from civil society’s utilisation of vacant spaces to low-income families with children with special learning needs. And before that, for her first job out of school, she worked for the government as an officer for a taste of public administration.

Since her years at university, Lydia has taken an interest in urbanism and the built environment. She is curious about the interplay between urban landscapes, communities, and other key actors in the city－or essentially: what does it take to create interesting cities and more importantly, make her home Hong Kong a more livable city through making a difference on local urban spaces? In 2016, she co-founded with her friends at The University of Hong Kong the “Future City Summit”－now an annual convention that gathers local and regional changemakers for conversations on making cities better.

Outside of work, Lydia enjoys taking strolls in the streets of Hong Kong. She also reads a lot of novels and short stories. And above all, she is a food lover so do not hesitate to ask her for restaurant recommendations.

Lydia holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from The University of Hong Kong, majoring in both Journalism and Politics & Public Administration.

• Administrative and Accounting Officer

Etienne, with her training in History at Lingnan University, regards innovation as crucial in all time – as we witness the failure of the old fashioned and the success of the innovators throughout the course of history. She believes social innovation can transform the society with a positive impact through collaborations and dialogues in the communities, and everyone can take initiatives to be a changemaker while influencing each other. She is also concerned about a range of social problems, particularly human rights and environmental issues.

Before joining Good Lab, Etienne developed her career in the non-profit sector of Hong Kong and had spent two years working at a retail business in London. She enjoys travelling, going to the theatre and gym for leisure.

• Project Manager

With a sociological mindset developed during his undergraduate study at the University of Hong Kong, Duncan is never satisfied with the “status quo” and any “cliché” solutions to the current problems. Rather, he is keen to explore possibilities and to discover unconventional outcomes.

Duncan believes the best way to understand a community is to walk into it and talk to the people there. So, please talk to him when you see him around! His community-focused journey started from his 10-year-long commitment to volunteering for mentally challenged persons since his secondary school years. He is also a member of the Youth Development Commission, providing youth empowerment advice to the government.

Prior to joining Good Lab, Duncan worked as an evidence-based researcher on various social issues. It is his aim to extend his experience from collecting facts and views from the crowds to providing insightful and user-centric solutions for the community.

• Project Manager

Alexa believes “human values are catalysts of social innovation”. To her, users’ needs are the “why”, and co-creation with users are the “how”, for social solutions.

To answer these “why’s” and “how’s”, Alexa dedicates her 9 to 6 life to meeting and working with people from everywhere – youth centres on the Hong Kong Island, universities in Kowloon, rural villages in New Territories – to unleash their imagination of their communities.

Prior to joining Good Lab, Alexa delivered a series of educational programmes for local primary schools and community centres, strengthened the literacy development of more than 1,200 students from low-income families

Outside of work, you will find Alexa in libraries, coffee shops or hiking trails. She holds a BSc in Economics from the University of East Anglia and a MSc in Development Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

• Project and Communications Manager

Elizabeth is a believer in humanity and equality. As a graphic designer, social activist, scuba diver and a podcast junkie, she is always hungry for knowledge and wisdom in life. She believes in the goodness of people and that a well-lived life comes down to being authentic. She is most fulfilled when channeling her passion into advocating social change and making the world a better place for everyone.

Having dipped her hands in the fields of social advocacy at numerous NGOs, social enterprises, advertising and design agencies, Elizabeth dedicates her career to curating cross-sector campaigns for social justice and environmental movements. She is also skilled in strategising public and stakeholder engagement initiatives and empowering communities through awareness-building.

She received her BaH of Arts in Communication & Graphic Design from the University of Leeds. Her degree programme gave her unique perspectives in understanding the cultural texture of society, and equipped her with a creative spirit that touches everything she does.

• CEO

Warren believes that everyone can be a changemaker and cross-sector collaboration is fundamental to the creation of lasting social value and a positive vibe in our community.

Since joining Good Lab in 2017, Warren oversees the organisation’s diverse portfolio of social and public sector innovation projects to blend stakeholder engagement with the co-creation of user-centric solutions. He has been instrumental in forging new partnerships between the civil society, non-governmental organisations and government agencies to design and implement large-scale innovation projects through design thinking. In addition, he has led numerous start-up incubation programmes to inspire and coach young changemakers at universities and in local communities.

Warren is passionate and committed to public services and currently serves as an appointed member of the Advisory Committee on Enhancing Self-Reliance Through District Partnership Programme under the Home Affairs Department. The programme aims to promote sustainable poverty prevention and alleviation efforts to strengthen the self-reliance of socially disadvantaged groups through seed grants and advisory for social enterprises in Hong Kong.

Prior to joining Good Lab, Warren built substantial international and business experiences as a management consultant in the UK, US and across Asia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from UCL and is a LUMA Institute certified practitioner of human-centred design as well as a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).

Besides social innovation, Warren is enthusiastic about the performing arts with a passion in a cappella music and musical theatre. He loves performing on stage and has been involved in various public concerts and musical productions in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area.

• Director of Training

Kelvin swims in innovation and loves challenging the status quo to create a better tomorrow. He got his start by setting up FoodCycle, a non-profit that is now in 40 locations in the UK. He’s run a small foundation that incubates start-up innovators and continues to mentor social innovators. He strives to be a constant learner, bringing the knowledge to others in the sector. However, he admits right now he learns most from his two years old daughter, who constantly ‘challenges the status quo’ herself, and reminds him to always be seeking and asking questions. He is married, with a daughter and 3 bicycles, and rides to work when he can.

Kelvin holds a BaH of History from Queen’s University, Canada, and a MSc in International Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, but admits that a lot of his knowledge has been learnt ‘on the go’. He is an experienced public speaker and trainer, having had 15 years’ experience speaking very loudly as an indoor spinning instructor. He’s spoken internationally on a variety of topics including youth development, innovation and social entrepreneurship and currently advises several non-profits in Hong Kong.

• Executive Chair, Good Lab
• Chairperson, Make A Difference Institute
• Director, Hong Kong Institute of Contemporary Culture
• Supervisor, HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity

Ada has led a varied career as solicitor, educator, social innovator and civil society figure. She is a staunch advocate of social innovation, creative education and cultural development.

Ada founded the Hong Kong Institute of Contemporary Culture (HKICC), a unique non-profit cultural organisation of which the mission is advocating education innovation and a creative civil society. Among other projects, HKICC founded in 2006 the HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity, a future-looking senior secondary school dedicated to nurturing creative and artistic talents.

In 2010, Ada founded the Make A Difference (MaD) initiative, a regional collaborative platform — where one explores creativity for good, meet cross-disciplinary changemakers and where different sectors synergise for innovative solutions to social challenges. In 2012, she founded Good Lab, which became an important hub where minds and actions meet in the social innovation ecosystem. Good Lab is also a cross-sector capacity builder and currently, consultancy in its new phase, to bring about innovative solutions for a more community-oriented and equitable Hong Kong.

Invited by the Mayor of Seoul, Mr Park Won-soon, Ada has been serving as a member of his “Advisory Group for Seoul Innovation” together with social innovation leaders around the world since 2016.

Ada was an elected member of the Urban Council and Wan Chai District Council between 1995 and 2008 with the final four years as Chairperson of the Wan Chai District Council. Ada has also facilitated the setting-up and development of key arts education organisations and social enterprises in the past 20 years. In addition to the above, she is Founder of the Hong Kong Children’s Musical Theatre, Vice Convenor of the Social Enterprise Summit, Director of Big Silver Community and Social Careers, and one of the founding members of Dialogue in the Dark (Hong Kong). At Ednovators, where she leads as Director, Ada is the chief designer and facilitator of a teachers innovation programme called Innopower. The programme is funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust with Ednovators as curator and partner.

She received her BA (Hons) from Pomona College, California USA, and M Ed from the University of Hong Kong. She is an Honorary Fellow of the Hong Kong Baptist University, Lingnan University and The Education University of Hong Kong respectively.

• Founder and CEO, Social Ventures Hong Kong 

Leaving social issues to nonprofits or the government alone is not working anymore. Francis believes a hybrid, a middle ground is needed. His goal is to redefine business success and bring together more people to re-imagine cities and pursue big dreams to make a difference to communities.

Francis is an entrepreneur and venture philanthropist. He is the Founder and CEO of Social Ventures Hong Kong (SVhk), a venture philanthropic organisation, and co-founded several Hong Kong social enterprises, including Green Monday,  RunOurCity and Playtao Foreverland. He currently serves as a Board Member of the Asia Venture Philanthropy Network. He has also served as a visiting university lecturer on social entrepreneurship and innovation. He has also delivered talks at events hosted by [email protected], the Harvard Club Hong Kong, USAID, Social Enterprise Summit, the Asia Future Enterprise Forum and UK Trade & Investment. 

Francis was recognised as The Purpose Economy’s 100 Asia Pioneers in 2014, a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum in 2012 and chosen as one of Hong Kong’s Ten Outstanding Young Persons in 2011.

Other than all the contributions he has made in the social innovation sector, he is also an avid marathoner. Francis completed The North Pole Marathon in 2013 and the 250-km Gobi March of the 4 Deserts race series in 2012.

• Founder & CEO, Jade Club
• Co-Founder, Dialogue in the Dark (Hong Kong)
• Founder, Brain Health Institute
• Chairman, Social Impact Fellows
• Task Force Member, Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fund

Today, the world is facing complex problems – our economic, social and legal systems, hindered by dated practices and infrastructure, can hardly catch up with the rapid changes brought by technological and scientific advancements. This results in serious issues such as global warming, poverty, social exclusion, and the list goes on. Patrick, however, believes there must be another way to work towards a more responsible, sustainable and inclusive way of living.

Patrick never shies away from challenges in life. Rather, he enjoys tackling some of the seemingly unsolvable social issues and achieves genuine impact at scale. After selling his flexible packaging business, he started a new chapter in life in social entrepreneurship, paying particular care to the disadvantaged groups in the community. In 2009, he brought the world-renowned Dialogue in the Dark (Hong Kong) to Hong Kong – harnessing the transformative power of social innovations, Dialogue in the Dark (Hong Kong) gained an unprecedented success and achieved financial sustainability without donations and government funding. In 2011, he founded Water Drops Foundation to promote social innovation for elderly services. In 2012, he established the Jade Club, a social enterprise specialised in elderly programmes with a sustainable business model. Patrick is also one of the founding directors of Hong Kong Social Entrepreneurship Forum, a leading social entrepreneurship platform in Hong Kong.

In his spare time, Patrick enjoys reading, interacting with people and nurturing young talents.

• Co-Founder, B Lab HK & Macau
• Co-Founder, Dream Impact
• Co-Founder & CEO, Education for Good
• Founding Chair, Hong Kong Social Entrepreneurship Forum
• Co-Founder, Dialogue in the Dark (Hong Kong)
• Founding Chair, Social Investors Club
• Founding Chair, Social Impact Fellows

Today’s biggest social innovation challenge is reinventing capitalism. Human civilisation, Mother Earth and future generations depend on its success. That is why KK has devoted his career to help build the B Corp movement to accelerate capitalism’s transformation.

After retiring from senior executive posts, KK changed his field to social innovation and soon became one of the most renowned in the sector. In 2012, he founded Education for Good with the social cause to “inspire everyone to become a changemaker and enable every business to become a social business”. Providing training programmes and other support, the institution is dedicated to promoting social entrepreneurship and social innovation. He is also the Co-Founder of Dialogue in the Dark (Hong Kong). He demonstrates a business success that a social enterprise can survive and prosper without subsidies. 

Apart from that, KK has been actively working on social entrepreneurship related publications. He shared stroies of his innovation endeavour as well as his corporate management experience including 《新愚公移山：十個社會企業創業者的故事》(2007), Everyday Legends: Stories of 20 Great UK Social Entrepreneurs《社會企業妙點子》(2008) and《公益創業: 青年創業與中年轉業的新選擇》. He has been the Founding Editor of the biweekly Social Entrepreneurs Newsletter published electronically since June 2007.

Amidst his busy schedule, he always manages to reclaim mental space to play golf and tennis regularly. He also enjoys taking long breaks in New Zealand, travelling on his boat to remote areas. The peace and tranquility is what he needs to stay sane and sober.  

• Founder & CEO, Solution-On-Wheels

Innovation is the reconciliation of opposing forces. In a city full of dilemmas, Vincent believes social innovation is the only way out, and “solution journalism” is what he is passionately advocating for.

He founded Solution-On-Wheels, a social enterprise promoting solution journalism in Asia, to explore and analyse solutions in the news to solve complex, often intractable, social issues. He aspires to create a positive mindset shift for news professionals – to present social issues through a “solution frame” rather than a “problem frame”, focusing on the practical and human elements of social innovation to allow some of the most divisive views to co-exist in harmony, facilitating constructive dialogues in the community.

Vincent has been trained to think creatively and critically ever since he was young, and he is dedicated to galvanising public, corporate and non-profit partners with the spirit of social innovation. He started his career at Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, and joined the HKSAR Government until 2000. As Administrative Officer, he worked on issues around town planning and social welfare, and had a deep understanding of contending interests across sectors.

Vincent was the Director of Strategic Planning at Hong Kong Commercial Broadcasting Company. He is currently hosting the radio programme “Our Way Out” on Commercial Radio One and television programme “Open Mind” on Open TV. His book, Macro-creativity, was recognised as “Hong Kong Good Book” in 2005, followed by the launch of The Transformation of Hong Kong in 2012. Vincent received his MBA from the University of Cambridge and an LL.B. from the University of London.

Elsie has extensive experience both as a corporate executive and a management consultant. She has worked for the Asia office of !What If? Innovation Company (now a part of Accenture), based in Shanghai. Specialising in innovation management, innovation capability building through Design Thinking, as well as organisation transformation strategy, she has led many high impact training workshops for the leaders from Fortune 500 companies across Europe and Asia. She has also conducted training sessions in Design Thinking for corporate clients and the non-profit sector in Hong Kong and mainland China.

During her time with ?What If!, Elsie was inspired by the pro bono work done by her colleagues at the London office, which involved applying Design Thinking in creating innovative solutions to solve female circumcision issues in Africa. Understanding the potential impact of social innovation beyond the paradigm of social welfare, Elsie decided to understand more about social entrepreneurship and social innovation by pursuing her doctoral degree in this subject.

Before starting her consulting career, Elsie has worked for Coca-Cola China as the deputy head of the Public Affairs & Communications function. With her passion for teaching, she is now teaching at CUHK Business School. Subjects she teaches include Strategic Management, Social Entrepreneurship and Impact Investment, Design Thinking, and CSR. Meanwhile, she also runs an acceleration program to groom young generation social entrepreneurs in Hong Kong.

Elsie holds an MBA from the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, UK. She has received a doctoral degree from Grenoble School of Management, France. As a half Thai who has spent her childhood in different countries, Elsie enjoys cross-cultural experience and has worked in Shanghai, London and briefly Athens. As a former drummer in a rock band, in addition to music, Elsie loves listening to podcasts (especially true crime genre) and leads discussion groups among amateur sleuths on thought-provoking (and sometime skin crawling) topics.

“If technology continues along its present course, ignoring the needs of the poor and showering benefits upon the rich, the poor will sooner or later rebel against the tyranny of technology and turn to irrational and violent remedies.”  That was written in 1997 by scientist and thinker Freeman Dyson. It accords with Kim’s own reflections on growing up in the UK and US and then living and working in Hong Kong through 40 years, but it raises the question of whether it is possible to divert the torrent of technology driven growth into paths that enrich and give hope to societies?  The answer to that lies in innovation: innovation not in technology but in the ways we work together in society. Here again Dyson, a favourite writer, has thoughts to share: “In almost all the varied walks of life, amateurs have more freedom to experiment and innovate. The fraction of the population who are amateurs is a good measure of the freedom of a society”. So, one does not need to be a professional social innovator, it is a role that any of us can play.

Kim has worked as a barman, boatbuilder, factory-hand, warehouseman and archaeologist in the UK before coming to Hong Kong in 1980 and working for 37 years as a civil servant, ending his career running the Efficiency Unit and helping to set up the Social Innovation and Entrepreneur Development Fund.  Now retired, he continues to take interest in how cities and societies work and how organizations share knowledge, listen and keep learning. He reads a lot, mostly historical studies and detective fiction, and paints miniature soldiers.

• Co-Founder & Executive Chairman, DreamStarter
• Associate Professor & Senior Advisor, HKUST
• Vice-Chairman, Junior Achievement Hong Kong
• Founder, Agent of Change Foundation
• Chairman, VR Educate Ltd.
• Chairman, Social Career
• Deputy Chairman & Non-Executive Director, Tse Sui Luen Jewellery (International) Ltd.
• Non-Executive Director, Sky Light Holdings Ltd.

Capitalistic business, a profit-making practice, may once have been viewed as unrelated to social improvement. But today, it becomes a growing collective force to tackle some of the most pressing social issues. Erwin believes that, with education and technology innovations, capitalism can be redefined and revitalised to offset economic, environmental and social inequality. For over thirty years, he has been a driving force in advocating changes in education and shaping the social enterprise ecosystem.

His true calling is, in particular, to cultivate the youth with the spirit of entrepreneurship and to actively seek out change. As Associate Professor and Senior Advisor at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, he teaches young people how to put innovation into practice; as the Vice-Chairman of Junior Achievement Hong Kong, he helps incubate the next generation of entrepreneurial talents. He also co-founded DreamStarter, a platform providing out-of-school experiences for youth to initiate their own dream projects. There, he nurtures school students to develop a positive mindset and a philanthropic spirit to serve the community via crowdfunding and crowdsourcing support.

Being a curious cat with endless energy, if he is not working on something new, he would likely be looking for new places to visit, new business model to try out, new gadget UX to explore. As the Chairman of VR Educate Ltd., he is dedicated to promoting VR eLearning in schools. To alleviate poverty, he founded Agent of Change Foundation, aiming to provide low-price high-quality daily necessities to the underprivileged. In the charity sector, he saw a pressing need for innovation in volunteerism and therefore, by serving as the Chairman of Social Career, he encourages the public to get involved in social causes by making use of information technology. On top of that, Erwin sits in various companies and Government advisory committees.