Speakers

Michael Dorsher is a unique find for this year's Master of Ceremony. An award winning International comedic talent in his own right, Michael founded Comedy.HK to share his love of public speaking with those eager to try their hand at one of the speaking world's most unforgiving mediums: stand-up comedy.Volunteering from a young age, this eagle scout cum comedian jumped at the opportunity to host and co-produced Hong Kong's first 12-hour Comedython, supported by the leading technology provider for events a.k.a. the CT Group, for the Hong Kong Dog Rescue in 2010. Michael is the co-creator of Comedy.HK, which aims to promote comedy in Hong Kong across all venues and to be the platform people visit to discover find comedy in Hong Kong.

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This poignant and transformational story about a piano prodigy that learns of emptiness amongst fame, which drives her to help street kids. In her words “My existence was about one mission- seeking and striving for an unattainable perfection in music, comparable in some ways to a drug addiction where you constantly seek a fleeting high that inevitably leads you to depression and emptiness.” This led her to the birth of Hong Kong Generation Next Arts (HKGNA) and assisting a rehab center for ex-drug addicts, runaways, ex-triad, and ex-prostitutes and the creation of the Musical Angel Program.

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Professor Martin Tangney is an internationally recognised expert in microbial biofuel production. In 2007 he established at Edinburgh Napier University the UK's first research centre dedicated to the development of sustainable biofuel - the Biofuel Research Centre. The centre has achieved international prominence as a portal for the assimilation, integration and dissemination of information across international academia, industry and Government. He received the 2012 iChemE international award for "Innovator of the Year" for his process of developing biofuel from the by-products of one of Scotland's largest industries, the malt Whisky industry, an innovation he is a now commercializing as the Founder and President of Celtic Renewables Ltd.

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Fermi Wong is the founder and executive director of Hong Kong Unison, a non-governmental organization campaigning for racial equality and harmony in Hong Kong. She began working with ethnic minorities as an outreach social worker in 1998, and established Hong Kong Unison in 2001. Fermi advocated strongly for the Race Discrimination Ordinance, and now focuses her efforts on education, both a human right in itself and an indispensable means of realizing other rights, through advocating for structural improvements in education policies and providing services to students and schools. Fermi is a recipient of the Hong Kong Humanity Award 2012 and the Outstanding Social Workers Award 2008.

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A sometimes challenging and inspirational journey by this young adventurer, conservationist and photo-journalist who set out to deliver a cutting-edge biofuel converter to an orphanage in Cambodia to help solve their energy needs. This required him driving nearly 3,000km from Singapore to Cambodia powered solely on converted waste cooking oil, reporting on innovative green and biofuel projects along the way.

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Diamond Cab (HK) Co Ltd. is a private enterprise offering point-to-point transportation services for wheelchair users. We have 5 barrier-free cabs that allow wheelchair users to board directly and provides a legal and safe transportation means for wheelchair users and their carriers. Up to October 2012, we have successfully completed over 27,000 barrier-free trips.

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Rachel Chan always finds herself uncomfortable with the status quo. She has a diverse range of experiences, working first as a policy maker in the Hong Kong SAR government, a diplomat in Brussels and London, a marketer in the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, and a consultant to the Hong Kong Design Centre and other commercial clients in branding and design management. She founded InnoFoco in 2007, a multidisciplinary network of catalysts aspiring to make a meaningful difference to business and to the world through service design and innovation. She also co-founded Make a Difference, a not-for-profit programme to inspire and empower a new generation of change makers in Asia.  

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Xian is a co-founder and senior product designer at d.light design, an award winning for-profit product company that serves customers without access to reliable electricity by designing and distributing solar light and power products throughout the developing world. d.light came out of a design project at Stanford, where Xian joined the founding team in 2006, and company now serves over 40 countries through 10,000 retail outlets, has sold over 3 million lights, and aims to empower 100 million lives by 2020. Xian has a passion for user-centered design and creating affordable, high-quality products appropriate to the users and their environment.

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A passionate Canadian born ecologist, and ardent outdoor enthusiast, Lisa is committed to contributing to a world that works. She is one of the pioneers of the green movement in Hong Kong, dedicating her life and career to the sustainable space, long before it was "the thing to do". Lisa is the Founder of Ecovision, Ecozine and Dopper Asia. The HK Cleanup, a signiture Ecovision event, is now in its 13th year and is one of the city's most ambitious volunteer initiatives having engaged over 100,000 volunteers to date and collected more than 12,000,000 pieces of trash. Lisa has been recognized as a global "Earth Champion" and "Asia Expat of the Year".