Dr Patrick Lau has been Deputy Executive Director of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) since April 2019. In this role, he creates opportunities and facilitates deals for Hong Kong enterprises. Dr Lau oversees specifically the HKTDC’s 50 offices worldwide, external relations, corporate communications and marketing, and is responsible for the overall management of HKTDC’s anchor conferences and selected fairs as well as international and Mainland missions and promotional campaigns.

Moreover, Dr Lau has forged numerous strategic partnerships for the HKTDC and spearheads the T-box (Transformation Sandbox) programme, GoGBA one-stop platform and Belt and Road deal-making. He is a thought leader in ESG, Web3.0 and digital economy, proactively helping SMEs to get ahead in these areas.

Prior to the HKTDC, Dr Lau specialised in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and investments, and closed many significant deals in the region. Recognised as a seasoned banker and dealmaker, he started working in Hong Kong in 2001 firstly as a corporate lawyer at international law firms Baker McKenzie and Skadden Arps, then as an investment banker at UBS and China Construction Bank (CCB) International, where he held progressively senior posts until Managing Director, Head of M&A and Assistant Head of Investment Bank. From 2015 to 2018, Dr Lau was Director of Investments at sovereign wealth fund Khazanah, and Board Director and Investment Committee Member at biotech and life science private equity fund Xeraya.

Dr Lau graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, and Bachelor of Laws with first class honours from Monash University in Melbourne, where he attended medical school and law school concurrently. He has been admitted as an advocate or solicitor in Hong Kong, Australia, England, Wales and Malaysia. He was Honorary Senior Lecturer in Business Law at Monash University and part-time Lecturer at the Law Faculty of the University of Hong Kong.