Plan International Hong Kong Welcomes Ms. June Leung as the New Board Chair

Plan International Hong Kong is pleased to announce Miss June Leung, our Board Director, succeeds Mr. Andrew Weir, MBE, JP as the new Board Chair effective 1 July 2023. Andrew will continue to serve the organisation as our board member.

June Leung has served as a Board Director of Plan International Hong Kong since 2015. Throughout her 30 years of substantial experience in teaching, she has inspired countless youth and girls to fully develop their talents and follow their dreams through receiving education. She obtained her B.A. degree in Translation at the University of Hong Kong and a Doctorate of Business Administration conferred by European University. She is the founder and chairperson of Beacon Group, a member of BEXCELLENT Group Holdings Limited. She founded Beacon Fund in 2012, providing additional financial assistance for senior secondary school students receiving Comprehensive Social Security Assistance and low-income families to enroll in tutorial courses, which benefitted over 10,000 students. With 30 years of experience in entrepreneurship, she earned the title of “China Outstanding Women Entrepreneur” in 2007 and 2008 respectively. In 2019, she founded the “Uplift Educational Charity Foundation”, a non-profit charity institution, to provide motivation for the youth in Hong Kong and stimulate their learning ability, creativity, and positivity.

Plan International Hong Kong applauds Mr. Andrew Weir’s 13 years of invaluable contributions to the organisation. Under his visionary, enthusiastic, and outstanding leadership, Plan International Hong Kong was able to grow and develop fruitfully and achieve our missions. In 2010, Weir joined Plan International Hong Kong as a Board Member and took up the position of Board Chairman in 2014. He valued the organisation’s transparency and integrity highly and strived to enhance corporate governance. He has mobilised resources wisely and led the formulation of internal guidelines on expenditure and taken into account any potential threats before taking action to ensure the prudent use of donations. Under his guidance, Plan International Hong Kong was able to gather more donations and resources through various fundraising activities to support our child rights work in developing countries. He also steered the launch of our child safeguarding programmes in Hong Kong so that the stakeholders could take precautionary steps to prevent children from any forms of harm and abuse.

Weir appreciates Leung’s efforts for Plan International Hong Kong, “for the past 8 years, June has provided much valuable advice for the development direction and administration of the organisation. She also participated in many of our events and campaigns, motivating others to make the world a better place. In 2017, she even travelled to Sri Lanka with Plan International Hong Kong to gain a profound understanding of the girl’s livelihood and our work to transform their lives and futures. After the trip, she shared her experience on many different occasions to arouse public awareness of the needs of underprivileged girls. Moreover, she has been a keen supporter of our annual event “Run for Girls”. Not only does she encourage others to participate in the event and make donations, but she also supports our local child safeguarding programmes by being the pioneer to implement the Child Safeguarding Policy in her education institutions to build a safe learning environment for children. Possessing exceptional management experience, I believe she could guide Plan International Hong Kong to move further forward to enhance the rights of many children and girls so that they could have a happy childhood and be able to pursue their dreams.”

Leung expressed her feeling about becoming the Board Chair, “I am honoured to be the Board Chair of Plan International Hong Kong and I want to specially thank Weir for his extraordinary contributions to the organisation in the past years. His superb leadership and guidance have been instrumental in bringing positive impacts on many children, girls, and communities.”

Leung continued, “The ongoing poly-crisis including conflicts, climate hazards, and hygiene issues, have been taking a heavy toll on the mental health and well-being of countless children and girls. I will spare my utmost efforts in leading my team to fulfill our mission to strive for a just world that advances children’s rights and equality. I believe with the strong leadership of Dr. Kanie Siu, Chief Executive Officer of Plan International Hong Kong, and the dedicated efforts of our colleagues, we will continue to make significant achievements and advancement in building a just world for our children.”

   Ms. June Leung has been appointed the new Board Chair of Plan International Hong Kong, effective 1 July, 2023.