Recipient of Sir Edward Youde Memorial Scholarship for Overseas Studies in 1993/94
尤德爵士紀念基金海外獎學金1993/94年得獎者
Many people tend to stick with their own careers for their whole life as it always takes extra effort to adapt to the new environment and learn new stuff. Whereas, the recipient of Sir Edward Youde Memorial Scholarship for Overseas Studies in 1993/94, Mr. Raymond Tong, has made a different decision. As a fast learner and a people person, he has worked in six industries with excellence over the past 20+ years. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of SUNeVision Holdings Ltd. (1686.HK)
During his secondary school years, Mr. Tong studied at Queen’s College and received excellent grades in the HKCEE. Since his childhood dream was to study abroad, he applied and was successfully admitted to the University of Pennsylvania. Having a deep interest in mathematics and engineering, he initially pursued Bachelor of Science in Engineering (in Electrical Engineering) degree, but after attending some business classes in freshman year, he also decided to enroll in Bachelor of Science in Economics (in Finance), given the choice of a double-degree program at his university, and completed them within four and a half years.
After graduation, Mr. Tong aspired to learn how to manage a business. In the past 20+ years of his career, he worked in various leading companies in different industries to acquire different skills to pursue his aspiration. He started off as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, where he learnt about business strategies, advisory and interaction with senior executives at clients’ companies. Such experience laid good foundation for Mr. Tong’s career development thereafter, to be able to learn and adapt quickly and communicate effectively. After McKinsey, he joined as founding team of an internet startup which was later sold and exited to a listed company. He then moved to China to pick up China experience by joining a semiconductor company which he successfully did an IPO in Hong Kong. Subsequently he had extensive exposure in venture capital investment under a Japanese conglomerate, and food & beverage (F&B) experience as CEO of Pacific Coffee and later on COO of Maxim’s Group. All these experiences had equipped him to be best positioned to take up the CEO post of SUNeVision Holdings, a $10 billion market cap listed company, in mid-2018. The company has continued to grow in past 3+ years, and now valued at $17 billion market cap.
Being the CEO, bares the responsibility of total management and accountability of SUNeVision in all aspects, Mr. Tong has to formulate strategic directions and implements respective policies to promote the company’s development and growth and makes sure that every team member is working towards the same goal, from top to bottom. In addition, as a listed company of the new economy, he has to meet clients and investors to strengthen the relationship. The most memorable event for Mr. Tong over the past three years was the bid for land for the company, now the No. 7 data centre in Hong Kong. At the time, to win the land market at a new high price he needed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the land investment, matching with customer demand, and discuss with the Board and ask for the support from the parent company. The success of the investment means that the company scale will be more than triple. The continuous growth in digital economy and demand for high quality data centres, especially since the new norm after pandemic, has proved that land acquisition as a wise forward-looking investment in end of 2018. That mega data centre will grand open in end of next year in 2022.
With the maturity of 5G technology, all walks of life are now preparing for any possible changes in the upcoming years. The characteristics of 5G: high speed, low latency, and large-scale machine-type communication, has facilitated the use of the Internet of Things (IoT) in transportation and logistics, industrial manufacturing, and many other fields. Communication between devices generates data that provide insightful information for enterprises. Therefore, in the new 5G era, it is extremely important to have data centres as they provide reliable storage spaces for many uses. In addition to providing storage services, an excellent data centre also creates an ecosystem that allows different stakeholders to conduct transactions in it. Mr. Tong pointed out that there are 11 major submarine fibre cables connecting Hong Kong with rest of the world, out of which 9 of them have established points of presence in SUNeVision’s data centres to facilitate the connection and used by corporate and business clients. The more customers there are in the data centre, the greater the network effect is, that is also why their data centres are superior to the others. Now, the company is building three new data centres, which will be completed in 2022 at the earliest. The company is also exploring the possibility of building data centres outside of Hong Kong as well to provide better and more comprehensive service for its customers.
Mr. Tong received the Sir Edward Youde Memorial Scholarships for Overseas Studies in Form six. Given that his family could not afford the cost to send him abroad, getting a scholarship was the key to realize his dream. He still vividly remembers that he needed to submit application with self-recommendation letter and attend interviews to explain his reasons and visions for studying university in the United States. He admitted that the scholarship has transformed his life tremendously. If he had not been awarded the scholarship, he would receive very different exposure and his career development would be very different. He also felt grateful for the Fund which agreed to extend the funding period when he needed additional funding to complete the double degrees.
It has been nearly 30 years since winning the award, and Mr. Tong has also worked in and learnt from many different industries. He suggests everyone learning to adapt to the rapidly changing environment and working hard to build connections and reputation to be successful in the workplace.
職場上，轉行往往意味要適應新環境，令許多人因而卻步。尤德爵士紀念基金海外獎學金1993/94年得獎者 — 湯國江先生卻憑著快速學習新事物的能力以及多年來在職場中建立的人脈，在過去短短二十多年間先後投身六個行業並獲得卓越佳績。目前的他是新意網集團有限公司(1686.HK)的行政總裁。
湯先生中學時期就讀於皇仁書院，中五時會考成績優異，兒時夢想已是到海外升學的他，最終獲得賓夕法尼亞大學取錄。基於對數學及工程濃厚的興趣，他首選了修讀電機工程科，在大學一年級的時候旁聽過一些商業課堂後，他毅然決定同時報讀金融科，在四年半內完成雙學位課程。
畢業後，湯先生熱切追求如何管理一盤生意的各種智慧，於二十多年的職業生涯中曾置身不同行業的龍頭企業。數到最初加入麥肯錫公司作為管理顧問，學習到不少商業策略和諮詢技巧，以及與客戶管理層的互動交流；這些經驗為湯先生隨後的事業發展和高效融入、適應與溝通的能力都奠下穩健的基礎。離開麥肯錫後，他以創始團隊身份參與過一家互聯網初創企業，協助該公司期後成功退出及轉讓給一所上市公司。為了汲取更多中國經驗，湯先生又移師加入內地一家半導體公司，成功替其安排在香港上市。接著他在一日本企業集團旗下風險投資業務得著廣泛經驗，繼而進一步涉獵於飲食界，先後擔任太平洋咖啡公司行政總裁及美心集團首席營運官。一直走來累積下此等種種，正好成為湯先生於2018年出任香港上市公司新意網集團行政總裁一職的最佳裝備，亦造就公司在過去三年多持續增長，市值由100億港元升至目前170億港元。
身為行政總裁，意味著湯先生肩負著公司的一切事務。他需要為公司制定戰略性方向，並執行相關的政策以推動公司的發展和增長。他亦需要領導他的行政團隊，確保公司上下每個成員均朝著相同的方向進發。另外，作為一家新經濟的上市公司，他更需要與客戶和投資者見面，強化公司與他們的關係。在三年多的時間中，最難忘的是為公司投得香港第七號數據中心的地皮。當時，他既要評估投地成本效益和衡量客戶需求，同時要跟董事局商討以至請求母公司支援，最後以創新高的價錢奪得地皮。投地成功意味著公司規模將呈現至少三倍的增長，加上尤自疫情起的新常態下數碼經濟的持續增長和對高質量數據中心的需求，都證明2018年底的買地是一項明智兼具前瞻性的投資。該個大型數據中心將於明年2022年底隆重揭幕。
隨著第五代流動通訊技術(5G)的成熟，各行各業已為即將到來的變化做準備。5G的高速度、低時延、大規模機器類型通訊的特性使物聯網的應用在運輸和物流、工業製造等領域變得更廣泛。設備之間的通訊會產生大量的數據，從數據中抽絲剝繭能為企業提供有意義的信息。因此，提供可靠的儲存空間讓數據中心成為5G新時代下的一個重要環節。除了提供儲存服務外，優越的數據中心營造整個生態，讓不同的持份者在數據中心內進行交易。他指出，香港有十一條主要海底通訊電纜連繫世界，當中有九條電纜的營運商都把入網點建立在新意網集團的數據中心，方便各企業客戶及各大小電訊商客戶連接使用。當數據中心的客戶愈多，網絡效應就會愈大，這亦使到集團數據中心的連通性遠勝其他競爭對手。公司現正興建三個新的數據中心，最快的將會在2022年落成。展望將來，公司會探討在香港以外地區籌建數據中心的可能性，為客戶提供更高水平的服務。
湯先生在中六時獲得尤德爵士紀念基金的海外獎學金。由於父母沒有能力負擔他到海外升學的費用，因此獲取獎學金是他唯一可以實現目標的選項。他還記得，當時需要遞交一份附有自薦信的申請，並出席面試闡述自己到美國升學的原因和願景。他坦言，尤德爵士紀念基金海外獎學金影響了他的一生，若果沒有獲頒獎學金，他的所見所聞將會大相徑庭，他的事業發展也會很不一樣。他亦十分感激基金會，在他需要多半年時間完成雙學位時同意延長資助期限。
湯先生得獎至今經過接近三十年，當中曾投身在多個行業探索研習的他寄語大家，要先學會適應急速變化的環境，以及努力建立人際網絡和良好聲譽，才能在職場上取得成功。