Bio

Executive Director

The Chinney Group

Hon Kwok Land Investment Co. Ltd.

James Wong is the Executive Director of the Chinney Group. The Group’s four publicly listed Hong Kong subsidiaries: Hon Kwok Land (0160.hk), Chinney Investments (0216.hk), Chinney Alliance (0385.hk), and Chinney Kin Wing (1556.hk) are focused on high-tech Engineering and Real Estate. The businesses range from building their own 80-storey Hon Kwok Tower in Shenzhen to developing and operating Hong Kong’s largest data center to installing the air traffic control radar at the Hong Kong Airport. This 2900+ person family business was founded by his great grandfather in Nanjing in the 1920’s to build China’s railway system.

He split his childhood between the US, Canada, and Hong Kong. After graduating from the University of Washington, he went on to earn a master’s degree from the Florida Institute of Technology in Information Systems Engineering as well as a Juris Doctor from the University of California, Hastings College of Law. He is a Phi Kappa Phi member and an advocate for Lifelong Learning. Professionally, he is a member of the California Bar as well as a licensed California Real Estate Broker. He is also a LEED Green Associate and Well AP.

Before joining his family business in 2010, James held positions variously as a lawyer on Toyota’s eDiscovery team in Torrance, California, and as a tax lawyer at Baker and McKenzie (Los Angeles/Hong Kong) and Price Waterhouse Coopers (San Francisco).

He served as a delegate to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference for Jiangsu Province until 2018. In addition, he serves on the Board of Trustees of the Florida Institute of Technology (otherwise called NASA U) where he is also an adjunct professor teaching Business and Healthcare Law and was the 2018 Outstanding Alumni Award winner. Currently he serves as a Global Governing Trustee for the Urban Land Institute, as well as on the International Advisory Board of the Essec Business School in Paris. He is one of the founders of the Seattle I-District Asian Street Fair (now in its 35th Season) and created Seattle’s first-ever Computer Dating Dance in 1983. His MENSA membership dates from 1980. He has published and spoken widely on subjects including eDiscovery, Social Media Policy in the workplace, China for newbies, and more recently, China and the One Belt One Road Initiative. An opinionated traveller, James ranked among the top 1% of reviewers on TripAdvisor.com