Expert resume of Anthony Neoh

Senior Counsel, Hong Kong Bar; former Chief Adviser, China Securities Regulatory Commission; Deputy Judge, High Court; former Chairman, Securities and Futures Commission; Arbitrator, China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC); Senior Adviser, Bank of China; and currently Member, Council of The Chinese University of Hong Kong

After teaching mathematics in a Hong Kong high school for two years, Mr Anthony Francis Neoh joined the Hong Kong Government first as an Executive Officer and soon became an Administrative Officer. Mr Neoh was granted a year of no-pay leave to pursue law studies in England between 1995 -1996, at the end of which,  he received his LLB from the University of London and was called to the English Bar by Gray’s Inn.   His civil service career included serving in a number of directorate appointments, the last of which was Assistant Director of the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

He left the civil service in 1980 and commenced practice at the Hong Kong Bar that year.  In 1984, Mr Neoh qualified for the California Bar and then was briefly associated with  Pilsbury, Madison and Sutro, as it was then called, in San Francisco.  He was appointed Queen's Counsel (now retitled Senior Counsel) in April 1990. Mr Neoh has contributed immensely to the construction and regulation of the capital markets in Hong Kong and Mainland China. He has served on many business organizations since the 1990s, including the Council of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and its Listing Committee, and the Disciplinary Committee and Debt Securities Group of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, during which time, he was the Chief Architect for the legal and listing structure of H shares in Hong Kong.

From 1995 to 1998, Mr. Neoh was Chairman of the Securities and Futures Commission, during which time he was the first Asian to be elected to chair the Technical Committee of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions. In 1998, Mr Neoh accepted an offerfrom the Prime Minister Zhu Rongji and became the Chief Adviser to the China Securities Regulatory Commission, with the duty to revamp the securities market in China.  He undertook this duty from 1999-2004 at the nominal salary of One Yuan per annum.  Over the years, Mr. Neoh has made remarkable contributions towards developing uniform regulatory standards for financial markets and preserving Hong Kong's integrity as an international financial hub. He has also played a key role in facilitating the listing and proper regulation of mainland enterprises on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Mr Neoh is active in public service. He has been an Arbitrator for the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission, Honorary Legal Adviser for Fujian, Shenzhen and Xiamen Governments, Economic Adviser of the City of Tianjin, Senior Adviser of the Bank of China Hong Kong and Independent Non-Executive Director of the Main Board of the Bank of China, Member of the Board of the Hospital Authority and Member of the Standing Committee on Directorate Salaries and Conditions of Service Standing Committee on Judicial Salaries and Conditions of Service. In the academic field, Mr Neoh has been Visiting Professor of many prestigious universities including Peking University, Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University and Zhongshan University. He has also been Visiting Professor and Visiting Scholar of the School of Law at Harvard University, USA. Mr Neoh has been a member of the Council of The Chinese University of Hong Kong since 1994 and served as Vice-Chairman in 1995-1997 and currently serves as its Treasurer. 

In addition,  he is Vice Chairman of the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration,  he also chairs the Asian Academy of International Law and the Hong Kong Independent Police Complaints Council, and serves on the Board of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China as its Risk Committee Chair, as well as on the Board of CITIC Limited and New China Life Insurance Company Limited.  He continues to be active in his legal professional work, now mainly acting as arbitrator in international commercial arbitrations. 

He has been conferred Honorary Doctorates by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Open University of Hong Kong, and Lingnan University, and elected an Honorary Fellow of the Hong Kong Securities and Investment Institute and an Academician of the Euroasian Academcy of Sciences.  In 2012, the CFA Institute presented him with their Special Service Award for outstanding service to the the financial community.