Our Team

Samuel Lai, Director and Trustee

Samuel is the Chairman and CEO of At Home Foundation. He is also the Chief Financial Officer of Victoria Harbor Group.   

Samuel was born and grew up in Hong Kong. He graduated from Columbia University, obtained a MBA degree from NYU, and spent five years working for UNICEF in New York before returning to Hong Kong in 1978.  He was with Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) in Hong Kong for 23 years, holding different positions including Chief Executive Officer (Acting), Senior Director of Finance and Management, and East Rail Director.  

Samuel had been involved in various community services in Hong Kong.  He was a founder of TRAINX Charity Foundation, served as its chairman from 2012 to 2018, and director from 2008 to 2021.  He was a council member of the Hong Kong Management Association and chairman of its Membership Committee, vice-chairman of the International Association of Public Transport (Asia Pacific Division), and a member of the Corruption Prevention Advisory Committee of Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption.

Ivan Ko, Director and Trustee

Ivan is the CEO of Victoria Harbor Group and Chairman of RECAS Global Limited.

Ivan was born in Hong Kong and speaks fluent Cantonese, English and Mandarin.  He graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1984 and studied a master degree course in real estate development in the University of Hong Kong.

Ivan has 27 years of real estate development and real estate finance experience in Hong Kong, China, Macau, US and UK. He was the Chairman and CEO of a mortgage service company – Advantage China Limited which he set up in JV with the International Finance Corporation (The World Bank), Deutsche Bank, Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO) and another institutional investor. He was the Managing Director and Head of Real Estate Asset Management of two listed financial institutions - SW Kingsway Capital Holdings Limited and Value Convergence Holdings Limited, in which he set up real estate funds for the China and Macau market.  He set up the RECAS Group in 2004.

For public services, in the first few years of 2000, Ivan was a Director of the Hong Kong Policy Research Institute for several years, a member of the Personal Data (Privacy) Advisory Committee in Hong Kong.  He was the Founding Chairman of China Real Estate Chamber of Commerce Hong Kong and International Chapter 2002-2004 and was re-elected in 2012 and served as Chairman till 2018.  He is currently a member of the Board of a charitable NGO Walk DVRC Ltd and a member of its Steering Committee.  He is also a Walking Expert of a Hong Kong think tank Civic Exchange.

Ivan has published a number of articles relating to the movements in Hong Kong in Citizen News and Ming Pao Daily.

Lord Andrew Tyrie, Director and Trustee

Lord Tyrie is a British politician. He was the MP for Chichester from 1997 to 2017. He is the former Chair of the Treasury Select Committee, the Parliament Commission on Banking Standards, and several other parliamentary committees. He played a significant role in reshaping aspects of financial regulation after the 2008 financial crisis.

Since 2017, Lord Tyrie has sat in the Lords as a non-affiliated peer. Between 2018 to 2020, he chaired the Competition and Markets Authority. He has also served on the board of several public companies, and worked for some years in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Dr. Mark Lutter, Member, Program Funding Committee

Mark is an urban economist known for his pioneering work in combining technology and urban development, and in exploring eco-systems for charter cities.

He is Founder and Executive Director of the non-profit Charter Cities Institute, and host of the Charter Cities Podcast. Prior to this he was Lead Economist for NeWAY Capital, an asset management firm which made early stage investments in international charter cities.

Mark has a PhD in economics from George Mason University.