Selina Chow

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Selina Chow Liang Shuk-yee, GBS OBE JP (Chinese: 周梁淑怡) (born 25 January 1945 in Hong Kong with family root in Panyu, Guangdong) is a current member of the Executive Council of Hong Kong and the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. She is known for her career in politics as well as her previous career in the broadcasting sector.

An alumna of St. Paul's Co-educational College, she obtained a Bachelor's degree in English from the University of Hong Kong, and post-graduate Diploma, Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in the United Kingdom.[1]


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[edit] Professional career

Chow is unique in Hong Kong's broadcast television industry in that at various points during her career in television, she was employed by all three television stations that existed in Hong Kong's television history. She started out as a weather presenter[2]. She was first hired as an episodic drama director for TVB[citation needed], and became its Assistant General Manager.

Chow was recruited from TVB by Commercial Television to be its new General Manager in an attempt to resurrect the ailing station in July 1976. A significant amount of money was spent on producing drama series; the number of staff trebled, and the cash-burn rate escalated under Chow. On 22 August 1978, the station announced it was closing its doors[3].

Chow later became the director of Asia Television. During her stint in these three television stations, Chow acquired a rather dubious reputation of being a spendthrift, having been partially responsible for the substantial financial deficits at ATV and Commercial Television (the latter went out of business shortly after her stint).

[edit] Political career

Chow is member of the Liberal Party, and represented the Wholesale and Retail functional constituency in Legco since 1995. She was returned to the Legislative Council in 2004 in the New Territories West geographical constituency. She has been Chairman of the Hong Kong Tourism Board, Board Member of the Hong Kong Airport Authority, Honorary adviser to Against Child Abuse, and Director of the Hong Kong Intellectual Property Society.

[edit] Hong Kong Tourism Board

Chow was embroiled in controversy in 2007 over the charges made by the Audit Commission of poor governance whilst she was Chairman of the Tourism Board, in 2003. The commission charged there had been excessive salaries for staff, performance bonuses without targets, lavish parties, favouritism of sponsors and general wastefulness[4]. Chow, testifying before the Public Accounts Committee of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, claimed to have had no recollection of verbally authorising the health insurance plan for Executive Director Clara Chong and her entire family at an annual cost of HK$177,000, contradicting Chong's and the Board's human resources manager's testimonies[5]. Chow then claimed she had been misled into approving the plan by her staff[6].


Preceded by:
N/A		 Legislative Councillor for the Geographical Constituency for New Territories West
1998-present		 Succeeded by:
incumbent

[edit] References

  1. ^ Members' Biography, Legislative Council of Hong Kong, Retrieved 2008-01-24
  2. ^ Emily Tang, Stars unite to kick-off Selina Chow's Legco bid, The Standard, 26 August, 2004
  3. ^ Mary Lee, A licence to lose money, Far Eastern Economic Review, 08 September 1978
  4. ^ Una So, "Wasteful tourism board slammed", The Standard, November 29, 2007
  5. ^ Damon Pang, "Chow approved plan, claims HR chief", The Standard, December 21, 2007
  6. ^ Damon Pang, "No Love Lost", The Standard, December 15, 2007
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