Robert Owen
Chairman, Hong Kong
After graduating from Oxford with First Class Honours in 1961, he worked at the UK Foreign Office and Treasury until 1970. He then joined Morgan Grenfell & Co. Ltd., where he became a director in 1974. In 1979 he joined Lloyds Bank International Ltd. as Director of Merchant Banking. In 1984 he became Chairman of Lloyds Merchant Bank and Director of Investment Banking of the Lloyds Bank Group.
In 1988 Mr. Owen was recruited by the Hong Kong Government as Adviser on Securities Markets to lead the implementation of extensive reforms to the regulation and operation of Hong Kong's securities and futures markets, following the market turmoil of 1987. This led to the establishment of the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong, of which he became the first Executive Chairman in 1989. The SFC was a new statutory body established to take over regulation of Hong Kong's securities and futures markets and to supervise and encourage their development. Mr Owen served in this position until 1992, during which time the new regulatory system was firmly established and a number of further reforms and market development measures were introduced.
Since 1992 Mr. Owen has held a number of concurrent positions which include:
• Deputy Chairman of Nomura Asia Holdings Ltd.
• Director of European Capital Co. Ltd.
• Chairman of Techpacific Capital Ltd.
• Director of Sunday Communications Ltd.
• Member of the Council and Regulatory Board of Lloyds of London.
Currently, in addition to being Chairman of ISC, he is Chairman of Crosby Capital Partners Ltd (an investment banking and asset management firm listed on the London Stock Exchange), Chairman of IB Daiwa Corp (listed on the Jasdaq market in Tokyo), and a Board member of the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), of Singapore Exchanges Ltd (SGX) and Citibank (Hong Kong) Ltd. He is also Chairman of various investment funds and a Governor of Repton School in the UK.