Wu, Michael Po-Ko

ENCAENIA, MAY, 1989
MICHAEL PO-KO WU
to be Doctor of Laws

I feel privileged to day to have been asked to present Mr. Michael Wu for the high degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa. Two years ago I had the honour to present Mr. Wu’s father, Dr. Yee-Sun Wu, eminent banker and Bonsai artist, for the degree of Doctor of Letters at a special UNB Convocation in Hong Kong. The ties between this University and the Wu family are strong and abiding. They are a remarkable example of what may happen when a university opens its doors to students from other countries as UNB did thirty or so years ago.

In the late 1950’s Dr. Colin B. Mackay built a very important bridge when he made it a priority to attract to UNB a significant number of good students from overseas. Thus, he believed, would the University’s academic standards be enhanced, thus would its cultural mosaic be enriched, and thus would its spirit of universality and tolerance be advanced. Across that bridge has come a steady stream of good students from many different parts of the world, till at present we have more than five hundred students from more than sixty different countries. No group has been and remains more exceptional than those from Hong Kong, of which the man who stands before us is a splendid example.

A graduate of the Mechanical Engineering Class of 1964, it is by nomination of his classmates on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of their graduation that Mr. Wu is being honoured today.

Michael Wu is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Wing Lung Bank of Hong Kong. The Wing Lung Bank has assets of $2.5 billion, more than 1,000 employees, and 24 branches in Hong Kong and overseas. It was founded by Michael Wu’s father, Dr. Yee-Sun Wu, just over fifty years ago. Despite its virtual collapse when the Japanese invaded Hong Kong during World War II, the Wing Lung Bank, under the leadership of Yee-Sun Wu and now Michael Wu, has become the largest Chinese owned bank in Hong Kong.

The story of the Wing Lung Bank (which, incidentally, means "prosperity forever") is one of exceptional leadership, in sometimes difficult circumstances and an always competitive environment, by two wise and gifted and generous men. It is meet and right that having honoured the father, we should today honour his worthy son.

Michael Wu has been, over a period of many years, one of our most enthusiastic and generous alumni. So that I might stress the importance of the Alumni Association in the life of Mr. Wu, I asked Arthur Doyle, Director of Alumni Affairs, for a brief word on the value of the alumni to our University. He wrote as follows:

Michael Wu is one of those rare alumni who is not only loyal to his alma mater, but has been committed to fostering that loyalty in others. He left UNB determined to create a UNB Alumni Chapter on his home base in Hong Kong. Under his leadership and with the support of fellow alumni in that city he formed the UNB Hong Kong Alumni Chapter and became its first president. UNB’s only chapter outside North America soon became one of its most active and supportive, a shining example of just what loyal alumni can do for their alma mater even from a distance of thousands of miles. To UNB Alumni Chapters in North America, its sister in Hong Kong has continued to set the highest of standards to emulate. It has been said that we never stop paying for our education, but that we never stop using it either. In honouring Michael Wu we are in a very real sense paying tribute to all of our alumni leaders in our Alumni Associations thought the world.

In honouring him today we pay tribute to a distinguished and dedicated man, to the Alumni Associations of UNB, and to the community of international students who spread the light of their knowledge throughout a sometimes darksome world.

Insignissime Praeses, amplissima Cancellaria, tota Universitas, praesento vobis Michaelem Po-Ko Wu ut admittatur honoris causa ad gradum Doctoris in Utroque Jure in hac Universitate.

From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 2