Laura Cha

Laura Cha Shih May-lung, GBM, GBS, JP (; born 5 December 1949 ) is a Hong Kong businesswoman and politician. She is a former chair of Hong Kong Stock Exchange and non-executive deputy chair of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. She served as a non-official member of the Executive Council of Hong Kong from 2004 to 2022.

Early life and education On 5 December 1949, Cha was born in Shanghai, China. At age 2, Cha and her family moved to British Hong Kong.

Cha earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a Juris Doctor degree from the Santa Clara University School of Law. Cha practised law with Pillsbury Madison and Sutro, one of the powerful law firms in San Francisco, California. Since 1994, Cha no longer practices law in California.

In 2012, Cha was named an Honorary Fellow by the Hong Kong Securities and Investment Institute.

She has been a Non-Executive Director of Unilever since May 2013.

2014 Hong Kong protests controversy Cha was reported by The Standard to have likened the pro-Occupy activists demand for democracy in the 2014 Hong Kong protests to the emancipation of African-American slaves at a conference at Paris, asking why Universal Suffrage "could not wait" for Hong Kongers in light of the historical disenfranchisement of African Americans. Her remarks were criticised on social media, with a petition to the board of directors of HSBC on Change.org stating that the signatories, "will not stand these remarks likening our rights to slavery, nor will we stand the kind of voter disenfranchisement her and her associates attempt to perpetrate on the Hong Kong public."

Personal life Cha is married and has two children. Cha's husband, Victor, is a prominent Hong Kong businessman. Cha renounced her United States citizenship prior to taking a position with China.

Cha was awarded the Grand Bauhinia Medal (GBM) by the Hong Kong SAR Government in 2017.