Trustee from Hong Kong

Career Snapshot

Since returning to Asia from California in 1994, Elaine held various finance leadership positions including Group CFO for Regal Springs, the world’s largest vertically integrated producer of tilapia; CFO for VF Asia, the product supply office for the $12 billion apparel and footwear powerhouse with diverse brands including The North Face, Timberland, Vans, and  Wrangler; CFO for Zuellig Pharma Group, a US$8 billion pharmaceutical healthcare services provider; Regional CFO Walgreens Boots Alliance  and Regional Senior Director for Bertelsmann Music Group. She started her career with EY as a Certified Public Accountant. 
 
Elaine is an advocate for companies to operate with purpose, social impact, environmental and financial sustainability.  Her roles and projects showcase her achievements in driving economic profits, developing circular economies, and creating positive effects on community development. 
 
She structured an innovative financing solution with IFC, a member of the World Bank, to improve worker safety in the Bangladesh apparel manufacturing sector and identified sponsors for scholarship for Asian University for Women.   She initiated a partnership with VF and Redress a NGO with a mission to prevent and transform textile waste to catalyst a circular economy.  At Regal Springs, she supported the launch of We Care, a program bringing together the company, the workers, and the governments to improve water quality and community livelihood in remote locations in Honduras, Mexico, and Indonesia.   She was appointed by ADB on the board of Mountain Hazelnut Group, a triple bottom-line company working with thousands of small-scale farmers to produce high-quality hazelnuts in the mountains of Bhutan, generating income for rural communities while protecting the environmental biodiversity.  
 
Elaine took a one-year sabbatical from work to volunteer with an NGO to advocate for gender diversity on boards which resulted in policy change by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. She served as a mentor for The Women’s Foundation best-in-class mentoring program and Metta a community for start-ups. She was a member of the AMCHAM Women of Influence (WOI) Committee and Co-Chair of the judging panel for the annual prestigious WOI award.   At VF, she launched the Women’s Network and co-founded the Millennial Leadership group, recognized as Diversity Best Practices by US Network & Affinity Leadership Congress.  
 
Elaine J Cheung's first term of office expires end July 2024.