Gabriel Leung
Biography
One of Asia’s most respected higher education, health and philanthropic leaders, Gabriel Leung is known for his commitment to improving human capabilities, nurturing impactful innovation and building strong institutions. He is Executive Director (Charities and Community) of the Hong Kong Jockey Club overseeing its Charities Trust, while serving as a Governor of The Wellcome Trust.
Gabriel’s career has straddled academe, public service and philanthropy. From 2013 to 2022, he was the longest-serving Dean of Medicine and inaugural Helen and Francis Zimmern Professor in Population Health at the University of Hong Kong. Formerly, he was Hong Kong's first Under Secretary for Food and Health and fifth Director of the Chief Executive's Office in government.
Gabriel’s research defined the epidemiology of three novel viral epidemics, namely SARS in 2003, H7N9 influenza in 2013 and most recently COVID-19. As minister, he led Hong Kong government's response against the 2009 influenza pandemic. He was founding co-director of HKU's World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control and founded the Laboratory of Data Discovery for Health (D24H) at the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park.
He co-edited the Journal of Public Health, was inaugural co-editor of Epidemics, associate editor of Health Policy and is founding deputy editor-in-chief of China CDC Weekly. He currently serves on the editorial boards of ten journals, including the British Medical Journal.
After reading medicine at the University of Western Ontario, Gabriel completed family medicine residency training in Toronto. He earned a master's from Harvard University and research doctorate from HKU.