From Engineering to Finance — Turning a Green Ethos into Practical Action with Technology and Audit
Mr Polex Lam Ka-ho
CityUHK’s campus witnessed both the start of his career and the growth of his family. He remains deeply thankful for his wife’s contributions and looks forward to passing environmental and sustainable values to the next generation, helping create a better future for his children.
- Master of Business Administration; Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Electronic and Communication Engineering
- Head of Green Finance Engagement, Friends of the Earth (HK) Charity Limited
As climate change rises up the global agenda, Polex has made sustainable development a consistent thread throughout his career. Now Head of Green Finance Engagement at Friends of the Earth (Hong Kong), he brings a rare mix of engineering, finance and nonprofit experience to the challenge of turning green principles into measurable results.
Polex’s interest in the environment began in secondary school and guided his decision to study electronic and communication engineering at CityUHK, before completing an MBA. His engineering training equipped him with programming, data analysis and automation skills, as well as early exposure to emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence—foundations he would draw on again and again in later roles.
He began his career at a technology firm, working on radio communications and writing automated test programmes for production lines to ensure product quality. There, he saw how a company’s attention to employee welfare—and the client-driven audits that reinforced it—helped improve retention. It was his first clear lesson that corporate social responsibility can be a strategic advantage, not only an ethical obligation.
A turning point came at HK Electric, where he was struck by the fact that a utility actively taught customers how to reduce electricity use. Working with then-CityUHK Associate Professor Dr Tsang Kim-fung on a “Smart Kitchen” demonstration—featuring environmental and energy monitoring, analytics, and efficiency recommendations—he saw how energy-efficient equipment and intelligent controls could improve working conditions, cut pollution and open up new markets. Sustainability, he realised, can create business value as well as environmental benefits.
After completing his MBA, Polex joined a gas company to develop new-energy projects in Inner Mongolia and northeastern China. These projects reinforced what sustainable development looks like in practice: advanced technology and people-centred management are essential to earning local government trust, while large-scale rollouts require careful, long-term analysis of investment returns. The MBA complemented his technical background with financial and marketing tools—and, unexpectedly, a lasting professional network that still supports his collaborative work today.
Polex later served as Senior Vice President at Hang Seng Indexes Company, where he helped embed ESG considerations into traditional indices and supported the launch of Hong Kong’s first ESG index funds. He also applied AI-driven methods to analyse policy documents, research reports and other unstructured data, building transparent scoring frameworks to screen and rate companies and bring greater rigour to ESG investment standards.
Holding multiple professional qualifications—including chartered engineer, ESG analyst and carbon auditor—Polex now applies his interdisciplinary background to environmental education, policy advocacy and corporate advisory work. He lectures part-time at universities, serves as Honorary Treasurer of the Energy Institute Hong Kong, and co-teaches carbon-auditing and clean-energy seminars with academic partners. He also works with European institutions to advance green finance and cross-border collaboration.
Alongside former CityUHK classmates, Polex is preparing a start-up that combines AI and IoT for energy auditing. The platform aims to help companies develop decarbonisation strategies and support banks facing net-zero obligations with property valuation and climate-risk assessment. He hopes the venture will translate ideas into practical solutions with lasting social impact.
Polex values his CityUHK years for more than academics: friendships formed in residence halls that still endure, intercultural exchanges that widened his perspective, and meeting the person who would become his wife—whose steady encouragement helped him navigate major career transitions. Those personal ties, he says, have shaped him as much as his formal training.
For those entering the sustainability field, Polex emphasises three constants: stay true to your original motivation, keep learning, and persist in your convictions. With technical capability, financial literacy and long-term commitment, he believes professionals can turn green ambition into measurable, scalable outcomes—benefiting both society and the bottom line.
（Published at 4 June 2026）