David 

DONALD

David Donald has been a Professor in the Faculty of Law at The Chinese University of Hong Kong since 2008. In 2010, he founded the CUHK Centre for Financial Regulation and Economic Development and served as its executive director until 2013. In 2014 he founded the CUHK New Ventures Legal Team (NVLT), a clinical support group for the University’s Pre-Incubation Centre for startup companies. In 2017 NVLT was turned into the New Ventures Legal Clinic in conjunction with the CUHK Entrepreneurship Initiative. He has served in many administrative capacities, including as a member of the University Senate Committee on Student Discipline and director of the Faculty of Law’s PhD and MPhil Programmes.

From 2003 until 2008, David taught at the Institute for Law and Finance of the Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. For the decade preceding that he worked as a commercial, corporate and securities lawyer in Washington, Milan, Rome and Frankfurt, serving the investment, acquisition and financing activities of multinational enterprises and as a member of the legal team that created the first international funds transfer system for the Euro.

David was a principal investigator of a five-year project (2012-2017) funded by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) Theme-based Research Scheme on “Enhancing Hong Kong’s Future as a Leading International Financial Centre” and was the principal investigator of a three-year public policy project (2009-2012) also funded by the RGC, “Anatomy of a Financial Centre: A systemic analysis of Hong Kong’s legal and regulatory framework for its securities market.” David has written extensively on market structure, securities clearing and settlement, and corporate law. His books include A Financial Centre for Two Empires: Hong Kong’s Corporate, Securities and Tax Laws in its Transition from Britain to China, The Hong Kong Stock and Futures Exchanges – Law and Microstructure and (with Andreas Cahn) Comparative Company Law (2nd ed. 2018).

David holds a PhD in Law (summa cum laude) and an LLM (magna cum laude) from the Goethe University, a Juris Doctor (cum laude) from Georgetown University and a PhD in Comparative Literature (high distinction) from SUNY Buffalo.

The design and implementation of a precision finance mechanism applying data analytics and smart contract technology to small business lending.