Sir Seaman Kwok is presently the Principal Managing Consultant of Cheng & Cheng Corporate Services Limited and a Member of the Advisory Committee of Cheng & Cheng Risk Advisory Services Limited. In addition, he is the Founder and Director of SK2 Corporate Services (HK) Limited, a niche professional service provider rendering corporate secretarial services to primarily listed companies and listing applicants in Hong Kong.
Before partnering Cheng & Cheng group in late September 2021, Sir Seaman was an Executive Director and the Head, Corporate Secretarial of Boardroom Corporate Services (HK) Limited and a Director of Boardroom Share Registrars (HK) Limited. Prior to that, he was the Group Company Secretary of the Lai Sun Group comprising 5 companies respectively listed on the Main Board and the GEM of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (“HKEx”) and the Company Secretary of the related Crocodile Garments Limited listed on the Main Board of the HKEx simultaneously.
Sir Seaman has an aggregate of over 30 years’ extensive legal, corporate secretarial, share registration and management experience gained by working at director, company secretary and other senior executive positions in other reputable professional firms, sizable companies overseas and in Hong Kong (including the Hang Seng Index Constituent (“HSIC”) and Hang Seng Mid-Cap 50 stock companies), as well as conglomerates dually-listed in (i) Canada, Singapore or Shenzhen and (ii) Hong Kong. Moreover, he was the managing director of the No. 1 financial printer RR Donnelly Financial Solutions Limited in town with international affiliation.
Matriculated from Queen’s College, Sir Seaman graduated from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University with the first conversion bachelor of arts degree in accountancy (with honours) and the first professional diploma in company secretaryship and administration. He also holds a post-graduate diploma in laws (with credit) from the Manchester Metropolitan University in England and has passed the Common Professional (Laws) Examinations in England and Wales.
Further, he is a popular guest speaker of many professional bodies, universities and chambers in Hong Kong and has co-authored a number of books on corporate governance and regulatory compliance.
Having been the reviewer and the chief examiner of the “Hong Kong Company Secretarial Practice / Corporate Secretaryship" of the international qualifying examinations of the Hong Kong Chartered Governance Institute (“HKCGI”) and participated in the review of the Hong Kong law variant modules thereof for about a decade, Sir Seaman holds the record of being the HKCGI’s youngest and longest-serving elected council member (i.e. for 18 years) and King of Votes for 12 consecutive years for the election / re-election of council members . He was also a founding member of the (Listed) Company Secretaries Panel and the vice chairman of the Technical Committee thereof. In 1996, he represented the HKCGI to run for a membership of the first Selection Board to select the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong. He was one of the adjudicators for the “Best Annual Reports Awards” organised by the Hong Kong Management Association in the early 1990’s and the late 2000’s.
Further, he was a member of the Board of Review appointed by the Hong Kong government under the Inland Revenue Ordinance in the 2000s and from the mid-1990’s to October 2020, acted as an external examiner / adviser / member of the validation panel of corporate management courses organised by recognised academic and vocational institutions for tertiary education in Hong Kong, namely Caritas Institute of Higher Education, Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education and Vocational Training Council. He has been influential in making the regulators in Hong Kong (including the Hong Kong Companies Registry and the HKEx) (i) understand the deficiencies in the rules governing the companies registered and listed in Hong Kong; and (ii) review and amend the Listing Rules in many aspects since the mid-2000’s.
Sir Seaman was also a member of the Executive Committee of Federation of Share Registrars Limited from September 2017 to October 2020.
He is currently the Vice-Chairman of a charity fund in Hong Kong and a Member of each of the Foundation and the Industrial and Business Leaders Circle of the City University of Hong Kong.
First appointed in early 1991 as the company secretary of Great Eagle Holdings Limited, a HSIC company and having been acting as company secretaries for other reputable companies listed on the HKEx for a substantial amount of time since then, Sir Seaman was not required to have at least 15 hours of relevant continuing professional development training annually for 5 consecutive years from 2012 under the Listing Rules whereas, to the best of his information and knowledge, all other company secretaries of listed companies had to comply with such requirement.
He was the youngest company secretary of all HSIC stock companies and the youngest Chinese resident in Hong Kong being admitted as a Fellow Member of the Chartered Governance Institute (“CGI”) in England.
In 1999, he received an induction into the International WHO’s WHO of Professionals, an international organisation which establishes a network of international elite professionals.
With an exceptionally high calibre and passion, Sir Seaman was the company secretary and a joint company secretary of concurrently about 30 and in aggregate about 45 of his former employer’s clients listed on the Main Board and the GEM, respectively. He is widely recognised as the “King of the Outsourced Company Secretary of Listed Companies in Hong Kong”.
He was conferred as a Knight of Rizal of the Philippines in mid-June 2019.
Professional Certifications and Affiliations
Independent Non-Executive Director of the following listed companies:
Cheng & Cheng Limited is a professional Hong Kong based accounting firm. With many years experience in the financial sector, Cheng & Cheng Limited and its group companies aim to provide the best personal service we can to our valued customers.
