Joseph Yam: Putting authority into the HKMA

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Fifty years of Asia The profiles: 23 of the biggest names in Asia Zafrul Aziz Laura Cha Wei Sun Christianson Piyush Gupta Uday Kotak Reuben Lai Boon Chye Loh Agus Martowardojo Raghuram Rajan Jahja Setiaatmadja Weijian Shan Alan Smith Teh Hong Piow Tian Huiyu Sun Yu Nestor Tan Wee Ee Cheong Kartika Wirjoatmodjo Peter Wong Daniel Wu Wu Wei Zeti Akhtar Aziz

Euromoney is concerned we won’t recognize Joseph Yam after 15 years. We needn’t have worried. Emerging from a lift at the Conrad in Hong Kong, his resplendent white mop-top is visible across a crowded hotel lobby. 

“I have had this haircut,” he says, “since 1965.”

Yam was the first chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and it is hard to imagine a tenure that could have involved more. It included the British handover of Hong Kong, the Asian financial crisis and the global financial crisis, all against the backdrop of a steadily opening China.

He will always be best known for his response to the Asian crisis, but his early time, after taking the top job at the HKMA’s formation in 1993, was crucial.