What better way to celebrate Macau Business’s 17th anniversary than to showcase 17 locals aged 35 and younger with the kind of talent that boosts our confidence in the future?
MB May 2021 Special Report | 17 talented young people
There is no one else in Macau who can boast having ascended to the Chief Executive’s top advisory body at the age of 31. No wonder he’s seen as a future leader of Macau.
No one in their right mind can claim to know what will happen 20 or 30 years from now, but the truth is that Gary Chao seems predestined to fly high.
At the age of 30, he was chosen by Ho Iat Seng to join the Executive Board and in so doing became the youngest ever member of the Chief Executive’s powerful top advisory body.
Though Gary Chao and Ho Iat Seng only met in mid-2019, when the latter was preparing his candidacy, Gary had already been travelling a path that would, sooner or later, take him to the top.
At a very young age he assumed leadership of the Student Association at his high school, and when he went to study physics at Peking University, he chaired a group of Macau students.
Thus, it was not long before he had joined and begun leading the Macau New Chinese Youth Association. It was then that he began, for the first time, to participate actively in various government advisory bodies.
After completing his master’s degree in Economics at the University of Hong Kong, Mr Chao came back to Macau to stay, finding employment with the local branch of the Bank of China (BOC), where he remains to this day.
Gary would stand out among his peers at the Bank of China, as well: he was named General Director of the BOC Macau Youth Association and often serves as one of the Bank’s representatives in public endeavours.
With all this under his belt, Gary Chao has what it takes to become a political leader of the future.
If not in these next elections, then certainly in those to come, it will be natural to see him join the Legislative Assembly and begin amassing political experience.
Gary has everything else he might need: prestige, resume, network.
And all that at just 31.
“Twenty years from now, I think I will also be in a position that allows me to use my energy and skills to fulfil [my potential], regardless of whether that is in the Government, in a company or in civil society,” he said in an interview.
