Lee Chang-Ken
President, Cathay Financial Holdings Co., Ltd.
“People” have always been the first concern when President Lee thinks of sustainability. He holds distinctive points of view from other typical finance professionals. Growing up in a farmer’s family and being a volunteer working on organic agriculture for 10 years, he regards life in a unique perspective.
In his 32 years working in Cathay, President Lee Chang-Ken strategically leads Cathay to accomplish in establishing a well-rounded management framework, strong cross-selling capability, and a clear focus on customer. His dedication in seeking growth for the company and its investors and internalizing the concept of sustainability into Cathay’s company culture has led Cathay the largest domestic green financing institution in Taiwan. President Lee’s mindset has become the strongest propulsion in docking Cathay’s three profiting engines, “insurance, banking and asset management,” with “the Equator Principles (EP), the Principles of Sustainable Insurance (PSI) and the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI)”. President Lee also devotes in advocating the concept of corporate sustainability to every employee in Cathay. Cathay Corporate Sustainability Committee was founded in 2011 under his leadership. Being the Chairman of the committee, he urges every employee of CFH and its 5 subsidiaries to regard corporate sustainability as the primary issue by practicing it himself. In 2015, President Lee led the whole staff to participate in the WeightLoss Competition. With his commitment that 1 kilo lost represents 100 NTD donating to Hondao Senior Citizen’s Welfare Foundation for setting up solar panels on its rooftop, and the income from selling electricity generated from those solar panels being used for activities promoting health for the elderly, over 10 thousand employees participated in the competition and over 1,500,000 was donated to Hondao Senior Citizen’s Welfare Foundation.
“People” have always been the first concern when President Lee thinks of sustainability. He holds distinctive points of view from other typical finance professionals. Growing up in a farmer’s family and being a volunteer working on organic agriculture for 10 years, he regards life in a unique perspective. Customers’ needs were his initiative in advocating the concept of corporate sustainability in Cathay. Upon understanding a customer’s wish on creating new business model by setting up solar panels on top of organic agricultural farms, the Solar Energy Financing Project Team was established under his instruction.
President Lee Chang-Ken dedicates to internalize corporate sustainability into Cathay’s company culture. With his strong advocacy on practicing corporate sustainability in daily life to all the employees within Cathay Financial Holdings and its subsidiaries, Cathay is constantly growing and has been recognized as a sustainable corporate with international acknowledgment.
President Lee Chang-Ken dedicates to internalize corporate sustainability into Cathay’s company culture. With his strong advocacy on practicing corporate sustainability in daily life to all the employees within Cathay Financial Holdings and its subsidiaries, Cathay is constantly growing and has been recognized as a sustainable corporate with international acknowledgment.
Through President Lee’s hard work, Cathay United Bank (CUB) was the first bank in Taiwan to offer solar energy equipment loans and as of today, CUB has the biggest market share in Taiwan and successfully extended its financing experiences to USA, China, and Japan. In sum, CUB has financed a cumulative amount of over a thousand solar power stations at home and overseas, with a total installed capacity of 288MW. In 2016, CUB took the lead among its industry peers again and finished the first Wind Power Loan in Taiwan. 8 MW-offshore wind power generation facility was completed. Cathay will continue to assist the 128-MW offshore wind power generation facility construction in the coming years. Besides enabling multiple land usage, CUB also realized that more young talents are willing to stay in their home county due to increased job opportunities by the Solar Energy Financing Project. Together, the project created win-win situation in 5 aspects: people, government, optoelectronic industry, bank and solutions to lower carbon emission.
Cathay believes in the path of corporate sustainability and that finding a balance between financing mechanisms and their benefit or damage to socioeconomic development has always been its top concern. By advancing the products and services in response to environmental risks and social issues, Cathay is maximizing its influence as a sustainable corporate. In future, through continual revisions and alliance with its stakeholders, Cathay anticipates applying novel business models to solve existing challenges and aims at becoming the best financial institution in Asia.
