The presentation of the President's Award was made at the 35th Annual Dinner. In recognition of the dedicated and valuable service of the member of any class who has served the Institution with distinctive achievements, the President's Award has been set up by the Institution. This year, Ir Kenneth Hsu was conferred the President's Award for his immerse contributions and remarkable achievements.

Ir Hsu is a very dedicated and committed Fellow who has served on 16 boards and committees over a span of 17 years. He was Chair of the Accreditation Board, Finance and Investment Committee as well as Engineers Registration Board (ERB) respectively, playing a very significant role in both the qualifying and administration functions of the Institution.

Ir Hsu led the development of outcome-based accreditation, which has been fully recognised by the Washington Accord. He was also responsible for steering the Institution through the Washington Accord Review in 2008-2009, the result of which was the Institution's recognition by the Washington Accord for six years from 2009 to 2015, the maximum term that could be granted. Ir Hsu was also instrumental in the Institution's successful application to become a full signatory to the Seoul Accord in June 2009, in which all accredited computer science programmes are recognised by other signatories.

As Chairman of the Finance and Investment Committee, Ir Hsu set up guidelines on Division expenditures, helping the Institution maintain a healthy financial position while acquiring Rooms 1005 and 1006 for the HKIE Headquarters and completely discharging the mortgages for Rooms 1004 and 1006.

As Chairman of ERB, Ir Hsu strongly advocated and formulated standing policies to proactively push for the use of Registered Professional Engineers (R.P.E.) as a statutory requirement. In addition, Ir Hsu introduced standard procedures and a quality assurance mechanism for reviewing professional qualifications other than MHKIE for the purpose of recognition of registration by the Board and nomination procedures for representatives of ERB in serving external committees.

Ir Hsu started his career in Singapore and moved on to the United States before joining Johnson Controls for over 25 years with responsibility for developing the company's growth strategy in Asia. A thirty-fold sales increase was achieved during this period. He retired from Johnson Controls as Vice President and Managing Director of its Asia Pacific operations.

Ir Kenneth Hsu (R) receiving the HKIE President's Award from President Ir Dr Andrew Chan