M.T. Geoffrey Yeh

CEEAA Distinguished Alumni Award, 2010

For management of construction and property development companies instrumental in rebuilding Hong Kong after WWII; for development and application of innovative construction tools; for outstanding civic leadership; and for long-standing philanthropic support to several universities including the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois.

Biography

M.T. Geoffrey Yeh received his B.S. degree with honors from the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1953 and his M.A. degree from Harvard University in 1954.  He holds an honorary doctorate from St. John’s University in Queens, NY, (1982).

Born in 1931 in Shanghai, China, Yeh is a Fellow of Chartered Institute of Building, UK; Fellow of the Hong Kong Institute of Directors; Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Construction Managers; and Honorary Fellow of the Asian Institute of Intelligent Buildings.

In addition to serving as Chairman of Hsin Chong Int’l Holdings Ltd., he holds directorships in numerous companies both public-listed and private.  During his career, Yeh pioneered various cost- and time-saving construction innovations in Hong Kong that are now in use by all construction companies throughout the region.

He was Chairman of the Hong Kong Construction Industry Training Authority in 1975 and Chairman of the Hong Kong Futures Exchange in 1998.

Yeh established the M.T. Geoffrey Yeh Graduate Research Fellowship in the department in 1994 and the M.T. Geoffrey Yeh Endowed Chair Fund in 1998.  In 2007, he pledged the lead gift for the Yeh Student Center in Newmark Laboratory.  His philanthropy has also included gifts to Harvard University, St. John’s University, Stanford University, Peking University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Hong Kong Baptist University.  Yeh is an Honorary Court Member of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Hong Kong Baptist University.  He is also a Member of the President’s Council of the University of Illinois Foundation.

In 1976 he was conferred Justice of the Peace and in 1981, the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.  In 2000, he was conferred the Silver Bauhinia Star by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of PRC.  He was the Honorary Consul of Jamaica in Hong Kong from 1984-2002, and was awarded the Badge of Honor for Meritorious Services (BHM) by His Excellency the Governor-General of Jamaica in 2003.

Yeh and his wife, Helen, have a son, V-Nee; a daughter, Yvette; and three grandchildren.