Trailblazer in Legacy Leadership: Hong Wei Liao Featured in Exclusive Interview on Her Lifelong Mission to Uplift Others
From building generational wealth to empowering women and youth, Toronto-based philanthropist shares her personal journey and quiet philosophy of impact
TORONTO, ON / / May 12, 2025 / Internationally respected community leader and legacy strategist Hong Wei Liao has been featured in a new exclusive interview titled "A Life of Quiet Impact: Hong Wei Liao on Legacy, Leadership, and Lifting Others." In this thoughtful, semi-biographical profile, Ms. Liao reflects on her journey from her early life in Hunan, China, to becoming one of Toronto's most impactful behind-the-scenes forces in community building and philanthropy.
The article explores how Liao, Chair of the Botrich Family Wealth Heritage and Development Center, leads with clarity and compassion, helping high-net-worth families plan their futures while remaining deeply committed to empowering those with less. She shares personal stories and offers insights into her decades of work mentoring young leaders, sponsoring arts education, and advocating for gender equity in business and public life.
"I believe legacy is about what we leave in people, not just what we leave to them," says Liao in the feature. That mindset has guided her work across multiple fields, including wealth development, women's leadership, youth mentorship, and arts programming.
The article highlights her long-standing support of the Canada Youth Funding Association (CYFA), her mentorship of future entrepreneurs-including a 3D tech startup founder-and her sponsorship of educational programs that have helped students gain admission to top global universities. Liao has also played a key role in events such as the Global Kids Icon Grand Finals and Vancouver Beauty Dance World, fostering creative expression and cultural connection through the performing arts.
Despite receiving honors such as the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, the King Charles III Coronation Medal, and the WORLD MADAM Honorary Champion title, Liao remains humble about her achievements.
"Leadership is about serving quietly," she says. "Not showing off, but showing up."
The feature paints a picture of a woman driven not by ambition, but by a deep commitment to building a better future-one relationship, one opportunity, and one act of generosity at a time.
About Hong Wei Liao
Hong Wei Liao is an investor, philanthropist, and mentor based in Toronto, Canada. She is the Chair of the Botrich Family Wealth Heritage and Development Center and a lifelong supporter of youth empowerment, women's leadership, and global philanthropy. She holds a master's degree and has received several honors for her service to the community.
To read the full interview, click here.
Contact: info@hongweiliao.com
SOURCE: Hong Wei Liao
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
16 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Xcel president: Minnesota can meet data center energy demands and 2040 carbon-free mandate
An aerial view of the Prairie Island Nuclear Power Plant, near Red Wing, Minnesota along the Mississippi River. The two pressurized water reactors produce approximately 1,100 megawatts. (BanksPhotos via Getty Images) The intra-DFL rift between labor unions whose members build data centers and progressives skeptical of corporate giveaways was on full display at the Capitol last week as lawmakers considered extending generous tax breaks for data centers' purchases of computers, software and energy equipment. It was also evident in a May 28 energy webinar featuring top utility executives, state officials and representatives from regional labor, agriculture and environmental groups. The conversation came as Minnesota utilities weigh proposals for thousands of megawatts of new data center capacity, representing new electric consumption equal to millions of homes. As other construction sectors falter amid high interest rates and sluggish demand, union laborers and tradespeople see an opportunity in building data centers and the power plants to run them. 'We need to be involved in the next iteration of energy development here in Minnesota,' said Joe Fowler, business manager for Laborers International Union of North America Local 563. To labor, that means building not only the wind, solar and battery plants that will form the backbone of Minnesota's future electric grid, but large industrial facilities to soak up the power they produce. Others in the left-of-center coalition say unfettered data center growth could jeopardize progress toward the state's statutory target of 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040 while threatening grid reliability and raising costs for ordinary utility customers. 'We want to bring on large users like data centers, but not to the exclusion of others,' said Margaret Cherne-Hendrick, CEO of St. Paul-based Fresh Energy, a policy and communications shop focused on clean energy. Though the data center boom was the elephant in the room, the conversation touched on some of the broader challenges issues facing Minnesota electric utilities, workers and customers as a dysfunctional state legislative session limps to a close and federal policymakers get closer to passing a budget bill that cuts taxes for the rich and Medicaid for the poor while, experts say, raising power prices for everyone. Developers have proposed nearly 9,000 megawatts of new data center capacity across Xcel Energy's eight-state territory, CEO Bob Frenzel said in October, or almost 9 million homes' worth of electricity consumption. Data centers alone account for about half of Xcel's expected 5% annual sales growth through 2029. Xcel expects Minnesota's share of that growth to be about 1,300 megawatts over the next seven to eight years, said Ryan Long, Xcel's president for Minnesota and the Dakotas. That's up from 60 megawatts of total capacity as of early last year. 'The curve is up and to the right,' Long told Energy Futures Initiative Foundation CEO and former U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz on the webinar. 'It's shifted from us trying to attract (data center) companies to Minnesota to them knocking on our doors.' Smaller utilities like Dakota Electric Association are also gearing up for massive amounts of data center development, CEO Ryan Hentges said later on the webinar. Projects proposed for Dakota Electric territory include a 12-building, 340-acre Farmington campus that residents are suing to stop. But the demand won't hit all at once, Hentges said. 'One gigawatt is not all going to happen next year,' he said. 'It's going to happen over time, and that gives us more time to plan.' The short answer is yes, according to Long. Even with the influx predicted over the next five years, Xcel is on track to shut down its three remaining Minnesota coal units by 2030 and meet the interim state goal of 80% clean power by 2030, he said. 'These are aging, somewhat inefficient plants and we are blessed to live in a region that has excellent renewable resources,' he said. Xcel could partner on future 'clean firm' power projects with big tech companies, which have their own sustainability goals, Long added. Google, utility NV Energy and power developer Fervo Energy recently announced a geothermal power partnership in Nevada, while Meta, Amazon and Microsoft have all inked splashy nuclear deals. Nuclear and geothermal both produce carbon-free power without relying on variable weather conditions. Those partnerships could eventually help wean Minnesota off natural gas power despite uncertainty around federal support for cleaner technologies, said Sydnie Lieb, assistant commissioner with the Minnesota Department of Commerce. 'In the absence of the federal government continuing to push development of clean firm resources, we are thinking about what the state can do,' she said. Big data centers could also cover at least some of the cost of new transmission infrastructure needed to serve them, easing the burden on existing ratepayers, Hentges added. But the state needs to ensure Minnesota data centers fully decarbonize their operations over time, including onsite backup generators that today generally run on natural gas or diesel, Cherne-Hendrick said. It also needs to push data centers to pay into state-administered equity programs facing sharp federal funding cuts, like the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, she said. Also no, Long said, despite the Trump administration's claims to the contrary. Last month, Trump invoked an obscure law to order a Michigan coal plant to operate past its planned May 31 retirement date. Moniz, the former U.S. Energy Secretary, asked whether he could do the same in another Midwestern state committed to transitioning off coal. Xcel is 'obviously paying a lot of attention' to the issue but isn't changing its coal retirement plans, which have been in the works for years and won't affect system reliability, Long said. He allowed that Minnesota will need gas power plants for many years, though they'll increasingly serve as backup for renewables, nuclear and long-duration batteries. Xcel plans to build a new 'hydrogen-capable' gas plant in southwestern Minnesota that will likely operate past 2040. Building new wind, solar and battery plants has been cheaper than running existing coal plants for years, in part because renewable power requires far less labor to operate and maintain. Fowler said that's a challenge for unions like LIUNA, whose work in the power sector increasingly focuses on facilities that more or less run themselves. And LIUNA members are uneasy about the future. 'Our job is to work ourselves out of a job — we build something and then move onto the next project,' he said. A February settlement between Xcel and Minnesota's utility regulator pushes the utility to expand training opportunities for underrepresented populations and work with labor on workforce transitions at retiring power plants. The training partnership has already produced around 100 graduates who can now work on new power plant or data center construction projects, Fowler said. 'There are real benefits the state will see from … having citizens who feel like their job is waiting out there,' he said. Wind and solar development is a double-edged sword for rural communities, where income-earning opportunities for landowners clash with concerns about removing prime farmland from production, said Anne Schwagerl, vice president with Minnesota Farmers Union. To demystify the issue and strengthen members' negotiating position with power developers, Minnesota Farmers Union plans to update its five-year-old 'farmers' guide' to renewable energy. But the best way to ensure durable rural support for clean energy is to give farm communities more skin in the game, Schwagerl said. Right now, for example, conglomerates barge most of the fertilizer used on Minnesota farms up the Mississippi River from massive factories on the Gulf Coast. Minnesota Farmers Union wants to see more local production, ideally led by rural cooperatives using excess wind power with support from federal and state green fertilizer grants, Schwagerl said. 'Our thinking is that the green transition is happening,' she said. 'We're seeing it in agriculture as in energy, and it would be a big bummer to us if it ended up being owned by the same multinational megacorporations.'
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
UBTECH Teams Up with HKU to Advance AI Education across the Greater Bay Area
HONG KONG, June 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- On June 6, UBTECH Education and the Centre for Information Technology in Education (CITE), part of the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), hosted the official launch of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) Artificial Intelligence Education Development Initiative at HKU. Held under the theme "AI Empowers Future Education, Technology Drives Innovation in the Greater Bay Area," the event highlighted the region's commitment to integrating AI into next-generation educational systems. The inauguration of Artificial Intelligence Education & Teacher Development Center was also held in conjunction with the event. Through collaboration with CITE, UBTECH Education is working to build a pipeline of AI-competent educators. The joint initiative focuses on cultivating AI fluency among teachers and supporting talent development in STEM and innovation through both local and global professional development programs for GBA-based educators. Building an AI Education Infrastructure in the GBALaunch of the Greater Bay Area AI School Alliance In recent years, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government has prioritized artificial intelligence in its development roadmap. The Hong Kong Education Bureau has introduced a dedicated AI Curriculum Module in middle schools, mandating 10 to 14 hours of AI education for students in Secondary 1 through 3 within the ICT curriculum. As part of this broader effort, the HKSAR Government's AI Education Initiative targets reaching 95% of the region's schools by 2025. To date, 82% of primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong have already integrated AI into their teaching programs. In line with Hong Kong's educational policies, the UBTECH Education-CITE partnership is establishing a collaborative academic-industry platform for AI teaching content and educator training. Plans include building AI demonstration labs in Hong Kong's primary and secondary schools, with further expansion across Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macao—and ultimately into international markets—positioning Hong Kong as a global reference point in AI education. Both organizations will work together to establish AI education and research centers across Hong Kong, with the broader goal of creating a global AI talent certification network that spans more than 100 countries and regions, covering both K-12 and vocational learning pathways. This initiative is designed to support educator professional growth and drive improvements in AI education quality throughout the GBA. Embodied AI as a Catalyst for STEM and Innovation Learning Debuts in Hong Kong Tien Kung—the world's first humanoid robot to complete a half-marathon—was showcased at the event. Serving as a powerful symbol of embodied AI, humanoid robots are reshaping the future of education by enabling new forms of experiential and research-based learning. In partnership with the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, UBTECH Education is advancing the deployment of embodied intelligence technologies for educational and research applications through an integrated suite of solutions. Anchored by the Tien Kung humanoid robot platform, UBTECH has rolled out the "Scientific Research and Co-Creation Program," already adopted by Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tianjin University and other top-level institutions, with over 100 units ordered. Tien Kung's debut at HKU marks a significant step toward broader adoption across Hong Kong's universities. At the K-12 level, UBTECH Education is applying its humanoid robotics expertise to enhance public STEM education and innovation capabilities. These efforts are designed to accelerate AI curriculum integration and link scientific instruction with real-world applications. The partnership with CITE also marks the official launch of UBTECH's new instructional model, "Embodied Intelligence Empowering Science Education and Innovation," within Hong Kong's education system. During the roundtable forum at the event, participants from HKU, industry leaders, and educators from schools across the GBA, engaged in a strategic dialogue on the "Development and Internationalization of AI Education in the Greater Bay Area." The alliance between UBTECH Education and the CITE represents the first dual track education-technology collaboration designed to build a robust ecosystem for AI education across Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao. The joint effort aims to position Hong Kong as a global leader in AI curriculum development and talent export. Leveraging the GBA as a strategic launchpad, the program seeks to build a transnational AI education and innovation network aligned with the Belt and Road Initiative and broader international efforts. Additionally, the program will support cross-border talent mobility, enhance workforce readiness in AI-related fields across the GBA, and contribute meaningfully to the advancement of Hong Kong's broader innovation and technology agenda. CONTACT: Hua He, View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE UBTECH
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Hurco: Fiscal Q2 Earnings Snapshot
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Hurco Cos. (HURC) on Friday reported a loss of $4.1 million in its fiscal second quarter. The Indianapolis-based company said it had a loss of 62 cents per share. The manufacturer of computerized machine tools for the metal cutting industry posted revenue of $40.9 million in the period. _____ This story was generated by Automated Insights ( using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on HURC at Sign in to access your portfolio
