HKIAC welcomes new Secretary-General

PRESS RELEASE
Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre welcomes Joanne Lau as Secretary General

The Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC) is pleased to announce that Joanne Lau will join HKIAC as Secretary General with effect from 26 February 2024. 

Joanne will succeed Dr. Mariel Dimsey who will return to CMS to become Local Managing Partner of the Hong Kong office.

Joanne joins HKIAC after over a decade with Allen & Overy, where she focused on international arbitration and became a partner in 2021, building and managing a successful international arbitration practice as part of the leadership team.

As a seasoned arbitration specialist, Joanne will bring to HKIAC a wealth of expertise from her experience as counsel, advocate and arbitrator. She has handled a wide variety of cases, including both commercial and investor state arbitrations, across multiple sectors, jurisdictions, and arbitral rules. She is dual-qualified in Hong Kong and England & Wales.

Joanne has a long association with HKIAC, having previously served on the HK45 committee, where she held the position of Co-Chair from 2020 to 2022, and on the HKIAC Proceedings Committee. A Hong Kong native, Joanne is fully trilingual in English, Cantonese and Mandarin. She graduated from the University of Oxford with a first-class honours degree in law.

Rimsky Yuen GBM, SC, JP, Co-Chair of HKIAC and Senior Counsel at Temple Chambers, says “We thank Mariel for her commitment, dedication and contribution during her tenure as the Secretary General. Whilst we know that Mariel will continue to support HKIAC, we wish her every success in her new chapter of life. We welcome Joanne Lau as the new Secretary General. With her experience and leadership, I am confident HKIAC will continue to set new benchmarks for excellence and innovation.”

David W. Rivkin, Co-Chair of HKIAC and an Independent Arbitrator affiliated with Arbitration Chambers, says “It has been a pleasure to work with Mariel. She has led the Secretariat with clarity and wisdom. We received many strong applications to replace Mariel, but we were thrilled that Joanne expressed a desire to become our Secretary General. The combination of her extensive experience leading a major international arbitration practice, her close ties to the Hong Kong community, her intellectual ability, and her language skills make her uniquely qualified to lead HKIAC. I have no doubt that Joanne will further strengthen HKIAC as one of the preeminent arbitration institutions in the world.”

Joanne says “As a practitioner, I have benefited from the excellent services of HKIAC for many years under the leadership of my predecessors, so I am honoured to have the opportunity to take the baton. I look forward to working with the HKIAC team, and our Council and committee members. We will continuously strive for improvement in delivering top quality services to our users.”

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Media Contact
Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre
Marnie Shaw
Tel: +852 2525 2381
Email: mshaw@hkiac.org