20th Anniversary of the Appointment of Canada’s First Asian Lieutenant Governor, David C. Lam
David Lam was born in Hong Kong in 1923. After completing an economics degree at Lingnan University in China, he went to Temple University in Philadelphia for his MBA and was a candidate for the Ph.D Program at New York University. In 1954, he completed the Advanced Management Program in Hong Kong, conducted by Harvard University, and embarked on an 18-year career in banking, capped by his position as Director and Chief Manager of the Ka Wah Bank Ltd.
In 1967, he arrived in Vancouver, from Hong Kong, with few assets, but after acquiring a diploma in Real Estate Appraisal in 1972, went on to a career as a developer and real estate investor and helped shape Vancouver’s skyline. He became the Chairman and President of Canadian International Properties Ltd., and donated considerable sums of money to developing and encouraging the social culture of the Chinese community and the broader community of his adopted province and country.
Among many other activities, Dr. Lam served as Chairman of the Baptist Medical Board for Hong Kong Baptist Hospital (1955-67); as Chairman of Hong Kong Baptist College (1957-67); as a member of the Board of Governors for Hong Kong Baptist College; as Trustee of the Chancellor’s Circle of the university of British Columbia; and as Patron of the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden Society of Vancouver. He was also the founder and president of both the Floribunda Philanthropic Society and the David and Dorothy Lam Foundation. In his lifetime of achievement, he has been honoured with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of British Columbia and the Order of Canada.
On September 9, 1988, Dr. Lam was sworn in as the 25th Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia. In his role as Lieutenant Governor, Dr. Lam believed his job to be that of a “healer of wounds, a matchmaker of sorts between people of different views, and one who offers encouragement and inspiration.” He made more than 300 speeches a year. In his words, “the world is changing whether we like it or not. It’s so important that change becomes our friend and not our enemy.”