Michael DeGolyer is a Research Fellow at Civic Exchange, Hong Kong’s only independent public policy think tank. He was the Director of the Hong Kong Transition Project during its 30-year history, from 1989 to 2018. The project tracked the Hong Kong people’s transition from British subjects to Chinese citizens. Over 120 surveys and survey reports were produced by the project. Many of these reports will be on the newly launched Hong Kong-focused Public Policy Research Platform.
DeGolyer was a Professor of Government and International Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University and Director of the university’s M.A. in Public Administration Programme until 2015. As Director of the M.A. in Public Administration Programme, he sought and got approved from the Beijing side, but not the Hong Kong Baptist University side due to repercussions from Occupy Central, for an innovative, confidence-building exchange program bringing entry and mid-level mainland civil servants to Hong Kong to study for up to one year and sending Hong Kong public administration students on extended study tours to Beijing. He also wrote for The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Hong Kong-Macau economic and political risk reports from 1998 to 2008. He was President of the Hong Kong Political Science Association, V.P. of the Hong Kong Public Administration Association, was twice elected by Higher Education Functional Constituency voters to the Chief Executive Election Committee, and was thus one of 1,200 people in Hong Kong empowered to vote for the Chief Executive.
