Evan Auyang

Auyang’s Chinese name is romanized as Au Yang Chi-chun; in documents of Hong Kong listed companies and the government, his English name is also written as Evan Au Yang Chi-chun or AU YANG Chi Chun Evan.⁠[1][2][3]

He is a member of Brown University’s class of 1994, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science, and later earned a Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in the United States.⁠[4][3]

His first job was at Bankers Trust; he then joined Citigroup’s derivatives structuring and marketing unit, and he held positions in structured finance and foreign exchange at two international financial institutions in Hong Kong and Singapore. Recalling his work in derivatives markets during his brief time in finance, he said, “We were like: ‘Oh, my God, this stuff can really do a lot of damage.’”⁠[5][6][7][8][5]

He later joined McKinsey & Company as an associate partner and was a leader of its Transport, Infrastructure & Logistics Practice, advising senior management of multinational and Chinese enterprises on strategy.⁠[7][8]

In October 2009, Auyang joined The Kowloon Motor Bus Company (1933) Limited (KMB), where he served as Deputy Managing Director. KMB is one of Hong Kong’s bus operators; as of 2026, it had about 4,000 buses carrying about 2.5 million passengers a day. He described buses as a “public service that is for profit,” saying “that power is absolutely amazing.”⁠[9][8][5][5]

At KMB, he had to deal with the operational realities of running a bus company, such as how the way an engine is mounted affects how a bus runs; adjusting an unprofitable route also required negotiating with local politicians and officials. “It’s all about the relationship, the respect,” he said.⁠[5][5][5]

From May 20, 2010, Auyang served as a director of Transport International Holdings Limited, KMB’s listed parent company, as well as of KMB and Long Win Bus Company; Transport International’s 2010 annual report listed him as Deputy Managing Director of Transport International, KMB, and Long Win Bus.⁠[9][10]

From 2016 to 2020, Auyang was a managing director at the expert network Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG) and head of GLG International (Europe, Middle East, Africa & Asia-Pacific). In 2017–18, he was GLG’s Head of Asia-Pacific, running its business across 10 offices; in 2018–19, he was Head of GLG International, with a business spanning 15 locations across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific.⁠[3][11][12]

On November 30, 2017, the Hong Kong SAR Government announced that the Chief Executive had appointed Au Yang as a non-official non-executive director of the Urban Renewal Authority Board for a three-year term from December 1, 2017, to November 30, 2020.⁠[2]

On May 21, 2021, Au Yang was elected an independent non-executive director at the annual general meeting of Asia Financial Holdings Limited and was appointed chairperson of its Nomination Committee and Compliance Committee and a member of its Audit, Remuneration, and Risk Committees; the announcement gave his age as 49 at the time.⁠[3][3][3][3]

On October 7, 2021, Animoca Brands announced the appointment of Auyang as group president, along with the appointments of co-founder Yat Siu as group executive chairman and managing director and Robby Yung as CEO of its North American operations. At the time of his appointment, he had 27 years of experience spanning finance, management consulting, and corporate leadership. Yat Siu said Auyang brought essential capabilities in strategic thinking, organizational leadership, and execution; Auyang said he was proud to join Yat Siu and the leadership team in shaping the company’s next stage of growth.⁠[7][7][7][7]

He recalled that he met Yat Siu during his time at KMB; when he was preparing to leave GLG, Siu initially asked whether he would consider joining Animoca’s board. He said he told Siu at the time, “I’m not a tech guy,” and after looking at the company concluded that it did not “really have a team. It’s really you.”⁠[5][5][5][5]

In April 2022, Auyang, as group president of Animoca Brands, was interviewed on Friday Beyond Spotlights, an English-language program of the Hong Kong International Business Channel. He said Hong Kong’s open capitalist system attracts many venture capital and private equity firms, and that its international environment helps companies attract global talent; at the time, about 500 of Animoca Brands’ roughly 600 employees were from overseas, and the company had grown into a $5 billion business with more than 2,500 investors. He also said that, unlike traditional free-to-play games, play-to-earn games let players own and freely sell in-game assets.⁠[6][6][6][6][6]

In February 2025, Animoca Brands, Standard Chartered, and HKT announced the formation of the joint venture Anchorpoint, which became one of the first applicants after Hong Kong opened applications for stablecoin licenses in August of that year; Auyang pushed Animoca into the stablecoin venture and had to persuade colleagues at the company to shift toward stablecoins. He said Animoca needed to partner with established institutions that understood regulation and could work with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority: “We need adults in the room.”⁠[5][5][5][5][5][5]

In April 2026, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority approved just two of 36 applicants: Anchorpoint and HSBC. Auyang stressed that Anchorpoint was an independent entity and declined to speak for it; he said Anchorpoint was not trying to be “the next Tether” but aimed to be regulated infrastructure and to be there first, bringing Greater China and the local capital markets on-chain.⁠[5][5][5][5]

In mid-August 2026, Auyang was interviewed for Fortune’s Asia Agenda column; in the interview published on September 25, 2026, Fortune described the résumé of this leader of one of Hong Kong’s most prominent Web 3.0 startups as “odd”: finance, consulting, and a stint as deputy managing director of KMB. Comparing blockchains to buses, he said a bus lowers the cost for each passenger to reach their destination and that not every route has to be profitable; he argued that a blockchain, like a bus, should be a public platform with “a greater obligation to serve the public.”⁠[5][5][5][5][5]

He said the value of stablecoins lies in connecting unbanked people to the financial system: “Somebody with 10 Hong Kong dollars ought to be able to invest.” He did not regard Animoca’s launch of the AI agent service Minds as a pivot but as “an extension of capability”; he acknowledged that the company’s original digital ownership model had worked more slowly than expected and said that in large language models, the winner is “not going to be Animoca.”⁠[5][5][5][5][5]

He criticized excessive speculation in the crypto industry, arguing that launching tokens gave founders capital “that you’re not supposed to do anything with, to buy Ferraris with,” and that among the current generation “the culture of gambling has become very, very real”; asked about prediction markets, he said, “It’s very much gambling.” He also defended Animoca’s then-planned listing on Nasdaq through a reverse merger with Currenc Group, arguing that a listing would help give the company discipline and access to capital.⁠[5][5][5][5]

On September 22, 2026, after the interview, Animoca Brands announced that it was suspending its merger talks with Currenc Group following a review of the projected closing timelines and evolving market conditions, while stating that it remained fully committed to relisting on a major public exchange.⁠[5][5][5]

As of October 2026, Auyang was also an independent non-executive director of two listed companies, Sun Hung Kai & Co. and Asia Financial Holdings Limited; a board director of the Innovation City Authority of Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates; chair of the public policy think tank Civic Exchange; and a board member of Voyage, a nonprofit focused on poverty and youth. He also held advisory roles at Our Hong Kong Foundation, the Web3 Development Task Force’s Subcommittee on Ecosystem and Infrastructure, the Hong Kong Council of Social Service’s Development Fund Committee, and Brown University’s Institute at Brown for Environment and Society.⁠[13][13][13][13][14]

In 2017–18, he was a member of the Advisory Committee on Corruption of the Independent Commission Against Corruption; after becoming group president of Animoca Brands, he also served as a member of the Fintech Advisory Group of Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission, the Innovation and Technology Advisory Committee of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, and the Transport Policy Committee of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Hong Kong, and as a lecturer at the Hong Kong Academy of Politics and Public Policy.⁠[11][1][1][1][1]

Animoca Brands: Official website: https://www.animocabrands.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[13]

X: Public account: https://x.com/EvanAuyang (opens in a new window)⁠[13]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evanauyang (opens in a new window)⁠[13]