Prof. Tam Kar Yan

Vice-President for Administration and Business

Chair Professor, Department of Information Systems, Business Statistics and Operations Management

School of Business and Management

HKUST

Prof Kar Yan TAM, currently Vice-President for Administration and Business of the HKUST Business School and Chair Professor of Information Systems, Business Statistics and Operations Management (ISOM), has been with the University since 1992. He received his PhD from Purdue University and started off his academic career at the University of Texas, Austin. He joined HKUST in 1992 as a founding member of the Business School. He was the Associate Dean of the Business School from 1999 to 2006. From 2005 to 2007, he was on secondment to the Office of Vice-President for Academic Affairs as Associate Vice-President for Academic Affairs (AVPAA). From 2007 to 2016, he was the Associate Provost and Dean of Students.

Prof Tam is well experienced in the work of undergraduate education. As AVPAA, he has been involved in the development of academic development plan as well as in the 3-3-4 conversion planning. In his capacity as the Associate Dean of the Business School from 1999 to 2006, he was responsible for all undergraduate programs in the School. He launched the highly successful Global Business Program in 2000 and had been the Director of the Program through 2006. He was also the Co-director of the dual-degree program in Technology Management from 2002 to 2007. As Director of International and Mainland Students and Programs Office, he has been leading the University’s internationalization efforts to recruit top students from the Mainland and overseas.

Prof Tam is currently appointed to a number of education and technology policy groups including the Research Grants Council, Curriculum Development Council, Self-financing Post-Secondary Education Committee of EDB, and the Hong Kong Deposit Protection Board.

As a researcher, Prof Tam’s interests lie in electronic commerce and big data. He is currently on the editorial board of a number of IS journals. He has also served as a consultant to a number of corporations and government offices.