Yolanda Ma
Programme Lead – AI Innovation Concentration and Lecturer
yolandam@hku.hk
Yolanda Ma is an award-winning cross-disciplinary professional with more than a decade of experience in digital transformation, international development, impact investment, social innovation, and data journalism.
Yolanda has spent almost a decade with the United Nations Development Programme, based first in Bangkok (2014 – 2019) and later in New York (2019 – 2023), where she worked on digital transformation and social innovation initiatives that have impacted more than 100 countries.
Before joining the United Nations, Yolanda had pioneering roles leading digital initiatives in media organisations. She has built a team to deliver data visualisation products at Thomson Reuters, and served as the very first social media editor at the South China Morning Post.
Yolanda has also been active in other professional engagements. She is a current judge for the SOPA award, a former jury member for the Sigmas Award/ Data Journalism Award (2017 – 2022), and once a Practitioner Fellow at the Digital Civil Society Lab with Stanford University (2021 – 2023). She is also a frequent speaker at international forums and reputable platforms, such as WEF and GIJN.