Dr. York Yat-Ngok Chow is an orthopaedic surgeon by profession, and graduated from HKU. Dr. Chow has served as the Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at the Princess Margaret Hospital in 1983 and the Consultant Orthpaedic Surgeon at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital from 1984 – 1992. His professional interest included traumatology, the cervical spine, musculoskeletal oncology and limb-saving reconstructive surgery.
With the establishment of the Hospital Authority, Dr Chow switched over to hospital and healthcare administration. He was appointed Hospital Chief Executive of Queen Elizabeth Hospital in 1992 and Hospital Chief Executive of Queen Mary Hospital in 2001. He was subsequently appointed Cluster Chief Executive of the Hong Kong West Cluster of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority in 2002.
Dr. Chow was appointed by the Chief Executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Central Government to be the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food from 2004 to 2007, and again the Secretary for Food and Health from 2007 to 2012.
Dr. Chow was appointed as the Chairperson of Equal Opportunities Commission from April 2013 to March 2016.
He joined the AIA Hong Kong and Macau Ltd as its Chief Medical Officer and Corporate Advisor since January 2017.