Mike Rowse first came to Hong Kong in 1972 and has lived there ever since. After brief spells as a tutor and a tabloid journalist, he joined the Independent Commission Against Corruption on its establishment in 1974. After working in both the Operations and Corruption Prevention Departments, he joined the Government proper in 1980 as an Administrative Officer. After a variety of different postings, Mike was appointed as the first Commissioner for Tourism. He was the lead negotiator with the Walt Disney Company which resulted in the building of Hong Kong Disneyland.

In July 2000, Mike set up Invest HK, the investment promotion agency established by the Hong Kong Government, and was its first Director-General up to his retirement in December 2008. The agency won several awards during his tenure.

Mike was chairman for five years of the public/private joint venture company which built and operated AsiaWorld-Expo. He was the first director of Hong Kong International Theme Parks Limited (which owns HK Disneyland), and an alternate director of the MTRC and KCRC among other statutory bodies.

In 2001, Mike became the first expatriate civil servant in Hong Kong’s history to naturalise as a Chinese National. He is a regular columnist for the South China Morning Post and he co-hosts a radio programme on RTHK weekly.