Stuart Leckie is not a man to be envied. He is the only non-government member of the board of Exchange Fund Investment to have any professional experience in fund management.
The board, which will manage the Government's estimated $150 billion share portfolio amassed during the stock market intervention in August, has two other members with solid fund management experience - Amy Yip Yok-tak and Marian Li Chan Sien-mun - but both are employed by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.
Although they may carry out their duties with complete professionalism, they will always have the question of their independence hanging over them.
But then again, Mr Leckie may discover that it is not his fund management skills which are required. He is better known in many circles for his support of local rugby and could find that he has stepped into a scrum when he thought he was going to an investment committee meeting.
The simple difficulty is that fund management is a professional business best carried out by professionals in that business. You don't hire a bus driver to fly an aeroplane. You don't employ a gardener to build a bridge.
Yet what we have in this clutch of managers of our money is a retired judge, a lawyer, a professor, three politicians, four civil servants and only Mr Leckie to represent the required field of independent fund management.
The difficulties go further than this. We can assume that the board members know exactly how much the Government bought in August and of what stocks although the rest of us don't know despite the fact that it is our money.
