Leo Goodstadt, top adviser in Hong Kong’s pre-handover government with a ‘passionate interest’ in the city, dies aged 81
- As head of the Central Policy Unit, he devised strategies on political, economic and social issues for Hong Kong’s last two governors
- He was one of the city’s greatest friends, says Chris Patten
Leo Goodstadt, the pre-handover government’s top adviser and a long-time observer of Hong Kong’s development, has died at age 81.
Chris Patten, Hong Kong’s last governor before its return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, commended Goodstadt for his contribution to the development of social policy which sought to spread the city’s prosperity to larger numbers of people.
Kung Kao Po, the Catholic diocese of Hong Kong’s weekly newspaper, reported on its website on Tuesday that the devout Catholic died in Dublin, Ireland, on April 24.
The Wales-born man arrived in Hong Kong in 1962 as a Commonwealth scholar to undertake research in land economics after studying economics at the Universities of Manchester and Oxford. Two years later, he was appointed a lecturer in economics at the University of Hong Kong.
He served as deputy editor of the now-defunct Far Eastern Economic Review from 1966 to 1976, with special responsibility for the coverage of China and Hong Kong. The magazine, which was headquartered in Hong Kong, closed down in 2004.
