Laurence Lien is co-founder and CEO of the Asia Philanthropy Circle, a non-profit membership platform for Asian philanthropists to exchange, coordinate and collaborate. The grandson of late banker and philanthropist Lien Ying Chow is also chairman of the Lien Foundation, a philanthropic house founded by his grandfather in 1980.

Among various initiatives, Lien Foundation is focused on eldercare and early childhood development in Singapore, as well as care for the dying. He also chairs Lien Aid, the foundation’s humanitarian arm.

In September 2023, he also announced the launch of a new non‑profit organisation that he co‑founded: the Asia Community Foundation (ACF), a philanthropic advisory that is poised to help new donors give more strategically and with greater impact to charities across Asia.

The rise of family offices and the launch of ACF are interconnected. “The number one primary target [for ACF] is new givers—those who want to give more or give better. We see this as new private banking clients here, all the thousand plus new family offices that are [being] set up in Singapore.”

Lien explains that ACF was born out of a demand for services that many private banks are just not able to offer. “Very few are able to serve their clients when it comes to philanthropy, you know, provide the necessary services that the clients are asking for. Private banks want to work with us because we can help. One of our main products is donor‑advised funds that we make really easy for their clients to set up. These funds are essentially mini foundations. So you can essentially have a foundation without the headache of setting up a private foundation.”

As a former Nominated Member of Parliament, Lien spoke out on behalf of vulnerable groups such as the poor, elderly and the disabled. Lien was CEO of the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre for six years from 2008; this was also the year he founded the Community Foundation of Singapore, acting as its chairman until 2019.