Fifteen years after co-founding Tencent, Charles stepped down. He had other plans—tinged with a philanthropic slant, and with more focus. “I remember it very clearly,” he says. “On May 24, 2013, shortly after I had stepped down from my role at Tencent, I wrote in my diary a wish to establish a prize that goes beyond religion, race and nationality, and to encourage reflections on the universe and contributions to humanity.”

This wish would manifest itself as the Yidan Prize.

“I wanted to set up a platform that would allow the global community to share new ideas and discuss issues related to the current and future development of education and its effect on future generations,” he says. “To me, education is the fundamental driving force for social progress.”

The Yidan Prize

The Yidan Prize was established in 2016 to give educational innovators the recognition and support Charles felt they deserved, but with a wider mission of both advancing global social development and creating a better world through education. The Yidan Prize is the world’s largest educational prize—it comprises two awards, one for Education Research and one for Education Development, each worth HK$30 million.

“Its main point is never about the money,” says Charles. “Its focus is to put the spotlight on the best and the brightest the world has to offer so that their groundbreaking work will become available to all and benefit the many.”

This vision has become ever more apparent as the Yidan Prize’s scope has expanded. Not only is it an award with an associated ceremony aimed at gathering like-minded individuals, but it has also spawned a number of other initiatives, including research in the form of the Worldwide Educating for the Future Index (WEFFI), a benchmarking tool for policymakers and a resource to highlight best practices from across the globe; and events such as the Yidan Prize Summit, a conference that gathers global change-makers in education together to engage in conversation and to play a role in educational philanthropy.

See also: 10 Philanthropy Prizes That Are Changing The World

Forward thinkers

This year’s Yidan Prize winners are Usha Goswami—professor of cognitive developmental neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, who receives the Yidan Prize for Education Research for her work in the field of literacy, neuroscience and education that enables transformative educational interventions to benefit millions of children worldwide—and Fazle Hasan Abed, founder and chair emeritus of Bangladesh’s BRAC, the world’s largest NGO. Abed wins the 2019 Yidan Prize for Education Development for his project Play Labs, which revolutionises how the poorest and most vulnerable children can access high-quality, affordable early education.

In a rapidly transforming world, education, broadly speaking, has barely changed, but Goswami and Abed’s initiatives seek to establish how it must develop to meet the needs of tomorrow, addressing both the fast pace of technological change and increased longevity. Essential in Charles’ view is also a focus on lifelong education, of which he is a committed proponent.

Learning is a lifelong journey

Charles tells Tatler that grit and perseverance are the keys to achieving dreams, and he values the importance of staying open-minded in an increasingly globalised and diverse world.

“By embracing my unexpected path of education, the lesson I learned is to keep an open mind in every opportunity because you will meet people and things that shape your life,” he says, crediting his journey through education not only with meeting his fellow Tencent co-founders but also the woman who is now his wife, whom he met at university and who makes him feel “like the luckiest man alive.”

Most of all, Charles values continuing education—earlier this year he earned a doctorate in business administration from the Singapore Management University. “Our educational journey does not end when we leave school,” he says. “It is a lifelong journey.”

“Education unlocks endless possibilities,” he adds. “With ongoing learning, this increasingly globalised, connected, diverse world will always be your oyster.”

See also: Yuri And Julia Milner: Breakthrough Prize Founders On Philanthropy, Science And The Search For Alien Life