Ex-convicts are more than just a number for accountant with a heart
Thomas Lau helps former prisoners regain their dignity by giving them jobs in his company
As a devout Christian, Thomas Lau Kam-tai signed up to serve convicts in jail some years ago. Before his first visit to Tong Fuk Correctional Institution, he’d pictured big menacing guys covered in tattoos.
“People turned out to be quite mild and civil,” Lau says, remembering how he came to let down his guard. “In fact, a lot of them came across rather wilted. Many of them used to have ‘face’ in their communities, but now they were reduced to caged up underdogs. It was sad to see.”
The experience of interacting with the prisoners stayed with Lau, even after he stopped making visits. So an idea sparked from within when an ex-convict friend suggested to Lau, how about helping those who are out?
“I realised they don’t need ‘help’ per se. They have just lost direction and need someone to walk together with them the path of a new life.”
Lau, a US-trained Certified Public Accountant and Chartered Global Management Accountant who once worked for a prestigious Big Four, decided to make use of what he knew. In 2013 he opened his own accounting firm, Navigator Consultancy, in the humble neighbourhood of Yau Ma Tei, and hired ex-cons to work there.