Lawrence Ting

Lawrence Ting Shan-li (Chinese: 丁善理; Vietnamese: Đinh Thiện Lý; January 25, 1939 – September 23, 2004) was a Taiwanese decorated soldier and businessman who became one of the largest foreign investors in Vietnam. As founder of Phu My Hung Corporation and Saigon South Urban Development Project, Ting was instrumental in the southward expansion of Ho Chi Minh City. Today, the neighborhood created by Ting has become “a new sustainable, inclusive, knowledge-based urban center.” Ting received the Ho Chi Minh City Medal of Honor in 1993 and Certificates of Merit of the Government of Vietnam from the Prime Minister in 1997 and 2001. In the 2013 Harvard Business Review article The Big Idea, Building Sustainable Cities, John Macomber of Harvard Business School chose Phu My Hung's Saigon South Development Project as one of the leading sustainable urban development examples in the world. He was posthumously bestowed the Friendship Order from President Nguyen Minh Triet in December 2007. Founded in 2008, Lawrence S. Ting School (Vietnamese: Trường THCS và THPT Đinh Thiện Lý) in Ho Chi Minh City, a private non-profit middle and high school, is named after him. In 2020, Taipei American School named its middle school Lawrence S. Ting Middle School in honor of Ting.