Ta Chun Hsu, former president of The Starr Foundation, was born in Beijing, China in 1918. He attended the University of Shanghai in Shanghai and was graduated with a B.S. in economics (Class of 1942) from Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania.

He earned his masters degree at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1944, and later studied insurance at Golden Gate College in San Francisco, California.

Mr. Hsu began his career with the news department of the Chinese Information Service, New York, in 1944. He returned to Shanghai two years later to work on the Chinese edition of The Shanghai Evening Post and Mercury. In 1947 he joined the staff of Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank, where he remained until the communist takeover of Shanghai in 1949.

He then transferred to Hong Kong and in 1950, joined the American International Companies. From 1951 to 1964 Mr. Hsu was in San Francisco, first with the marine claims department of American International Marine Agency, Inc. and later with the underwriting department of American International Underwriters, Inc.

In 1964, Mr. Hsu joined C.V. Starr & Co. as assistant to the late Cornelius Vander Starr, at that time Chairman of the Board. He also was elected Director and Executive Vice President of The Starr Foundation. In 1969 he was named President of the Foundation and served in that capacity until March 1999.