Charles served as an elected member of the Legislative Council in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, representing the Information Technology functional constituency, for two terms from 2012 to 2020. He served alternatively as chair and vice chair of the Information Technology and Broadcasting Panel from 2016 to 2020. As a lawmaker, Charles was a champion for policies and legislations on privacy, open data, freedom of expression and information, cybersecurity, innovation, fintech, electronic health records, as well as human rights and democracy. After leaving the legislature, he founded Tech for Good Asia, a regional initiative in Asia bringing together businesses and civil societies to harness the positive powers of digital technologies. Before entering the legislature, He co-founded HKNet in 1994, one of the earliest Internet service providers in Asia and Hong Kong. He was the founding chair of the Internet Society Hong Kong, honorary president and former president of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, former chair of the Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association, former chair of the Asian, Australiasian and Pacific Islands Regional At-Large Organization (APRALO) of ICANN, and a founding member of the Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor. Charles began his career in technology with Digital Equipment Corporation, and then Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the U.S. He holds a BS in Computer and Electrical Engineering and an MS in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University.