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Crystal Hung – 2024 Great Trekker

Crystal Hung – 2024 Great Trekker

“I felt like I was a very small person in a really big world” – UBC Sauder Alumnus Crystal Hung wins this year’s Great Trekker award

by Tanushi Bhatnagar

Congratulations to Crystal Hung on winning the 2024 AMS Great Trekker Award!

As an alumnus of the UBC Sauder School of Business, Hung had built a meaningful connection with the spaces and buildings on campus. For her, UBC was a welcoming environment – one that she could spend most of her time in.

“I remember stepping onto the campus for the first time and I was overwhelmed. I felt like I was a very small person in a really big world. And you often feel lost on campus but the one place for me at the time was the Student Union Building,” she said. The Student Union Building has since been replaced by the AMS Student Nest and has been repurposed as the UBC Life Building. 

An interesting facet of Hung’s Bachelor of Commerce journey was that she was able to find comfort in studying till late near the UBC Hospital Emergency Department. “I was a business student that was just trying to find a place to study after hours,” she said.  But it was not just the heat and 24/7 access to the medical building that led her to spend hours on campus. She felt safe and at home. “For people who are maybe living on campus or living away from home, somehow UBC figured it out.”

Crystal in the showroom of one of her recently finished projects (a partnership with other UBC grads! )

And perhaps it was that feeling of home and belongingness that inspired Hung and her husband Dr Jack Chang to donate $1 million to the UBC Sauder Powerhouse Expansion Project. 

Looking back at her student life, Hung recalled working three jobs as a student and never taking a break. “I do dream about going back to school sometimes and it’s because I feel like I missed out on some parts of the student life because I was working a lot,” she said. She advices the students to “slow down, reflect and pause” amidst the fast-paced nature of every-day school life.

During her UBC journey, she found resources and support through the UBC community. “Upon graduation, I had been a research assistant for numerous professors to pay off all my student loans & had $800 leftover in my pocket,” she said. That achievement and the belief that came from a quote “if opportunity does not knock, build a door” by Milton Berle are what inspired her to succeed in her entrepreneurial journey after university.

Hung graduated from Sauder in 2008. Today, she is the CEO and founder of Icon&Co Boutique Inc., a Vancouver-based real estate sales and marketing agency she founded in 2014. She also currently serves as the Vice-Chair of the Vancouver Heritage Commission where she campaigns for the integration of Vancouver’s heirloom buildings and diverse cultural history with the city’s urban planning decisions. Within the Vancouver housing sector, Hung and her team have been dedicated to tackling the city’s housing needs through mindful development projects. Her personalized and community-focused strategies have not only built her a strong reputation in the real estate industry but also won her awards.

Apart from her endeavours in the housing market, Hung is also a dedicated philanthropist. She is the co-founder of Pixels Moments, a micro-donation platform, in collaboration with the St. Paul’s Hospital to raise awareness and funds for mental health resources for the hospital, raising more than $400,000 since 2021. Her time spent studying near the UBC hospital also exposed her to the medical system which now inspires her to contribute to health science through her real estate endeavours. Being a strong advocate for alternative housing solutions, Hung’s interests also lie in helping find viable solutions to Vancouver’s housing crisis. For the past two and a half years, she has been researching housing issues in the Downtown Eastside and connecting with residents. “As a marketer, one of my ambitions is to hopefully create a new way of thinking about these issues and not see them as stigma. Hopefully, one day, I can help contribute to solutions,” she said.


The Great Trekker Award is an honour presented to an alumnus of UBC who embodies the spirit of the Great Trek student initiative of 1922, when they marched to Point Grey to pressure the government to complete the construction of the university. Crystal Hung harbours the same leadership and ambition through her continued support of and contribution to the UBC Community and beyond.

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