Hong was born and raised in the Netherlands and started his career in the Testing, Inspection, and Certification industry 17 years ago in Hong Kong.

He was responsible for the Global Business Development of Sustainable Textile Certification programs before becoming responsible for the overall management of its South Korea and China branch.

In 2008 he initiated and wrote the Global Recycle Standard (GRS) which is currently adopted by many brands and retailers. The GRS is a certification program that sets requirements for certification of recycled input and chain of custody, with additional criteria for social and environmental processing as well as chemical restrictions. Currently, over 12,000 sites worldwide are certified to the GRS

Hong joined Textile Exchange in 2020, with the responsibility for the overall strategy of Greater China, and is also a member of the Assurance team.