Professor Chiu received his PhD from the State University of New York at Albany (SUNY Albany) in the area of Industrial and Organisational Psychology. He has held teaching positions in SUNY Albany and Queensborough Community College and spent a few years working for IBM as a measurement specialist in its US Managerial Training Headquarters. He then joined the Faculty of Business of PolyU serving as the MBA Director, the Department Head and the Co-Director of the Centre for Leadership and Innovation.

Professor Chiu is active in research. He has published in various international journals such as Leadership Quarterly, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Journal of Business Research, Human Relations and many others. Professor Chiu has also been involved in consultancy work relating to Human Resource Management for organisations in the private and public sectors.