K
enneth Lai prefers his business meetings outdoors – on board
his boat. And his new Sunseeker 76 Yacht is the latest luxury
platform to host Prizm Group’s clients and prospects, or senior
management’s weekend brainstorming sessions.
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Lai attended Wah Yan College
in Wanchai before heading to New Zealand in his teenage years,
eventually completing a degree at Auckland University.
As a typical Hong Kong kid growing up in the 1980s, Lai enjoyed
socialising with friends after school and viewed boating as a luxury
that only few people could experience. He certainly never thought
about owning a boat himself.
“Back then, I thought boating was something for other people,” says Lai,
now a member of both Aberdeen Boat Club and Aberdeen Marina Club.“It was not a reality for us, whereas now it’s easy to go on a boat
even if you don’t own one. You can rent a junk boat, go on a boat party
that you book on Facebook, but not back then.”
After graduating from university, he returned to Hong Kong and
decided to set up his own tech company.
“It was a really bad time for the economy and hard to find jobs, so
I started my own venture. I had a computer science background and
some good friends looking for jobs. We started to hang out and think
about what we could do with our skills,” Lai recalls.
“We started off doing e-commerce development and providing
payment solutions to websites. We were lucky to enter the industry
in the so-called ‘pioneer’ time. Since then, e-commerce has become
more and more popular with businesses and merchants paying more
attention to it, so business started picking up.”
Now 38, Lai is Director of Prizm Group, which provides
information technology and integrated marketing solutions to
customers worldwide. The company has over 200 employees across
five global offices including Hong Kong, China, New Zealand and
Canada.FIRST LOVE, FIRST BOAT
Despite achieving success in the business world, it wasn’t until he
met his future wife that he considered buying his first boat, an Azimut
42, a decade ago.
“I was still dating my now-wife at the time and it was always her
dream. My wife is Canadian-Chinese. She grew up in Edmonton and
she had a more Western mentality than me. At that time, most of my
friends were locals living the big-city lifestyle, but she just treasured
the sun, the outdoors, open water. So, to fulfil her dream, I had to
purchase my first boat!”
Aboard the Azimut 42 – his first to be named Tory after the town
his wife grew up in – Lai and his wife enjoyed many quiet weekends
away from their hectic office jobs, exploring Hong Kong’s islands and
meeting new friends along the way.
“Before we had kids, it became a passion to go around islands
we hadn’t seen before and check them out. We didn’t even know the“We wanted to upgrade again
to create an activity that we
could share with our family and
also friends, who also have kids –
more than we have!”
Prizm Group employees on board Tory