Forbes Asia August 2017

18 | FORBES ASIA AUGUST 2017

“a brilliant move to buy Rosewood. It didn’t have a good

strategy for growth. She’s handled this transition perfectly.”

Indeed, revenue and profits are growing. Rosewood says

its gross operating revenue last year grew by around 10%

over 2015, while gross operating profits increased nearly

20%. It forecasts another 6.2% bump in revenue and a

14% rise in profits this year. Privately held, it declined to

disclose actual revenue and net profit figures.

It doesn’t hurt to have a billionaire grandfather, but

Cheng always aimed to earn her stripes. She worked at

Warburg Pincus and Morgan Stanley in New York and

Hong Kong doing real estate valuations after her educa-

tion at St. Paul’s Co-educational College in Hong Kong,

boarding school in Connecticut and then Harvard. “I

did a major in applied mathematics in economics. The

reason I did that was no one else did it,” she says, break-

ing into laughter while noting that many of her peers

were majoring in economics or East Asian studies. “I

like to be a little unconventional. I wanted something

challenging, I didn’t just want to go the easy route, and

that’s always been my life, always trying to find the chal-

lenging route.”

She’s often tapped to speak at conferences on the inter-

ests of affluent young travelers, but confesses a shyness of

the spotlight. “I speak at the conferences to help promote

the brand,” she says. “When people label me as this star

or something, this young woman CEO, I don’t enjoy it.

I don’t think I deserve it—yet.” She’s also in demand to

speak at schools and universities about women in the

workplace and other topics, which she finds a better fit.

FORBES ASIA

SONIA CHENG

Sonia Cheng’s husband, Paulo

Pong Kin-Yee, 40, is also a

scion of a wealthy Hong Kong

family and the pair shares a

passion for travel and good

food. His grandfather Pong

Ding-yuen arrived from China

and started steel company

Shiu Wing. After the patri-

arch’s death, Paulo’s grand-

mother Cynthia Pong Hong

Siu-chu took over. Forbes

Asia valued her fortune at

$1.1 billion in 2011.

Sonia’s brother Adrian introduced the two; they were married

in 2012. Like his wife, Pong went to college in Cambridge, Mas-

sachusetts, but at MIT. He started Altaya Group in 2001 as a pre-

mium wine importer. He’s also an executive director of Classified

Group, which boasts more than a dozen high-end restaurants in

Hong Kong and went public last year. And he’s a partner in Dud-

dell’s, a two-star Michelin restaurant in Central serving Cantonese

cuisine, and is planning a Duddell’s in London.

And as with his wife and hotels, his career path began early,

in his case with an intense fascination with wine. While other kids

took off for Greece or Australia, following his high school gradua-

tion in 1996 he went to Napa Valley in California. He later worked

in vineyards in France. —R.G.

Forbes Asia: We see many examples in

Hong Kong of problematic generational

shifts. How did your father [the late

Cheng Yu-tung] do this differently?

Henry Cheng: The answer lies in my fa-

ther’s deep appreciation for the people who

helped build this company and invested

in it. He realized that he owed them a debt

of gratitude, and the best way to repay it

was to ensure that his son and grandchil-

dren were qualified to lead the company,

through their education, through their

experience and through the same commit-

ment to the whole New World family. My

father raised me that way, and I raised my

children that way.

You were part of a similar shift but faced

considerable challenges. What lessons

were learned?

Difficult situations teach you and the

people around you how to weather a storm

so you are better prepared for the next one,

which will surely come. I tell my children

that how they deal with downturns will

teach them far more than uninterrupted

success, so don’t be afraid of them. I always

also remind my kids that having the right

people around them, and encouraging and

believing in them, is essential.

A FATHER

AND SON CHAT

In an email exchange, Sonia Cheng’s father, Henry, 70,

chairman of New World Development and Chow Tai

Fook Jewellery Group, and then her brother Adrian, 37,

the group’s executive director, discuss the transition to

the next generation with Forbes Asia’s Ron Gluckman. Henry Cheng

Adrian

Cheng

HOSPITABLE HUBBY

Paulo Pong

Kin-Yee

XIAOMEI CHEN/SCMP; JEROME FAVRE/BLOOMBERG; BILLY H.C. KWOK/BLOOMBERG