Richard Li
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Richard Li Tzar-kai is a Hong Kong businessman and philanthropist. The founder and chairman of the private investment group Pacific Century Group (PCG), Li started his career in the 1990s with the founding of STAR TV, a pan-Asian television network. After founding PCG in 1993, he went on to establish PCCW and HKT Trust. In 2010, PCG acquired the asset management business of AIG Investments and renamed it to PineBridge Investments. In 2013, PCG founded FWD Group. Richard Li currently serves as chairman of PCG, PCCW Ltd. and HKT Limited. He is also on the boards of companies including Pinebridge Investments. ''
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
'' listed his net worth in 2020 at $4.5 billion, ranking him 20th on its list of the richest businesspeople in Hong Kong.


Early life and education

Li was born in 1966 at their parent's residence in 79 Deep Water Bay Road, Deep Water Bay,
Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
,Richard Li Tzar-kai is the youngest son of businessman
Li Ka-shing Sir Ka-shing Li (; born 29 July 1928) is a Hong Kong billionaire business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is the senior advisor for CK Hutchison Holdings and CK Asset Holdings, after he retired from the Chairman of the Board in May ...
. Li and his older brother Victor spent their childhoods in Hong Kong, where Li attended St. Paul's Co-educational College. He left Hong Kong at age thirteen to be educated at Menlo School in Atherton, California. In high school, he worked at McDonald's and as a caddy at the local golf course. He studied
computer engineering Computer engineering (CE, CoE, or CpE) is a branch of engineering specialized in developing computer hardware and software. It integrates several fields of electrical engineering, electronics engineering and computer science. Computer engi ...
at
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
until 1987. Citing personal reasons, he withdrew from university after three years.


Career


Founding PCG

For the first three years of his career, Li managed funds at an investment bank in
Toronto, Canada Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
, acquiring
Canadian citizenship Canadian nationality law details the conditions by which a person is a national of Canada. The primary law governing these regulations is the Citizenship Act, which came into force on February 15, 1977 and is applicable to all provinces and ...
in the 1980s. In 1990 he began working in the fund-management department at
Hutchison Whampoa Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL) was an investment holding company based in Hong Kong. It was a Fortune Global 500 company and one of the largest companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. HWL was an international corporation with a dive ...
in Hong Kong. At Hutchison Whampoa, he was an executive director from 1992 until 1993 and deputy chairman from 1993 until 2000. In 1990, Li began building his own company, STAR TV, a pan-Asian satellite-television network that streamed
American television Television is one of the Mass media in the United States, major mass media outlets in the United States. In 2011, 96.7% of households owned television sets; about 114,200,000 American households owned at least one television set each in August ...
. According to ''
Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...
'' magazine, the service "triggered a vast cultural shift, injecting a massive dose of Western popular entertainment into... more than 50 countries y 2005" STAR TV proved lucrative, and in 1993 and 1995 Li sold the network to
Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...
for a total of
USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...
$950.5 million. Using the funds raised from the sale of STAR TV, in 1993 Li founded Pacific Century Group (PCG), an Asia-based investment group with Li serving as CEO and chairman. Li subsequently oversaw PCG's investments in real estate, financial services, technology, and media & telecommunications. He was an executive director at Hongkong Electric Holdings from 1993 until 2000, and chairman of
Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
-based Pacific Century Regional Developments Limited starting in 1994, a role he still held in 2020.


PCCW and HKT Trust

In 1996, Li established Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCCW). Serving as the company's chairman starting in 1999, he remained chairman when the company changed its name to PCCW Ltd. in 2002. In his early financial dealings with PCCW, his Canadian citizenship allowed him to bid on companies such as
Air Canada Air Canada is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Canada, by size and passengers carried. Air Canada is headquartered in the borough of Saint-Laurent in the city of Montreal. The airline, founded in 1937, provides scheduled and cha ...
and
Bell Canada Enterprises BCE Inc., an abbreviation of its former name Bell Canada Enterprises Inc., is a publicly traded Canadian holding company for Bell Canada, which includes telecommunications providers and various mass media assets under its subsidiary Bell ...
without running afoul of restrictions on foreign ownership. PCCW acquired Cable & Wireless HKT for US$38 billion in 2000, in "what was then Asia's largest corporate takeover." The acquisition made PCCW the largest fixed-lined network and wireless operator in Hong Kong. Li joined the board of the
Bank of East Asia The Bank of East Asia Limited, often abbreviated to BEA, is a Hong Kong public banking and financial services company headquartered in Central, Hong Kong, Central, Hong Kong. It is currently the largest independent local Hong Kong bank, and o ...
in 2001, retaining the role until 2017. In 2004, he created the property company PCPD, or Pacific Century Premium Developments, as a spinoff from PCCW, and was chairman of PCPD from 2004 until 2019. As chairman of both PCCW and PCCW's executive committee, in 2011 Li was involved in the spinoff and
initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...
of PCCW's telecommunications assets on the
Hong Kong Stock Exchange The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (, SEHK, also known as Hong Kong Stock Exchange) is a stock exchange based in Hong Kong. It is one of the largest stock exchanges in Asia and the List of major stock exchanges, 9th largest globally by market ...
. With the spinoff named HKT Trust, the listing plan was approved by the exchange in June 2011Nisha Gopalan and Polly Huy
"PCCW Seeks Listing for TrustPCCW Seeks Listing for Trust"
''Wall Street Journal'', 1 September 2011
and PCCW shareholders on 12 October 2011, allowing for the creation of Hong Kong's first publicly traded business trust. The IPO ultimately raised around $1.2 billion. with PCCW maintaining a majority interest in both HKT Trust and HKT Limited. In November 2011, Li became chairman of HKT Trust, HKT Limited, and HKT's executive committee. With Li as chairman, in December 2013 HKT agreed to acquire CSL New World Mobility, a subsidiary of
Telstra Telstra Group Limited is an Australian telecommunications company that builds and operates telecommunications networks and markets related products and services. It is a member of the S&P/ASX 20 stock index, and is Australia's largest telecomm ...
, for HK$18.8 billion. The transaction was completed in early 2014. In March 2015, PCCW Media acquired the mobile video provider Vuclip, and launched the streaming service Viu. Viu was rolled out to 24 markets globally over the next two years, and, by 2017, Viu, Vuclip, and the music streaming service MOOV had been bundled into the company PCCW OTT. That August, PCCW OT secured new investors including Hony Capital, Foxconn Ventures and Temasek. Li was 15th in the ''
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
'' list of Hong Kong's 50 richest people for 2017. The same publication named him 385th in the list of the world's billionaires, with an estimated fortune of $4.3 billion.


PineBridge and FWD Group

In September 2009, Li oversaw PCG's acquisition of AIG Investments for around $500 million, renaming the asset management company PineBridge Investments. Re-entering the insurance business, in March 2013, Li's PCG acquired the Hong Kong,
Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...
and
Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...
insurance business of ING Groep N.V. for $2.1 billion, renaming it FWD Group. With backing by Swiss Re, Li expanded FWD Group through acquisitions, appointing
Ronald Arculli Ronald Joseph Arculli (; born 2 January 1939 in Hong Kong) is former chairman of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, Non-official Members Convenor of the Executive Council of Hong Kong (Exco) and a senior partner at King & Wood Mallesons. He ...
as FWD chairman in October 2013. In 2015, Li then appointed former Canadian foreign affairs minister John Baird as a non-executive director to both FWD and PineBridge. By 2016, Li had overseen FWD's expansion into
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
, the
Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
, Singapore,
Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...
and
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
.


Recent developments

After Li purchased the Hanazono resort in
Niseko, Hokkaido Niseko (, , ) is a list of towns in Japan, town located in Shiribeshi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. Niseko as a resort area refers to the Niseko, Niseko tourism zone (), which consists of the three towns of Kutchan, Hokkaido, Kutchan, Niseko, a ...
in 2007 through his company Pacific Century Premium Developments, development was delayed by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster. By 2018, he had invested a total of US$930 million in the project, with an
onsen In Japan, are hot springs and the bathing facilities and Ryokan (inn), traditional inns around them. There are approximately 25,000 hot spring sources throughout Japan, and approximately 3,000 ''onsen'' establishments use naturally hot water ...
, apartments, and two hotels including a Park Hyatt nearing completion by late 2019. In 2018,Li was quoted stating that his insurance businesses took up "70% to 80% of his time," with Li focused on expanding FWD in the Southeast Asian markets. In 2019, FWD had around $30 billion in
assets under management In finance, assets under management (AUM), sometimes called fund under management, refers to the total market value of all financial assets that a financial institution—such as a mutual fund, venture capital firm, or depository institutio ...
. Also in 2019,Li's HKT announced it was establishing one of the first licensed virtual banks in Hong Kong, and in 2020 launched 5G wireless services. Under Li, the insurance group bolttech was launched in early 2020. He continued to chair Pacific Century Group in 2020, and remained chairman of PCCW Ltd. and HKT Limited. Also on the boards of companies such as PineBridge, Li oversees PCCW subsidiaries such as PCCW Media and the IT and business process outsourcing company PCCW Solutions. As of December 2020, ''Forbes'' estimated his net worth at $4.5 billion, ranking him 20th on its list of the richest businesspeople in Hong Kong, and 401st on its list of the world's billionaires.


Boards and public positions

Li is currently a member of the Global Information Infrastructure Commission, the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
, and the
Center for Strategic and International Studies The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. From its founding in 1962 until 1987, it was an affiliate of Georgetown University, initially named the Center for Strategic and Inte ...
' International Councillors Group in
Washington DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...
. He was previously the Governor of the
World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...
for Information Technologies and Telecommunications, as well as a representative of the
Hong Kong government The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (commonly known as the Hong Kong Government or HKSAR Government) is the Executive (government), executive authorities of Hong Kong. It was established on 1 July 1997, following the ...
at the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) from 2009 to 2014. He was praised by the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Rita Lau, for "helping oraise Hong Kong's profile in this important regional business forum".Press Releas
"Appointment of Hong Kong, China's representatives to ABAC"
''Hong Kong Gov website'', 20 January 2009
Press releas

''Hong Kong Gov website'', 23 December 2010
Li served as a council member of the
Chinese University of Hong Kong The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a public university, public research university in Sha Tin, New Territories, Hong Kong. Established in 1963 as a federation of three university college, collegesChung Chi College, New Asia Coll ...
,Chinese University of Hong Kon
"The Council"
Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011
but his association with the university has since ended.Chinese University of Hong Kon

Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2020
He is a full member of the Hong Kong Computer Society.


Philanthropy

In 2006, Li donated CA$1 million to the Canadian
National Arts Centre The National Arts Centre (NAC) () is a Arts centre, performing arts organization in Ottawa, Ontario, along the Rideau Canal. It is based in the eponymous National Arts Centre (building), National Arts Centre building. History The NAC was one ...
Foundation in
Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...
, which led to the establishment of the Annual Richard Li Young Artist Chair, putting young musicians each year under the mentorship of musical maestros. Through PCCW, Li has overseen a number of relief efforts and charity programs. During the 2002–03 SARS outbreak, PCCW provided telecommunication services to patients, medical staff, and fundraisers. Li also established a story time program for children kept home to prevent infection, and call centre support for charity fundraisers and community activists. Under Li, PCCW also donated $1 million to the Business Community Relief Fund for Victims of SARS, with employees volunteering man-hours as well. Later in 2007, PCCW volunteers participated in the District Elderly Campaign, which delivers gift packages to the elderly. After the outbreak of the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
,Li's PCG donated surgical masks to health care workers and NGOs in Hong Kong in February 2020.


Recognition

Li was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia in November 2011. He has also been presented with a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal for "outstanding business and charitable contributions to Canada."


Personal life

Li's girlfriend Isabella Leong, a former Hong Kong singer, gave birth to their son Ethan in April 2008, followed by twin sons in June 2010. Leong announced in March 2011 that the couple had amicably ended their relationship and that both would be caring for the children. Li is a licensed pilot in the United States and Canada,FA
"FAA Registry: Airmen Certification Inquiry"
''FAA'', Updated monthly
as well as a licensed divemaster. In 2016, Li bought his own top-level domain (.richardli) for $250,000.


References


External links


Richard Li
at Pacific Century Group {{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Richard 1966 births Living people Bank of East Asia Cable television company founders Hong Kong billionaires Chaoshanese people Hong Kong chief executives Hong Kong emigrants to Canada Hong Kong financial businesspeople Hong Kong philanthropists Naturalized citizens of Canada Pacific Century Group Stanford University alumni Alumni of St. Paul's Co-educational College People who fabricated academic degrees Members of the Election Committee of Hong Kong, 2007–2012 Members of the Election Committee of Hong Kong, 2017–2021 Members of the Election Committee of Hong Kong, 2021–2026